Heather Raffo’s Noura Arrives In Abu Dhabi, Directed By NYU Abu Dhabi’s Joanna Settle

Culminating its third season, The Arts Center at NYU Abu Dhabi (NYUAD) hosts the Middle East premiere of Noura this May, a production directed by newly appointed NYUAD Associate Arts Professor Joanna Settle.  This groundbreaking production of Heather Raffo’s thought-provoking play received broad acclaim in its recent world premiere produced by Washington DC’s Shakespeare Theater Company, in association with Octopus Theatricals.

Award-winning playwright and performer Heather Raffo (9 Parts of Desire) brings us the story of Noura and her husband Tariq – Iraqi immigrants in New York – as they welcome a special guest to their Christmas celebrations. But the arrival of this guest – Maryam, a young Iraqi refugee – changes the dynamic of the festivities, forcing Noura and her family to face old fears, and question who they have become and how they’ve got to where they are now.

Noura is directed by Joanna Settle, who joined the NYUAD theater program as Associate Arts Professor of Theater in September 2017, as she makes her MENA directorial debut. Settle’s extensive career as a theater director includes the world premiere of Stew and Heidi Rodewald’s recent musical The Total Bent in a twice-extended run at New York’s Public Theater, and she is set to premiere an opera with Opera Philadelphia later this year. Other credits include Winter Miller’s In Darfur and the Finale of Suzan-Lori Park’s 365 Plays/365 Days. She also directed the world premiere of Heather Raffo’s celebrated Nine Parts of Desire at Manhattan Ensemble Theater, and for subsequent productions at theaters and art museums around the US.

Directing Noura has been a gratifying process for Settle, who says: “I feel so fortunate to engage in a work rooted in family, feminism, and motherhood with my friend and collaborator of 13 years, Heather Raffo. The depth our relationship took this rehearsal process into genuinely personal terrain. It’s a very honest and personal work for us both. I’m deeply moved to have the opportunity to share it in my new home of Abu Dhabi.”