Heather Ruth Mcdonald

Heather McDonald was commissioned by Houston Grand Opera and composer Jake Heggie ("Dead Man Walking") to write the libretto for an opera based on Graham Greene's novel “The End of the Affair.” The opera, also titled THE END OF THE AFFAIR, had its world premiere at Houston Grand Opera in March 2004 directed by Broadway director Leonard Foglia and starring Australian soprano Cheryl Barker and New Zealand baritone Teddy Tahu Rhodes. Heather McDonald's play AN ALMOST HOLY PICTURE was produced on Broadway starring Kevin Bacon and directed by Michael Mayer. It was nominated for the 2002 Pulitzer Prize. The play premiered at The La Jolla Playhouse starring David Morse and was named Best New Play of the Year by the "Los Angeles Times." Ms. McDonald received The Kesselring Award for Best New American Play from The National Arts Club. The play has subsequently been produced at Center Stage in Baltimore, Round House Theatre in Washington, D.C., The McCarter Theatre in Princeton, Berkeley Repertory Theatre, Indiana Repertory Theatre, and numerous other theatres around the country. HOLY PICTURE has been featured at several conferences of Lutheran and Episcopal ministers, and was seen at The National Cathedral in Washington, D.C. It has been translated into Spanish and produced in Mexico and Spain. Her play WHEN GRACE COMES IN received joint World Premieres at The La Jolla Playhouse and Seattle Repertory Theatre. The play was a finalist for The Susan Smith Blackburn Prize and was developed at The Sundance Theatre Laboratory, Seattle Repertory Theatre, and The New Harmony Project. The production Ms. McDonald directed of her play DREAM OF A COMMON LANGUAGE for Theatre of the First Amendment was nominated by The Washington Theatre Awards Society for eight Helen Hayes Awards and won four, including Outstanding Resident Production. DREAM premiered at Berkeley Repertory Theatre and was produced Off-Broadway at The Judith Anderson Theatre. It has had many other productions. Ms. McDonald directed her play AVAILABLE LIGHT: A PLAY WITH MUSIC at Signature Theatre, supported by a grant from The National Endowment for the Arts. The NEA support allowed for the commissioning and recording (at the NPR studios) of a full score by composer David Maddox. AVAILABLE LIGHT premiered at Actors Theatre of Louisville in the Humana Festival. Other plays include FAULKNER'S BICYCLE, THE RIVERS AND RAVINES, AVAILABLE LIGHT, and RAIN AND DARKNESS: HITTING FOR THE CYCLE and have been produced at many theatres, including Arena Stage, Yale Repertory Theatre, The Actors Theatre of Louisville Humana Festival of New Plays, Berkeley Repertory Theatre, Center Stage, The McCarter Theatre, The La Jolla Playhouse, Indiana Repertory Theatre, Rivendell Theatre, The Magic Theatre, New Playwrights Theatre, and Off-Broadway in New York. Other projects include a commission from Signature Theatre for a play, titled THE SUPPRESSED-DESIRE BALL, directing Michele Lowe's play THE SMELL OF THE KILL at Round House Theatre, FLY: THE J.M. BARRIE PROJECT at The Cleveland Playhouse, and a workshop and commission to adapt Gerda Lerner's memoir "Fireweed: A Political Biography" for Madison Repertory Theatre. She has twice been awarded NEA Playwriting Fellowships and been nominated for The Pulitzer Prize. She has been a finalist for the Susan Smith Blackburn Prize and won The First Prize Kesselring Award. She has been the recipient of a TCG Extended Collaboration Grant and a McKnight Fellow. Her plays are published by Dramatists Play Service, Samuel French, Inc., "American Theatre" magazine, and in several collections. Ms. McDonald has written and sold two screenplays. One, “Rocket 88,” was an original screenplay about the birth of rock ’n’ roll. The other, “Walking After Midnight,” was an adaptation of a novel by Maureen McCoy about a female country/western songwriter. She participated in Robert McKee's Story Structure Intensive Screenwriting Seminar at Hunter College and Omega. Ms. McDonald has had a long commitment to teaching and as Associate Professor and Playwright-in-Residence has taught at George Mason University's College of Visual and Performing Arts - Institute of the Arts for over fourteen years. She has taught many other workshops around the country and is on the faculty of the Kennedy Center Summer Playwriting Intensive. She received her MFA from NYU's Tisch School of the Arts' Dramatic Writing Program. She lives near Baltimore with her two daughters, Louise Whalen and Marilyn Grace.