Publications
Production Dramaturgy
New Play Dramaturgy
Teaching
Other Projects
Heather Helinsky received her MFA in Dramaturgy from the American Repertory Theatre/MXAT Institute for Advanced Theatre Training at Harvard University. At the American Repertory Theater, she dramaturged for directors Robert Woodruff (Britannicus), Krystian Lupa (Three Sisters), Scott Zigler (The Killing Game), Marcus Stern (Betty's Summer Vacation), and Sasha Marin (Zoya's Apartment). Her adaptation of Mikhail Bulgakov's Zoya's Apartment premiered in both Cambridge, MA and the American Studio of the Moscow Art Theatre of Chekhov, Russia. She worked as Resident Dramaturg at Pittsburgh Public Theater, where she organized events for the celebration of the final play of the August Wilson Cycle. At Pittsburgh Public, she worked with directors Ted Pappas (Metamorphoses), Ron OJ Parson (Radio Golf), Marcia Milgrom Dodge (The World Goes 'Round), and Pam Berlin (A Moon for the Misbegotten).
In new play development, she dramaturged Rob Zellers' Harry's Friendly Service, Todd Kreidler's Stayers and Goers, and Dee Ryan's DeeConstruction for Pittsburgh Public Theater. As a freelancer, she has worked with playwrights Cory Hinkle, Elaine Romero, Elizabeth Green, Jan Buttram, and Toni Press-Coffman. In summer 2009, she was the dramaturg for the Telluride Playwrights Festival. She is also a script reader for Sundance Theatre Lab and an evaluator for Philadelphia's PlayPenn 2010.
Currently, she is working with Terrence McNally and director Austin Pendleton on Golden Age, which will premiere in January 2010 at the Philadelphia Theatre Company before moving onto the Kennedy Center, where it will be a part of a festival of McNally's plays. In addition, her work can be seen off-Broadway in the Abingdon Theatre Company's premiere of The Phantom Killer.
As an educator, she was the Visiting Assistant Professor of Dramaturgy at the University of Arizona in 2007-2008 and has been a guest lecturer at Harvard, Carnegie Mellon, University of Pittsburgh, Duquesne, and DeSales University. She is the 2008 recipient of the Beatrice, Benjamin and Richard Bader Fellowship in the Visual Arts of Theatre from the Houghton Library.