Publications
Production Dramaturgy
New Play Dramaturgy
Teaching
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Poor Lessing's
Theatre Almanack
It's such a relief to work with a dramaturg who doesn't look at my play as something that needs to be
"fixed." In the past, interactions with dramaturgs, artistic directors, and critics have sometimes felt
like this - "Hey, let's get down to the hardware store and buy the stuff we need to fix your play.
Because - you know - it's broken."
—Toni Press-Coffman,
playwright
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.
In season 2008-2009, 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 the 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).
Heather is dedicated to developing new American plays, beginning with Rob Zellers' Harry's Friendly Service, Todd Kreidler's Stayers and Goers, and Dee Ryan's DeeConstruction for Pittsburgh Public Theater. In summer 2009, she was the dramaturg for the Telluride Playwrights Festival. She has also been asked to serve as a script reader for many important development centers, including Sundance Theatre Lab and Philadelphia's PlayPenn. Nationally, she has been developing new plays with Constance Congdon, Caridad Svich, Elaine Romero, Tom Gibbons, Toni Press-Coffman, Rob Zellers, Ellen Struve, and Matthew Ivan Bennett.
Season 2009-2010 was an exciting year when she worked on the premiere of Terrence McNally's Golden Age with director Austin Pendleton at Philadelphia Theatre Company. The production subsequently moved onto the Kennedy Center, where it was designed to be part of a trilogy for a festival of McNally's work. At the same time, her work with playwright Jan Buttram on The Phantom Killer from her summer at the Telluride Playwrights Festival appeared off-Broadway at the Abingdon Theatre Company.
Summer 2011: Worked in NYC with Caridad Svich on the development of four plays on a similar theme (see New Play Dramaturgy). Omaha-based playwright Ellen Struve's play Recommended Reading for Girls received an enthusiastic audience response at the Great Plains Theatre Conference. Continued to work with Pittsburgh resident playwright Rob Zellers on The Happiness They Seek and Smokey Hollow as part of his trilogy of plays about Youngstown, OH. Just started working with Utah's Plan-B resident playwright Matthew Ivan Bennett on his latest A Night with the Family.
Fall 2011: Heather continued her long-distance dramaturgy working with playwright Elaine Jarvik, whose play [a man enters] co-written with Kate Jarvik Birch opened Nov. 4th, 2011 at the Salt Lake Acting Company. The Salt Lake Tribune writes that the play "does its damndest to dress its tale of family cut short in whimsy and fantasy. It succeeds. True to the nature of families themselves, however, the play can't help but pull you inexorably toward the center of human emotions that must be reckoned with." Read full review. In addition, there was an industry reading of Caridad Svich's play Guapa at Repertorio Espanol, directed by Jose Zayas on December 12th, 2011. Heather also was part of a research grant through Lehigh University to work with costume designer Erica Hoelscher on Plays and Players of Philadelphia's production of Joe Turner's Come and Gone.
Current: Heather was the guest artist for dramaturgy at the Kennedy Center American College Theater Festival for Region IV (Daytona Beach) and Region VI (Oklahoma City) and is involved with organizing the National KCACTF dramaturgy program which runs April 17th-21st. She is also the co-dramaturg with R. Alex Davis on Caridad Svich's The Way of Water which was read at The Lark Play Development Center in February under direction of Jose Zayas. The Way of Water will also be read in April 2012 at many venues across the US and abroad to raise awareness of the anniversary of the BP oil spill. See the recent article in Howlround about The Way of Water called "Water's Flow: An Artist's Path in a Trans-local Universe."
New plays in development include: Old New Seattle by Ellen Struve, Let Me Out by Matthew Ivan Bennett, United by Toni Press-Coffman, and A User's Guide to Utopia by Thomas Gibbons. She also evaluated plays for Sundance Theatre Lab and Great Plains Theatre Conference. In her home city of Philly, she's a consultant for the playwrights in residency at Plays and Players of Philadelphia and PlayPenn. Finally, two of her articles will be published in The Quill for the Pennsylvania Shakespeare Festival.
Summer 2012: Heather will be the festival dramaturg for Pittsburgh Irish & Classical's Chekhov Festival, featuring Three Sisters directed by Harriet Power, Ivanov directed by Andrew Paul. There will also be an evening of comic vaudevilles (The Bear, The Proposal, On the Evils of Tobacco, Swan Song, and Drama) and a Friel evening which consists of The Yalta Game (adapted from the short story "The Lady with the Lapdog") and Afterplay and which will be directed by Alan Stanford. In addition to production dramaturgy for all shows, she will be organizing all panel discussions and events.
"Heather embodies the powerful combination of powerful focus and breadth of field in her
areas of expertise. She is a remarkable communicator of high-level, abstract concepts and, yet,
a wonderful, down-to-earth collaborator who can access and relate to all within her realm of contact.
Heather is an excellent writer and brings to the table the unique qualities of both a gifted and
dynamic dramaturg and a brilliant lateral thinker with sublime, linear focus. She is a force of great
reason, effectiveness, and productivity in high-demand, bottom-line, and deadline-oriented creative
environments." ---Co-worker at Pittsburgh Public Theater, Sept. 14, 2009