Heather Christian is an American singer, playwright, and composer best known for 2017's ''Animal Wisdom'' at the

Bushwick Starr The Bushwick Starr is a non-profit theater in the Brooklyn neighborhood of the same name that was founded in 2007 by Sue Kessler and Noel Allain who serve as the creative and artistic director, respectively. They were located on Starr Street until ...

and ''Oratorio for Living Things'', which ran

Off Broadway An off-Broadway theatre is any professional theatre venue in New York City with a seating capacity between 100 and 499, inclusive. These theatres are smaller than Broadway theatres, but larger than off-off-Broadway theatres, which seat fewer tha ...

Ars Nova ''Ars nova'' ()Fallows, David. (2001). "Ars nova". ''The New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians'', second edition, edited by Stanley Sadie and John Tyrrell. London: Macmillan. refers to a musical style which flourished in the Kingdom of ...

in the spring of 2022.

Early life

Christian was born in

New Orleans New Orleans (commonly known as NOLA or The Big Easy among other nicknames) is a Consolidated city-county, consolidated city-parish located along the Mississippi River in the U.S. state of Louisiana. With a population of 383,997 at the 2020 ...

and raised in

Natchez, Mississippi Natchez ( ) is the only city in and the county seat of Adams County, Mississippi, United States. The population was 14,520 at the 2020 United States census, 2020 census. Located on the Mississippi River across from Vidalia, Louisiana, Natchez was ...

. Growing up, she was involved in children's choir and high school theater. She is a graduate of the

Tisch School of the Arts The New York University Tisch School of the Arts (commonly referred to as Tisch) is the performing, cinematic, and media arts school of New York University. Founded on August 17, 1965, as the School of the Arts at New York University, Tisch ...

New York University New York University (NYU) is a private university, private research university in New York City, New York, United States. Chartered in 1831 by the New York State Legislature, NYU was founded in 1832 by Albert Gallatin as a Nondenominational ...

, where she studied experimental theater.

Career

Theater

Christian served as the composer for the

Folger Shakespeare Library The Folger Shakespeare Library is an independent research library on Capitol Hill in Washington, D.C., United States. It has the world's largest collection of the printed works of William Shakespeare, and is a primary repository for rare materia ...

production of

As You Like It ''As You Like It'' is a pastoral Shakespearean comedy, comedy by William Shakespeare believed to have been written in 1599 and first published in the First Folio in 1623. The play's first performance is uncertain, though a performance at Wil ...

in 2017. Later that year, she debuted ''Animal Wisdom'', a autobiographical work based on

supernatural Supernatural phenomena or entities are those beyond the Scientific law, laws of nature. The term is derived from Medieval Latin , from Latin 'above, beyond, outside of' + 'nature'. Although the corollary term "nature" has had multiple meanin ...

encounters from her childhood in Natchez. The work's original run at the

received several extensions and a new film version of the piece was released on Broadway on Demand in 2021. ''I am Sending You the Sacred Face'', a

drag Drag or The Drag may refer to: Places * Drag, Norway, a village in Tysfjord municipality, Nordland, Norway * ''Drág'', the Hungarian name for Dragu Commune in Sălaj County, Romania * Drag (Austin, Texas), the portion of Guadalupe Street a ...

opera about

Mother Teresa Mary Teresa Bojaxhiu (born Anjezë Gonxhe Bojaxhiu, ; 26 August 1910 – 5 September 1997), better known as Mother Teresa or Saint Mother Teresa, was an Albanian-Indian Catholic Church, Roman Catholic nun, founder of the Missionaries of ...

composed by Christian and performed by Joshua William Gelb, was released online as part of the Theater in Quarantine series in December 2020. In spring 2022, the

theater presented Christian's choral work ''Oratorio for Living Things'' as an

Off-Broadway An off-Broadway theatre is any professional theatre venue in New York City with a seating capacity between 100 and 499, inclusive. These theatres are smaller than Broadway theatres, but larger than off-off-Broadway theatres, which seat fewer tha ...

production directed by

Lee Sunday Evans Lee Sunday Evans is a two-time Obie Award-winning director and choreographer. She is Artistic Director of Waterwell. Education Evans attended college in Boston. Career Evans has worked for theatres such as The Public Theater, Lincoln Center, Step ...

. In 2024, "Terce: A Practical Breviary" (the second of eight planned works in her Breviary Cycle) premiered as part of the

Prototype Festival Prototype Festival is an annual, weeklong contemporary opera and musical theater festival held in New York City. Program Prototype Festival is an annual, weeklong festival of contemporary opera and musical theater. The festival encourages n ...

. Co-Produced by HERE Arts Center and The Space at Irondale, the show ran from January 10th through February 2nd and received critical acclaim, including a

New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''NYT'') is an American daily newspaper based in New York City. ''The New York Times'' covers domestic, national, and international news, and publishes opinion pieces, investigative reports, and reviews. As one of ...

Critic's Pick. Christian received a special citation for Terce's composition from the

New York Drama Critics' Circle The New York Drama Critics' Circle is made up of 23 drama critics from daily newspapers, magazines and wire services based in the New York City metropolitan area. The organization is best known for its annual awards for excellence in theater.Jon ...

Soundtracks

Christian is a frequent collaborator of director

Janicza Bravo Janicza Bravo () is an American film director, film producer, and screenwriter. Her films include '' Gregory Go Boom'', a winner of the short-film jury award at the Sundance Film Festival; ''Lemon'', co-written with Brett Gelman; and '' Zola'', c ...

, scoring her 2017 feature ''

Lemon The lemon (''Citrus'' × ''limon'') is a species of small evergreen tree in the ''Citrus'' genus of the flowering plant family Rutaceae. A true lemon is a hybrid of the citron and the bitter orange. Its origins are uncertain, but some ...

'' as well as many short films. In 2020, she provided music for '' The Craft: Legacy'', directed by

Zoe Lister-Jones Zoe Lister-Jones (born September 1, 1982) is an American actress and filmmaker who co-starred as Jen Collins Short in the CBS sitcom ''Life in Pieces'' from 2015 to 2019. She is also known for her roles in the television shows '' Delocated'' (20 ...

. She also scored two

Adult Swim Adult Swim (stylized as

dult swim Dult is a village in Batala in Gurdaspur district of Punjab State, India. It is located from sub district headquarter, from district headquarter and from Sri Hargobindpur. The village is administrated by Sarpanch an elected representativ ...

and s is an American adult-oriented television programming block that airs on Cartoon Network which broadcasts during the evening, prime time, and Late-night television, late-night Dayparting, dayparts. T ...

television programs: ''

The Shivering Truth ''The Shivering Truth'' is an American adult stop-motion animated anthology horror comedy television series created by Vernon Chatman and directed by Chatman and Cat Solen. The show is produced by Solen with PFFR and ShadowMachine, and featur ...

'' and '' Teenage Euthanasia''.

Other work

In 2020, Christian contributed the episode "Prime: A Practical Breviary" to ''Soundstage'', a podcast produced by theatrical group

Playwrights Horizons Playwrights Horizons is a not-for-profit American Off-Broadway theater located in New York City dedicated to the support and development of contemporary American playwrights, composers, and lyricists, and to the production of their new work. ...

. Christian fronts a band called Heather Christian and the Arbornauts.

Personal life

Christian is based in

New York City New York, often called New York City (NYC), is the most populous city in the United States, located at the southern tip of New York State on one of the world's largest natural harbors. The city comprises five boroughs, each coextensive w ...

. She was raised

Catholic The Catholic Church (), also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the List of Christian denominations by number of members, largest Christian church, with 1.27 to 1.41 billion baptized Catholics Catholic Church by country, worldwid ...

and served as a musician for the Catholic Church until the age of 26. Although she no longer considers herself a member of the Church, she describes herself as spiritual.

Awards and honors

Christian received an Obie Award for her composition of ''The World is Round'', which ran at

Brooklyn Academy of Music The Brooklyn Academy of Music (BAM) is a multi-arts center in Brooklyn, New York City. It hosts progressive and avant-garde performances, with theater, dance, music, opera, film programming across multiple nearby venues. BAM was chartered in 18 ...

in 2014.

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Christian, Heather Obie Award recipients Off-Broadway American composers Living people Year of birth missing (living people) Musicians from New Orleans People from Natchez, Mississippi Tisch School of the Arts alumni