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 ...

at Ars Nova in the spring of 2022.

Early life

Christian was born in

New Orleans New Orleans ( , ,New Orleans
Merriam-Webster. ; french: La Nouvelle-Orléans , es, Nuev ...

and raised in

Natchez, Mississippi Natchez ( ) is the county seat of and only city in Adams County, Mississippi, United States. Natchez has a total population of 14,520 (as of the 2020 census). Located on the Mississippi River across from Vidalia in Concordia Parish, Louisiana, N ...

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

New York University New York University (NYU) is a private research university in New York City. Chartered in 1831 by the New York State Legislature, NYU was founded by a group of New Yorkers led by then-Secretary of the Treasury Albert Gallatin. In 1832, the ...

, where she studied experimental theater.

Career

Theater

Christian served as the composer for the Folger Shakespeare Library production of

As You Like It ''As You Like It'' is a pastoral 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 Wilton House in 1603 has b ...

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

supernatural Supernatural refers to phenomena or entities that are beyond the laws of nature. The term is derived from Medieval Latin , from Latin (above, beyond, or outside of) + (nature) Though the corollary term "nature", has had multiple meanings si ...

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 opera about

Mother Teresa Mary Teresa Bojaxhiu, MC (; 26 August 1910 – 5 September 1997), better known as Mother Teresa ( sq, Nënë Tereza), was an Indian-Albanian Catholic nun who, in 1950, founded the Missionaries of Charity. Anjezë Gonxhe Bojaxhiu () was bo ...

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 Ars Nova 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. 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'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid d ...

Critic's Pick. Christian received a special citation for Terce's composition from the New York Drama Critics' Circle.

Soundtracks

Christian is a frequent collaborator of director Janicza Bravo, scoring her 2017 feature '' Lemon'' as well as many short films. In 2020, she provided music for '' The Craft: Legacy'', directed by Zoe Lister-Jones. She also scored two

Adult Swim Adult Swim (AS; 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 representati ...

and often abbreviated as s is an American adult-oriented night-time cable television Television channel, channel that shares channel space with the basic cable network Cartoon Network and is programme ...

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 feature ...

'' 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. 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 or NYC, is the List of United States cities by population, most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the L ...

. She was raised

Catholic The Catholic Church, also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the largest Christian church, with 1.3 billion baptized Catholics worldwide . It is among the world's oldest and largest international institutions, and has played a ...

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 performing arts venue in Brooklyn, New York City, known as a center for progressive and avant-garde performance. It presented its first performance in 1861 and began operations in its present location in ...

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