About Me:
I am originally from Aurora, New York. Aurora is a tiny town, and by tiny I mean no traffic light, no gas station, a place where you know just about everyone. It is right on Cayuga Lake, it's a beautiful part of the Finger Lakes. I started doing theater with my sister and cousins, writing and peforming in sketches with them for our family. A whole lot of lip synching, chinney winnies, and breaking news reports. That vivid imagination was then nutured in high school by a wonderful drama teacher, Mr. Armstrong. I studied theater at Russell Sage College and was again nurtured by the lovely artists at the New York State Theater Institute. I was a producer with the student-run theater group, Encore. We produced DIVA Variety a variety show, showcasing the performing arts groups on campus. We also produced The Children's Hour. This is where I caught my producing bug. I moved to NYC after college and have been plowing ahead ever since. My friend Dina Rivera and I started producing in 2003 and as Strange Sister Theatre Co. we've produced three shows to date. In 2005 I was offered a spot in the Apprentice Company at Actors Theatre of Louisville. I worked in Louisville for the 05-06 Season. It was an honor to be a part of such a legendary theater company. The other 20 apprentices were amazing artists and human beings and I could not have had a more challenging, difficult, rewarding year. I then moved to Chicago and have been acting and producing here since October 2006.


Tidbits
I knew you were wondering how to pronounce my name, so I'll tell you: It is pronounced: Ava Heal, it is Spanish, my father is from Zaragoza, Spain.

Some of my favorite writers are:
Steve Martin, Sylvia Plath, David Sedaris, Harper Lee, Alice Walker, Jeanette Winterson, J.D. Salinger, F. Scott Fitzgerald.

Some of my favorite poets are: Sandra Cisneros, e.e.cummings, Leslie Norris, Maya Angelou, Laure-Ann Bosselaar, Ildefonso Manuel Gil, Pablo Neruda, Marge Piercy.

Some of my favorite playwrights are:
Arthur Miller, Naomi Wallace, Jordan Harrison, Liz Duffy-Adams, Lisa Kron, David Ives, Chuck Mee, Tennesee Williams, William Inge, Sam Shepard, Tracy Letts, Sheila Callaghan, Christopher Durang, Lillian Hellman, Lanford Wilson, Naomi Iizuka

Actors I admire:
Jefferson Mays, Dennis O'Hare, Cherry Jones, Cate Blanchett, Daniel Day-Lewis, Audrey Hepburn, Meryl Streep, Javier Bardem, Celia Roth, Cary Grant, Bill Murray, Benicio Del Toro, Johnny Depp, Philip Seymour Hoffman, Emily Watson, Tim Robbins, Ed Norton, Jim True-Frost, Ellen Lauren, Lance Baker.

Film makers I dig: Pedro Almodovar, PT Anderson, Michel Gondry, Wes Anderson, Alejandro Amenabar, Fernando Meirelles, Jim Sheridan, Mateo Moreno, Bryan Enk.

Places I love:
Sevilla, Spain: specifically the gardens of the Alcazar
Aurora, NY: anywhere looking at the lake
The courtyard behind Spanish house at Russell Sage College in Troy, NY
The gardens at the Rodin Museum in Paris
The canal hidden in Millenium Park, Chicago
Cherry Hill in Central Park, NYC
The secret garden on Hudson Street, in the West Village, NYC
Los Pinos in Daroca, Spain

Future Plans
When I win the lotto, or figure out how to get loads of money, I want to renovate old abandoned theaters in cities and have afterschool arts programs and arts groups use the space. What would be ideal would be to have the renovations done by engineering and architecture students in that city so it becomes a project for the entire community.

I plan to develop plays based on women in history, who are not famous but who broke through the barriers of the times they lived in and tour the plays to schools.

I am researching publishers for a collection of my grandfather's poetry that many members of my family and I have translated from Spanish into English. Ildefonso Manuel Gil, was an award-winning poet in Spain and I think a collection of side by side translations would be wonderful. They are beautiful poems that translate into beautiful poems in English, which isn't always the case with translating poetry. Know anyone in poetry publishing?