Hiba Saab in Recital
Heba Saab was born on January 24, 1982 in Chueifat, Lebanon. She began her artistic career at the early age of five, taking piano and voice lessons with Anne Telekian in Beirut, Lebanon, and participating in local piano recitals and vocal competitions. In the summer of 1995, Heba relocated to California, where she attended Chaparral High School at its opening in 1997. At Chaparral, Heba enrolled in drama classes and found a natural talent and passion for acting and Musical Theater. Under the guidance of drama teacher Monica Iannessa, Heba earned many awards over the next three years as both a performer and director at Drama Teacher’s Association of Southern California (DTASC) competitions and Shakespeare festivals. In 1998, Heba auditioned for and earned her first major role as the Authoress in Chaparral High School’s production of Final Dress Rehearsal. Heba then proceeded to take on many roles in Chaparral High School productions, including The Bad Seed (1999) and How to Succeed in Business (2000) musical direction by Jim Hormel.
After graduating from Chaparral High School in 2000, Heba Saab entered the University of California at Irvine as an English and Drama double major where she spent the next five years of her undergraduate study training in classical voice with Shoghig Koshakjian, Elizabeth Pehlivanian, Nadia Smelser and Robin Buck; and studying musical theatre with Stephen Sondheim’s favorite Broadway starlet Teri Ralston, Dennis Castellano, Myrona Delaney, and Daniel Gary Busby. At UCI, Heba also had the opportunity to take acting classes with world-renowned actor and dialect coach Dudley Knight, world-renowned actor/director Keith Fowler, Broadway starlet Jenn Colella, and Hollywood actress/director Ashley Ward.
Heba Saab also performed in numerous plays, musicals, and operas at UC Irvine including a world famous production of Shakespeare’s Timon of Athens (2005) directed by the legendary actor/director/critic/writer Robert Cohen founder of the UC Irvine Drama department and author of critically acclaimed acting theory book Acting One. Heba was also featured in her first operatic role as Second Witch in the UCI production of Dido and Aeneas (2003) directed by Robin Buck and conducted by Stephen Tucker, which paved the way for her role in Jason Barraba’s world-renowned experimental opera ‘Dentity Crisis (2004) and her critically acclaimed performance as Buttercup in UCI Opera’s Gilbert and Sullivan revue Trial by Jury and Other Madness (2005). Heba’s other UCI stage credits include a critically acclaimed rendition of Eve Ensler’s monologue My Vagina was my Village for VDAY UCI 2002, Liza Minelli in Forbidden Broadway (2003), and performances as a featured soloist in UCI’s first annual AIDS/Breast Cancer benefit concert Two Ribbons (2004) and And Then She Wrote . . . (2005) a Musical Theatre Revue directed by Myrona Delaney with musical direction by Dennis Castellano. In addition to acting on the UCI stage, Heba also served as executive director of VDAY UCI 2005 and monologue writer for 9 Shades of Cool, a sketch comedy show conceptualized by Zachary James Oldham.
While studying at UC Irvine, Heba Saab earned an ArtsBridge scholarship in 2003. Through her scholarship, Heba taught drama to children suffering from severe mental and physical disabilities at Mark Twain Elementary School. In February 2004, Heba auditioned for and earned a spot in UCI Drama’s New York Satellite Program. She spent the next three months living in New York City, auditioning for Broadway, Off-Broadway, and touring musical productions, and participating in an intensive Musical Theatre training program with world-renowned and critically acclaimed Broadway actors, directors, choreographers, musical directors, casting directors, vocal coaches, and singers Kyle Gonyea, Tammy Holder, Thommie Walsh, Ellen Novak, Michael Kubala, Joshua Bergasse, Daniel Catanach, and Randy Skinner.
Upon her return from New York in May 2004, Heba Saab began her career in opera, creating and conducting group performance classes for students ages 3 to adult, and voice lessons for adults and children of all ages and levels of experience and singing professionally. Heba graduated from UC Irvine in June 2005 with a Bachelor of Arts in English and Bachelor of Arts in Drama, Emphasis in Musical Theatre. After earning her undergraduate degrees, Heba continued her training in voice and acting with the legendary Naomi Farr, Shakespeare specialist Peggy Neilsen, and Myrona Delaney. She also earned roles in multiple productions at professional theater and opera companies in Los Angeles and Orange County, California including A Christmas Carol (2005) at The Haven Theatre Company in Pasadena, Aida (2006), Porgy and Bess (2006), Carmen (2007), Elixir of Love (2007), and Susannah (2008) at Opera Pacific in Costa Mesa, and Nixon in China (2010) with Long Beach Opera in Long Beach.
In 2010 Heba Saab moved to Beirut, Lebanon, where she performed in Nagy Souraty’s creative collaboration In the Heart of the Heart of Another Body at Medina Theater. This was Heba’s second creative collaboration with Nagy Souraty, the first being Utopia (2009) at the Lebanese American University in Beirut. While in Lebanon, Heba Saab also appeared in her television debut, a guest artist role on Future Television’s internationally airing sitcom “Nifrah Minak”. Heba is currently living in Beirut, writing and performing original music, and studying oriental singing and classical voice with Ghada Ghanem at the Conservatoire Libanais. She is also continuing her training in dance and acting, teaching voice, acting, and musical theater, and teaching free yoga classes in Hamra as a token of community outreach and gratitude for the many blessings in her life.
Festival Performance on July 22 at 9:30pm
Location: Outdoors Fine Arts
