Laura is an actor, director, designer, playwright, author, and consultant. Her diverse skill set has given her the opportunity to work in almost every department of theater production as a manager, technician, and designer.

 

As the author of Shattered: Exposing the Open Secret of the Children’s Theatre Scandal and Daring to Heal: Growing Beyond Trauma Through Awareness, Acceptance, and Action, and co-author of The Minnesota Theater Foundational Standards for Safety and Accountability, she is a fierce advocate for safe spaces in the arts and arts education.

 

She studied theater in Minneapolis, Minnesota, and has been working in professional theater since the age of thirteen. As a theater maker in the Twin Cities, which included twelve years on staff at the world-renowned Guthrie Theater, Laura has worked with some of the most talented artists from around the world, both on and off stage.

​​

Now living in Southern California, she is the winner of the 2024 Desert Theatre League Award for Best Direction of The Woman in the Mirror. She also designed and fabricated the puppets for Avenue Q at Revolution Stage Company, and is a proud member of Actors Equity Association and an associate with the Stage Directors and Choreographers Society.

​

Her experience as a civil litigant against the Children’s Theatre Company (CTC) in Minneapolis for institutional neglect helped inform training for the field of Civil Litigation Advocacy and brought much needed attention for more stringent and robust policies and procedures for child protection in Theater Arts production and education.

​

Her testimony at the state legislature supported the removal of the criminal Statute of Limitations for rape victims in the state of Minnesota.

​

She sits on the Executive Board for  CTA Wellness, a fund established to support the mental, emotional, and physical well-being of those like her, who were impacted as children at CTC in the sixties, seventies, and eighties.