Laurie is a Chicago-based actor, singer, and voice artist. Originally from Cincinnati, she is a 30-year member of AEA and SAG-AFTRA. Laurie has been fortunate to live and perform in NYC, LA, Tokyo and London before landing in Chicago and calling it home for the last 25 years. Regionally, Laurie has appeared in productions of POTUS,
The Lifespan of a Fact, Guess Who's Coming to Dinner, Butterflies are Free, Calendar Girls, The Cake, Good People, The Roommate, Menopause the Musical, Light Up The Sky, It Shoulda Been You, Vanya and Sonia and Masha and Spike, Follies, and Bedfull of Foreigners. London’s West End and US National Tours: Sunset Boulevard and Jesus Christ Superstar. TV/Film credits include Chicago Med, Chicago PD, Deli Boys (upcoming), Power Book: FORCE, Early Edition, and
The Tonight Show. Favorite role: MOM to three beautiful sons with husband Scott.
photo credit: Joe Mazza/Bravelux
Can't talk about this project yet, but suffice it to say, it consisted of three super thrilling days on set!
Any day on set is a GOOD DAY, and this
co-star turn on Chicago PD's Season 11 was no exception. A lawyer doesn't always get to pick her clients, but I couldn't ask for a better scene partner than Harry Bouvy (pictured below), who gave this episode a flawed Judge. Also loved playing a small part in a scene driven by the powerful Jason Beghe. I learned so much!
Headphones on and back in the booth this month. Excited to narrate Kalan Chapman Lloyd's engaging book, WATER DOGS!
Really invested in these characters and their back story. The appeal of beach life on 30 A along Florida's fabled Emerald Coast isn't lost on me either (as Chicago's March weather continues to dump snow on all of us).
When this audiobook becomes available on Amazon, I'll update here!
Stay tuned!
HEY! IT'S LIVE
Bring on the TV and Film Work!
Trailer selfies and self tape screen grabs from three fun projects shot in the last 2 months
Up Next! So pleased to return to my home state of Ohio to work August-October on this screaming, irreverent, hilarious political comedy. Doors will slam, bad language will be used,
and, as always, women will prevail. LET'S DO THIS!
Running 9/21-10/8, 2023 at Contemporary Theatre of Ohio.
Brace yourself for an uproarious journey through the White House corridors, where chaos reigns supreme and a series of ill-conceived comments by the President threaten to derail everything. With the fate of the nation hanging in the balance, a rather uniquely paired-up group of women bands together to try to save the President’s life all while preventing the public from finding out the truth. This fast-paced comedy is packed with hilarious one-liners and outrageous situations that will have you laughing out loud, while also celebrating the strength and resilience of women in the face of adversity
NEXT PROJECT:
Preparing to start rehearsals for this VERY FUNNY, yet poignant Christopher Durang play. If you know
Vanya and Sonia and Masha and Spike,
then you know a Snow White costume is in my near future...and I'm good with that! In fact, you can't wipe the smile off my face as I study this script and make my plans to spend two months in this beautiful part of the country. Asheville and NC STAGE--here I come!
ON THE ROAD AGAIN! My escape from the Chicago winter weather continues in 2023. In January, I will be headed to ANOTHER theatre where I have longed to work: The Arts Center of Coastal Carolina. I will be playing art gallery owner and mother, Christina Drayton, in Todd Kreidler's adaptation of William Rose's iconic screenplay, Guess Who's Coming to Dinner.
Come on down to Hilton Head to see us! Running February 1-19, 2023.
NEXT UP!
Thrilled to head off to Riverside Theatre in sunny Vero Beach, FL for the Fall 2022 Season. I have always wanted to work at this beautiful theatre, and now my opportunity, playing quick-witted and doting mother,
Mrs. Baker, is here and I can't wait to land on the Florida shores and dig in!
Converting
Grateful for a day of shooting with this inspiring project led by director Ariella Khan and her cracker-jack, talented crew. These filmmakers are the new voices we need to know. I loved the writing for the episode we shot on a beautiful summer day in an idyllic suburban setting. I look forward to seeing the final footage for this thoughtful and funny Web Series.
Lil' trailer selfie to celebrate my co-star role on this dynamic series. It is a great day of shooting when your wardrobe is pajamas. More of this please! Thank you to the whole "Force Family" for welcoming me so warmly and to
Karge + Ross Casting and Debby at NV Talent for the booking!
Calendar Girls, by Tim Firth, kicks off my '22 summer in Clinton, Iowa! This is a charming true story of middle-aged women’s club members who posed nude for a calendar to raise money for the Leukemia Research Fund. Both hilarious and heartwarming,
Calendar Girls is the fastest selling play in British theatre history!
So excited for this next project!!
Check out the teaser and come see us in February.
Can't wait to work with these talented theatre-makers.
Thrilled to be kicking off 2022 by returning to charming Kalamazoo, MI and the lovely
Farmers Alley Theatre, run by such a talented team making beautiful art. Not to mention the chance to tackle this riveting and thought-provoking script.
Bring it on, 2022!
We need all ya got!
Sonju opens on a chilly day in November, 1946 in Seoul, Korea. Japan has ended its thirty-five-year occupation of Korea after the bombing of Nagasaki and Hiroshima. The American military has become the new occupier. Sonju is on the way to her best friends' house when she sees two Americans in military uniforms walking ahead of her, and her heart stirs. So begins the story that spans over two decades.
Sonju comes of age in Japanese-occupied Korea, and having received a modern education, she imagines a life of equality and freedom of choice. Her ideals soon clash with the centuries-old Confucian tradition of order and conformity when her mother arranges her marriage to a man she has never met. The decisions she makes during the Korean War lead to her being disowned by her family, betrayed by her best friend, and shunned by society.
Through the period of rapidly evolving political strife in her country following its liberation in 1945, Sonju's private struggle to seek her relevance in a male dominated society parallels the struggles of Korea on its way to becoming a force in the world.
Latest Audiobook In the Booth: SONJU
Now available on Audible!
Click here
EXCITING NEWS!!!
I will be headed back to beautiful Silverthorne, Colorado to play Robyn in Jen Silverman's dark comedy two-hander, THE ROOMMATE. This was the play scheduled to open March 13, 2020...and we all know what happened next. Our beautiful set (a farm house kitchen in rural Iowa) is still sitting there, waiting patiently for our return! I will treasure this opening night like no other. September 2021! Lake Dillon Theatre Co., here I come!
In the Booth: Currently Recording Audiobook Narration for this beautiful novel by Lee Zacharias. Available on Audible this summer!
What Alex, illegitimate daughter of an alcoholic novelist and an artist, has always wanted is family. At 15, she falls in love with a 27-year-old photographer, whom she will leave when she comes under the spell of Ted Neal, a charismatic activist on his way to Mississippi for 1964's Freedom Summer. That fall Ted organizes a collective that turns to the growing antiwar movement. Ultimately the radical group Weatherman destroys the "family" Alex and Ted have created, and in 1971 Ted disappears while under FBI investigation. When Ted surfaces eleven years later, Alex must put her life back together in order to discover what true family means.