About

Laura Sturm is a professional actor, director, teacher, movement and acting coach, and intimacy director. She received an MFA from Northern Illinois University and has been working professionally in the Chicago area for over 20 years.

Laura teaches a variety of different classes and workshops, but specializes in Movement for Actors (Williamson/Laban), Meisner Technique, and she is certified to teach Michael Chekhov Technique of Acting. She also teaches Period Style, Audition Skills, Scene Study, Monologue, Intimacy and Voice classes, as well as classes combining different elements. Laura is on the Adjunct Faculty at Columbia College Chicago, and has also taught at Northern Illinois University, North Central College. Governors State University, Oakton Community College, and for many years at Chicago’s professional studios The Actors’ Center and Act One Studios.

Check out her Saturday morning Movement classes!

Hate finding and performing monologues? Talk to Laura about her proven (and fun!) methods for finding and loving a monologue.

As an actor, Laura has been performing in the Chicago area for over 20 years. She most recently appeared in Bottle Fly at Redtwist, Prelude to a Kiss with Theatre Above the Law, and as Emma in Bluebird Arts’ production of Stupid Fucking Bird. Laura has been seen with Organic Theater Company in such roles as Emilie in Lauren Gunderson’s Emilie: La Marquise du Châtelet Defends Her Life Tonight and as Marie Antoinette in Gunderson’s The Revolutionists. Other roles include Blanche in Streetcar, Titania, Getrude, and many others. She has had the privilege of working with many Chicago other companies, including Northlight, New Colony, Victory Gardens, Remy Bumppo, Promethean, Mary Arrchie, Bailiwick, Signal, Raven, Quest, Chicago Danztheatre, and Polarity, as well as with the Texas Shakespeare Festival. Laura has also directed in Chicago for many years. With Organic, she directed the Jeff Recommended production of Sarah Ruhl’s Melancholy Play and the world premiere of Chicago playwright Barbara Lhota’s Phantom Pain. She has also directed Sheridan’s 18th Century period piece The Rivals, as well as the musical I Love You, You’re Perfect, Now Change. In the last few years Laura has become an Intimacy Choreographer, working in Chicago and with the constructivists, a few years ago named the Best New Theater Company in Milwaukee by Milwaukee Magazine.

CURRENT PROJECTS:

Just started rehearsal for TITUS ANDRONICUS at Redtwist in Chicago, playing Tamora, Queen of the Goths! Oh, my, much fun and blood to be had by all!

Previews start 2/20 and performances run through 3/30 at Redtwist Theatre, 1044 W. Bryn Mawr, 7:30 Thurs-Sat, 3:30 Sun.

Tickets to TITUS ANDRONICUS

UPCOMING PROJECTS:

Teaching Audition Workshop at Columbia College Chicago

Teaching an Audition Workshop in Milwaukee with the constructivists - 1/26 and 2/2

Teaching Michael Chekhov class in Milwaukee with the constructivists - April/May, dates to come.

Intimacy/Acting/Movement Coach for The Beauty Queen of Leenane, by Martin McDonough, with the constructivists in Milwaukee, 3/29 - 4/12, Broadway Theatre Center, . “This darkly comic tale of familial tension and unfulfilled dreams will be brought to life with the raw emotional depth and sharp wit that McDonagh is known for. Set in the mountains of Connemara, County Galway, THE BEAUTY QUEEN OF LEENANE tells the story of Maureen Folan, a plain and lonely woman in her early forties, and Mag, her manipulative aging mother, whose interference in Maureen’s first and possibly final chance of a loving relationship sets in motion a train of events that leads inexorably towards the play’s terrifying dénouement. Winner of the 1998 Lucille Lortel Award for Outstanding Play. (via dramatists.com)”