Today we’d like to introduce you to Laura Gardner.
Hi Laura, thanks for sharing your story with us. To start, maybe you can tell our readers some of your backstory.
AI have always loved people and telling stories, especially stories that create change in other people. I strive to be a catalyst for change in other people’s lives as a teacher. performer, and coach. I love to challenge myself, never settling but searching for new ways to express myself.
I started as a singer and naturally found myself moving to acting. I was a folk classical singer but I longed to be an actor so I trained at Boston and Rutgers Universities. I took classes with the reknowned Uta Hagen at HB Studio in NYC and with Carol Rosenfeld, who is still my mentor and dear friend. In my teens I began teaching acting at summer camps which led to and that led to college teaching and referrals when I moved to NYC. I spent the next 20 years balancing acting/teaching and coaching in NYC, regional theatre, and national tours.
A few years after making the move to Los Angeles, I started teaching at the Howard Fine Acting Studio which was my home for the next 17 years. I branched out teaching my own workshops all over the country and internationally until the pandemic when I decided to focus more on acting and doing more private coaching.
I have spent a week of each of the last 18 years at the Valdez Theatre Conference as a Featured Artist, teaching and acting. I created the Monologue Workshop where writers submit short pieces for actors to perform at the conference. It has become one of the highlights of the week!
My recent work includes a wonderful short film, BIG SUR, written and directed by Lila Dupree. I took over the starring role with less that 24 hours to prepare. Not only was it an incredible challenge but it has had a great festival run and is now being developed into a TV pilot. Who knows what comes next.
After BIG SUR, I shot a gorgeous short, MIRIAM, written by Levi Tariff and directed by Josie Andrews. I played an orthodox Jewish Grandma who was rigid and fiercely protective of her outrageous grandaughter who wanted to skateboard instead of being Bat Mitvahed! It was great to channel my Grandma Mary with a little of my mother, Blossom.
I just closed in a Pulitzer Prize nominated play, ALABASTER, by Audrey Cefaly, at The Fountain Theatre in Los Angeles, where I played a Bib, a goat/woman who had one word to say, “AMEN”, and the rest was simply bleating! Not only was a I was a dying goat/woman with dementia, but I was resurrected and relieved of my pain. This is a beautiful play about women, trauma and healing.
Writing this has just made me realize it all fits into my goal to be a catalyst for change.
I’m sure it wasn’t obstacle-free, but would you say the journey has been fairly smooth so far?
Many struggles… Throat problems from not listening to teachers who knew better that me!! Injuries on stage! Bad financial and personal choices. Although I do believe all of our choices lead us to exactly where we are meant to be and what we can bring to my work.
Can you tell our readers more about what you do and what you think sets you apart from others?
I love to help others and to be considered someone keeps their promises and tells the truth..
One of my favorite quotes is from a Mike O’Malley play, DIVERTING DEVOTION.
A dubious character says:
“Integrity is flexible”
I live by the word INTEGRITY. I live by the truth.
I want to be known as a woman, artist, and friend who does my work, is dependable, yet somewhat dangerous, as in exciting and takes chances. Is fun and doesn’t take things too seriously. I love what I do, so I expect other actors to honor the writer’s words, their colleagues.
I help actors find their own voices, trust their instincts, stop pushing, and controlling, Most important, to be present.
Are there any important lessons you’ve learned that you can share with us?
Today is all we have. The great playwright Eugene O’Neill said,
“There is no present or future, just the past, repeating itself, over and over again now”.
I try, operable word, try to live TODAY, to the best I can. I try to forgive, to enjoy, to let go, and to love. I am not perfect but I keep getting up and dusting myself off, and trying to reinvent myself.
We never know what is going to come next. I was just offered two wonderful roles that would not have happened if I had gotten ‘that job’ which I was certain I was supposed to get. If I do my work, help others in need, and continue to stretch as a woman and an artist, my life will continue to surprise me. I will delight in the gifts I receive!
I have wonderful teachers and colleagues, particularly Carol Rosenfeld of HB Studio, who wrote ACTING AND LIVING IN DISCOVERY. Jessica Hecht, who coached me during Covid. Scott Harlan, my friend and wonderful singing coach. The prolific theatre artist Austin Pendleton, my friend and sometime coach. My patient and talented husband, actor Frank Collison (look him up on IMDB) and our rescue pup, Dolly.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://www.lauragardner.org
- Instagram: @thereallauragardner
- Facebook: Laura Gardner
