
Laura Ekstrand
Laura Ekstrand is the founder and Artistic Director of Vivid Stage, formerly Dreamcatcher Repertory Theatre. Her full-length plays include Life's Work, Losing My Religion, What Stays (with Jason Szamreta), Whatever Will Be, The Neighborhood (Book and Lyrics; Music by Joe Zawila), Brink of Life (Book; Lyrics by Steve Harper; Music by Oliver Lake) and Astonishment, How to be Old: A Beginner’s Guide, and At Ninety-Three (Adaptations). One-acts include Stung, June Asserts Herself, Playing to the Gallery, MoJo, and others. As an actor, she has appeared in NJ at Vivid Stage, Centenary Stage, the Bickford Theatre, Passage Theater, 12 Miles West, The Theater Project, Luna Stage, and the Pushcart Players. In New York she has worked at Naked Angels, Ensemble Studio Theatre, and New Georges, among other theatres. Laura has been featured in such films as Split Ends, High Art and I Shot Andy Warhol, and on television on Hack, Sex And The City, Law & Order, and The Guiding Light. Some of the plays she has directed at Vivid Stage include Soft Animals, The How and the Why, Things Being What They Are, Next Fall, Distracted, The Pursuit Of Happiness, Melancholy Play, Pride’s Crossing, Full Bloom and many others. She is a private monologue coach and holds a BA from Yale University and an MFA from Sarah Lawrence College. Laura is a member of AEA, SAG-AFTRA and the Dramatists Guild.
Founder/Artistic Director, Vivid Stage. Full-length plays: Life's Work, Losing My Religion, What Stays (with Jason Szamreta), Whatever Will Be, The Neighborhood (Book and Lyrics; Music: Joe Zawila), Brink of Life (Book; Lyrics: Steve Harper; Music: Oliver Lake). Adaptations: Astonishment, How to be Old, At 93. One-acts: Stung, June Asserts Herself, Playing to the Gallery, MoJo.