Laura Stratford serves as Co-Regional Lead for the Dramatists Guild - Chicago Region. As the Founding Executive Director and later Artistic Director of Underscore Theatre Company, Laura has produced over 70 readings, workshops, and productions of new musicals in eight years, including Haymarket, which won the 2019 Non-Equity Joseph Jefferson Award for “Best New Musical.” Laura is the co-lyricist and co-librettist of Liberal Arts: The Musical (Underscore Theatre Company), Grounds: The Musical (Midwest Fringe Tour; Theatre Undeclared); Spa Fire! The Children of the One Percent (the EX-Pats), and pr0ne: a hardcore, amateur musical (Underscore Theatre Company), and librettist for The 57th National Mathlete Sum-It (CPA Theatricals; licensed by Theatrical Rights Worldwide) with collaborators Alex Higgin-Houser and David Kornfeld. Laura has also composed nine original songs for season two of the podcast Arden, three original songs for the new play Daybreak, and is the librettist and lyricist for The Bone Harp, a new musical with music by Heidi Joosten.