LAUREL OLLSTEIN is a playwright/director based in Los Angeles whose produced plays include Laughter, Hope and a Sock in the Eye; CHEESE; Esther’s Moustache; OPA! the Musical; Dorothy Parker Is in the Bath; The Dark Ages; Bias Cut; and Showing Our Age. She drafted They Promised Her the Moon at the University of Oklahoma as the Faith Broome Playwright-in-Residence. Subsequently, Moon was showcased Off-Broadway and in new work festivals at the Old Globe and TheatreWorks, and a critically acclaimed west coast premier production at the Old Globe theatre in San Diego, directed by Giovanna Sardelli.  Ms. Ollstein has written commissions for The Getty Villa, About Productions, New Jersey Repertory, and Playwrights’ Arena, and developed plays with The Actors’ Gang. She is a recipient of Ovation, Garland, and LA Weekly Theater awards and grants from the National Endowment for the Arts and California Arts Council. Ms. Ollstein directs playwriting programs, writing and arts education in schools, and creates plays on social justice themes. She has been a faculty member at Cal Arts, UCLA, Loyola Marymount, and Otis College of Art and Design.