Shirley Lauro

Playwright, Novelist, Editor
New York, New York USA

Where do I look for inspiration?
Deep, emotional life experiences. What is closest to me, whether personal or situations I observe that touch so deeply, I feel compelled to express and share them.

Favorite line from a play?
“Time and the hour run through the roughest day.” Macbeth.

Favorite drink?
Dry martini with olives!

What play changed your life?
Ibsen’s Hedda Gabler, Ghosts, and A Doll House. Born in small town Iowa, I felt suffocated growing up. Ibsen made me believe I could be free and create life for myself.

Is there anything you still dream of doing?
I started as an actress and would like to act again. Also I would like to feel freer to open up and write everything in my heart.

I feel most like myself when I –
“You can take the girl out of the country, you can’t take the country out of the girl!” What I do miss about Iowa is the country in summer, barefoot, laying under a tree in the grass, looking up at the sky, only alive to my senses.

What is your best escape?
Traveling. Lately cruising – sitting on a boat deck, reading, sipping wine, maybe a game of Scrabble.

What’s one thing nobody knows about you?
I’m addicted to TV’s “Deal Or No Deal” game show! Watch it especially late night.

Shirley Lauro. Open Admissions: Broadway: one Tony nomination, adapted for CBS TV. A Piece of My Heart: Vietnam Vets selection: “Most Enduring Play on Vietnam”. Co-editor: Front Lines anthology. Novel, The Edge: Doubleday, publisher. Grants: Guggenheim, NY Foundation For Arts, 3 NEAs. Affiliations: DG’s Fund Board, EST, Actors Studio Playwrights Unit.  www.ShirleyLauro.com

Alexa Kelly

Actress, director, teacher, producer, and loves it all.
New York, New York USA

* Where do you look for inspiration?
Mostly from theatre. I love to go to the National Theatre in London, because I find the shows to be very innovative and exciting in their ideas.

* What’s your favorite…
book
HALF OF A YELLOW SUN by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie
Also, I love everything that Elizabeth George has written.
movie
BRAVE HEART is one of them.
line from a play
“It’s been a while, and what a while it’s been” FROM CHAOS THEORY, by Anuvab Pal
Al Green, Annie Lennox
pop culture guilty pleasure
playing Scrabble and other board games
cocktail
red wine

* What play or production changed your life?
The original OH WHAT A LOVELY WAR

* Is there anything you still dream of doing?
Directing on the main stage of a big regional theatre with a good budget and someone else producing!

* I feel most like myself when I am directing or coaching acting.

* What is your best escape?
Lying in the sunshine

* What’s the one thing nobody knows about you?
I wish I could fix all the problems in the world, and make all people live in harmony.

Alexa Kelly trained at Central Drama School, and has worked in theatre ever since. Taught and directed regionally and in NYC, universities from FSU to U of M. Founder of Harlem Summer Shakespeare. Artistic Director for Pulse Ensemble Theatre, NYC, for 22 years.