About: Laurie Lathem is a writer of plays, essays, and short fiction. She is also a producer, director and arts educator. She recently published Connection Lost: Distance Learning’s Great Divide and wrote the play This is How We Come Alive, based on interviews conducted in Ghost Mode: Teens in the Pandemic.
Laurie’s play This is How We Come Alive had a reading at the Vineyard Theater on September 11, 2023.
Read about Laurie’s current writing workshops here:
Writing: Laurie has written for the stage and screens both big and small, essays and fiction. She often employs a process she calls listening writing, in which she conducts interviews and then blends interview material with fiction. This demonstrates Laurie’s commitment to amplifying stories she has been privileged to hear and to rediscovering what has always been for her the generative link between documentary and fiction.
As a director, Laurie has directed and starred in solo shows, and written and directed various plays for the Virginia Avenue Project and Berkeley Rep’s School Touring Production.
Arts Education: As an Artistic Director and arts educator, Laurie designed and opened the School of Theatre at the Berkeley Repertory Theatre, and served at the helm of the Virginia Avenue Project, an arts mentoring program for struggling and underserved youth. She was the Director of the Moment Work Institute, a global nexus of artists and teachers, at Tectonic Theater Project.
Laurie has also taught creative writing and playwriting to incarcerated youth, launched numerous school residencies in playwriting and initiated fruitful collaborations with other arts organizations.
Contact: LaurieLathemArts@gmail.com
header art by Katie Merz
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