"STORYTELLER" by Staci Poirier, used with permission of the artist.

"STORYTELLER" by Staci Poirier, used with permission of the artist.

Writer Laura Annawyn Shamas is a 2023 Winner of the Los Angeles New Play Project Award. She was born and raised in Oklahoma, and has lived in various places in the U.S., including Tulsa, Denver, and Los Angeles. Her multicultural background includes Chickasaw, English, French, Irish, Lebanese, and Scottish heritage. She is an enrolled member of the Chickasaw Nation and is married to award-winning writer Jon Klein.

Shamas has written over forty plays and has had many plays and essays published, She has worked in film as a screenwriter and as a consultant. Her archetypal study "We Three": The Mythology of Shakespeare's Weird Sisters was published in 2007 by Peter Lang USA. She is currently writing a novel.

She graduated from UCLA (B.A. in Theatre), the University of Colorado at Boulder (M.A. in English/Creative Writing), and Pacifica Graduate Institute (M.A. and Ph.D. in Mythological Studies). Shamas received her Ph.D. in 2003. 

Laura is on the American Theatre "List of Native Theatres and Theatremakers.” She was a member of the 2021 Indigenous Writers Collaborative at Oregon Shakespeare Festival.

Some of the honors awarded to Laura Annawyn Shamas include:

  • 2023: A Winner of the 2023 Los Angeles New Play Project Award for Four Women In Red.

  • 2019: Winner, National Playwriting Competition for Theatre for Young Audiences, University of Central Missouri, Theatre and Dance (for Top Secret Deer Day Care)

  • 2017: The Von Marie Atchley Award for Excellence in Playwriting, from Native Voices at the Autry (for Seeds)

  • 2014: Autry Museum Research Grant for “The Undisciplined Project” on native boarding schools

  • 2008: Garrard Best Play Award from the Five Civilized Tribes Museum, Muskogee, Oklahoma (for Talking Leaves)

  • Drama-Logue Award for Playwriting

  • Marquee Award for Playwriting

  • Robby Award for Playwriting

  • Artists Commission from the City of Denver

  • Creative Work Award, English Department, University of Colorado

  • Graduate Student Foundation Award, University of Colorado (to research Lady-Like in Ireland, Wales and England)

  • Fringe First Award for Outstanding New Drama, Edinburgh, Scotland

  • Warner Brothers Award, American College Theater Festival

  • David Library Award, A.C.T.F.

  • Mary Roberts Rinehart Foundation Grant (to interview Amelia Earhart's sister, Muriel Morrissey)