Laura Shamas’ plays have been produced in the U.S., the U.K., Canada, Europe, and Australia.
CIRCULAR, directed by Jeanette Harrison, produced by Alter Theater, June 2019. Carla Pauli as C. Ogie Zulueta as O. Photo by David Allen.
Laura is a 2023 Winner of the Los Angeles New Play Project Award. Her work has been produced, performed and/or developed at many theaters, including:
Native Voices at the Autry; Transformation Theatre; Spooky Action Theater; Alter Theater; Native Earth Performing Arts, Williamstown Theatre Festival, Golden Thread Productions, Walnut Street Theater, Utah Shakespeare Festival, Philadelphia Theater Company, The Denver Center Theater Company, The Glines, and many more.
For a list of recent activities, please see “Events.”
2025 PROJECTS:
FOUR WOMEN IN RED, directed by Jeanette Harrison, opens January 17, 2025, at The Victory Theatre Center, Burbank, CA.
2024 PROJECTS:
A short play commission from ReproFreedomArts.org, related to Reproductive Freedom and Environmental Justice.
2023 PROJECTS:
FOUR WOMEN IN RED, the full-length version. A 2023 Winner of the Los Angeles New Play Project Award.
Photo Credit: Central Missouri University Production of TOP SECRET DEER DAY CARE, 2019.
OTHER PROJECTS (2019 - 2022)
TOP SECRET DEER DAY CARE.
Theater for Young Audience. 3 females (including 1 child), 2 males (including 1 child), and 3 gender-neutral roles, for a total cast of 8. Puppets. At the edge of a forest, new friends Jill and Stanley bond while observing how a deer population uses a deer run. Then the two friends learn that this deer run is threatened by a developer’s plans.
CIRCULAR (now published by Next Stage Press)
1 woman, 1 man. A young army psychiatrist becomes entangled in the world of The Odyssey on her first tour of duty in the Middle East. Click here to read an interview with Laura about CIRCULAR.
MERRION SQUARE
2 women, 4 men. Dublin, 1876-1878. Historical Biography. As young Oscar Wilde courts Florence Balcombe, Bram Stoker pursues a life in the theater.
(Contact Laura for a complete list of her plays.)
Among her playwriting honors are: a 2023 Winner of the Los Angeles New Play Project Award; 2017 Winner of The Von Marie Atchley Award for Excellence in Playwriting from Native Voices at the Autry; the 2008 Garrard Best Play Award from the Five Civilized Tribes Museum; a Fringe First Award for Outstanding New Drama (Edinburgh); and a Drama-Logue Award.
Her published plays include CIRCULAR, PICNIC AT HANGING ROCK (adaptation), LADY-LIKE, PORTRAIT OF A NUDE, RESOURCING, LINCOLN VACATION, MOLIÈRE IN LOVE, RE-SOURCING, UP TO DATE, AMELIA LIVES, and THE OTHER SHAKESPEARE. Her playwriting is published by Dramatic Publishing Company, Smith & Kraus, Playscripts.com, Broadway Play Publishing, & Heinemann. A monologue from FOUR WOMEN IN RED was published in the 2022: Best Women’s Stage Monologues (Smith & Kraus). Two monologues from RE-SOURCING are published in 2009: The Best Men’s Stage Monologues and Scenes.
She has written many full-lengths, one-acts, and ten-minute plays. Twenty-three of Laura Shamas' earliest plays may be found in the Alexander Street Press Drama Database.
Featured Work: Four Women In Red
Four Women In Red by Laura Shamas began as a 10-minute play in the 2020 Native Voices at the Autry Short Play Festival, presented online. It was first performed as a full-length play at Transformation Theatre in November 2021 in a virtual reading, directed by Jeanette Harrison. Dramaturgy for the full-length version was funded through the Oregon Shakespeare Festival’s Indigenous Writers Collaborative in 2021. In June 2022, Four Women In Red was part of the Native Voices at the Autry’s New Play Festival, directed by Jeanette Harrison. The play will have its world premiere at the Victory Theatre Center in Burbank, in January 2025.
