LAURA AND THE SEA

It’s company outing day, and Laura, one of the top travel agents of her generation, is quite possibly having both the best and worst day of her life. So much so that she decides to end it all. Afterwards, her colleagues try to piece things together on a memorial blog, but how do you mourn someone you didn’t know that well?

A darkly funny drama about living and dying in the age of digital intimacy.
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LAURA AND THE SEA

Recommended by

  • Danielle Frimer:
    29 Aug. 2023
    What a beautiful, strange, timely, poetic piece! I love Kate Tarker's wit and really admire how she's crafted something here that has such a profound and resonant inner ache while painting with big, fun, primary colors. Tarker gifts her ensemble with generous stage directions that allow for robust play and true freedom of interpretation, and cares for her audience, too, by toggling between the alienating and the narratively familiar, thereby allowing us, through her words, to see this very strange world we're all inhabiting afresh...
  • Cheryl Bear:
    21 Jul. 2020
    How sad is it really that we seem to know so little about those we spend the most time with, our coworkers. An eye opening piece to forming deep connections with those we come across, not just looking for their positive happy traits. Well done.
  • Julia Bumke:
    24 Jul. 2018
    Both slyly funny and quietly devastating, LAURA AND THE SEA balances its light and darkness to electrifying effect. The piece’s playing space is both mundane office and boat-scape, a place where “realities bend and overlap,” where emails are embodied by people and an in memoriam blog projects larger than life onto the boat’s sail. It's a wildly creative conceit that brings its performers' physicality to the forefront.

Character Information

  • LAURA
    46 - 52,
    Female
    manager
  • ANNIE
    late 30s,
    Female
    office manager & HR
  • STAN
    mid to late 40s,
    Male
    manager
  • JOE
    mid to late 20s,
    Male
    Laura's assistant
  • JACK
    50s,
    Male
    CEO
  • MARY
    mid to late 20s,
    Female
    Stan's assistant

Development History

  • Workshop
    ,
    The Vineyard Theatre
    ,
    2017
  • Workshop
    ,
    Salt Lake Acting Company
    ,
    2016
  • Residency
    ,
    The Eugene O'Neill Theater Center's National Playwrights Conference
    ,
    2016
  • Workshop
    ,
    Playwrights' Center
    ,
    2015

Production History

  • Professional
    ,
    Rivendell Theatre Ensemble
    ,
    2019

Awards

Winner
,
Paula Vogel Award
,
The Vineyard Theatre
,
2016
Semi-Finalist
,
The Relentless Award
,
The American Playwriting Foundation
,
2016
Finalist
,
L. Arnold Weissberger Award
,
Williamstown Theatre Festival
,
2016
Finalist
,
Princess Grace Award
,
New Dramatists
,
2016
Selection
,
The Kilroys List
,
The Kilroys
,
2016