Laura Stratford

Laura Stratford is a Chicago-based musical theatre writer and playwright. She co-founded and served as Founding Executive Director of Underscore Theatre Company, Chicago’s home for new musicals, and acted as the Executive Producer of the Chicago Musical Theatre Festival for five years. With Underscore, she produced over 74 readings, workshops, and productions of new musicals in eight years.
Laura is the co-lyricist and co-librettist of "Liberal Arts: The Musical" (Underscore Theatre Company), "Grounds: The Musical" (Midwest Fringe Tour; Theatre Undeclared); "Spa Fire! The Children of the One Percent" (the EX-Pats), and "pr0ne: a hardcore, amateur musical" (Underscore Theatre Company), as well as the librettist for "The 57th National Mathlete Sum-It" (CPA Theatricals; licensed by...

Laura Stratford is a Chicago-based musical theatre writer and playwright. She co-founded and served as Founding Executive Director of Underscore Theatre Company, Chicago’s home for new musicals, and acted as the Executive Producer of the Chicago Musical Theatre Festival for five years. With Underscore, she produced over 74 readings, workshops, and productions of new musicals in eight years.
Laura is the co-lyricist and co-librettist of "Liberal Arts: The Musical" (Underscore Theatre Company), "Grounds: The Musical" (Midwest Fringe Tour; Theatre Undeclared); "Spa Fire! The Children of the One Percent" (the EX-Pats), and "pr0ne: a hardcore, amateur musical" (Underscore Theatre Company), as well as the librettist for "The 57th National Mathlete Sum-It" (CPA Theatricals; licensed by Theatrical Rights Worldwide) with collaborators Alex Higgin-Houser and David Kornfeld and story contributor Larry Little.
Currently Laura has composed nine original songs for season two of the podcast "Arden" and is the librettist and lyricist for "The Bone Harp," a new musical with music by Heidi Joosten.
She is a member of the Dramatist’s Guild and ASCAP.

Scripts

Treat(ment)

by Laura Stratford

1

Cast Size

2

Genre

drama

Mary is a new resident in a substance abuse rehabilitation program. Her counselor, Joanna, only a few months into her role, brings her dessert, which Mary rejects. Joanna introduces herself and tries to draw out the reasons Mary has joined the program. Mary is resistant, maintaining that she does not have any more of a substance problem than most people her age. She claims that her father has sent her to rehab...

Mary is a new resident in a substance abuse rehabilitation program. Her counselor, Joanna, only a few months into her role, brings her dessert, which Mary rejects. Joanna introduces herself and tries to draw out the reasons Mary has joined the program. Mary is resistant, maintaining that she does not have any more of a substance problem than most people her age. She claims that her father has sent her to rehab to get rid of her for a few weeks. After careful prodding from Joanna, Mary admits that she doesn't see why it would be such a tragedy if something were to happen to her. Joanna shares a story from her past, about how she coped in the face of a personal tragedy, and gets through to Mary for the first time. Mary agrees to attend a personal counseling session the next day and asks about what tomorrow's dessert will be. Even if it's small, she has something to look forward to.

Daybreak

by Erin Lekovic (Austin)

Songs by Laura Stratford

Cast Size

5

Genre

drama,

science fiction

Earth is getting bleaker, duller, and nobody seems to know why. Or at least, they didn’t—until people like CAPRIA started to notice the effects of the Dimming. When her astronaut wife, JEANETTE, comes out of retirement for one final mission, Capria’s quest to capture the beauty of a fading world brings her into unlikely orbit with DAPHNE, the younger sibling of Jeanette’s co-pilot MILES.

150 years earlier, a...

Earth is getting bleaker, duller, and nobody seems to know why. Or at least, they didn’t—until people like CAPRIA started to notice the effects of the Dimming. When her astronaut wife, JEANETTE, comes out of retirement for one final mission, Capria’s quest to capture the beauty of a fading world brings her into unlikely orbit with DAPHNE, the younger sibling of Jeanette’s co-pilot MILES.

150 years earlier, a wanderlustful SAILOR begins his own sojourn across the open waters of Lake Michigan, unaware of the rising tides around him or the legacy he would leave behind to fight them.

As Miles and Jeanette rocket into space to reverse the Dimming, their loved ones on Earth must find ways to sustain what remains of its brightness, only to discover what they might have known all along: that awe is found in each other.

Script available on request.