Laurel Andersen

Laurel Andersen

LAUREL ANDERSEN (they/them) is an NYC-based, nonbinary, queer theatre artist who works frequently with heightened text and music. Laurel's work with young NYC theatre companies (including Turn to Flesh Productions; Isle of Shoals; Match: Lit; Barefoot Shakespeare; Company of Fools; Infinite Variety Productions; the Tank; Everyday Inferno Theatre Company; Occupy Verona, etc) encompasses both reimaginings/...
LAUREL ANDERSEN (they/them) is an NYC-based, nonbinary, queer theatre artist who works frequently with heightened text and music. Laurel's work with young NYC theatre companies (including Turn to Flesh Productions; Isle of Shoals; Match: Lit; Barefoot Shakespeare; Company of Fools; Infinite Variety Productions; the Tank; Everyday Inferno Theatre Company; Occupy Verona, etc) encompasses both reimaginings/repurposings of classical texts (often to center marginalized genders and queer people), & the development of new work.

Plays

  • Tam Lin by Laurel Andersen
    Cast: 
    9–20
    ·
    Genre: adventure, comedy + 5 more
    ·
    Keyword: Fantasy, 1980s + 6 more
    Genre: adventure, comedy, drama, fable/folktale, fantasy, period, romantic comedy
    Keyword: Fantasy, 1980s, Scotland, Faeries, romance, changelings, Labyrinth vibes, play with music
    TAM LIN, a new play, loosely inspired by the Scottish folktake of the same name, is an epic fantasy-romance in the spirit of 80s adventure movies. Edinburugh, Fall 1987. It’s Halloween Night. Janet is a young woman waitressing in a pub to help settle her missing father’s debts when her friend and coworker, Maura, is spirited away to Faeryland. To save her, Janet must navigate a strange and dangerous new world,...
    TAM LIN, a new play, loosely inspired by the Scottish folktake of the same name, is an epic fantasy-romance in the spirit of 80s adventure movies. Edinburugh, Fall 1987. It’s Halloween Night. Janet is a young woman waitressing in a pub to help settle her missing father’s debts when her friend and coworker, Maura, is spirited away to Faeryland. To save her, Janet must navigate a strange and dangerous new world, face all manner of creatures, and -- ultimately -- choose love over fear. TAM LIN uses its fantasy setting to examine how change, fear, and love can shape our choices -- and how we imagine ourselves and each other.

    TAM LIN runs 2 hours and 15 minutes.
  • Six Autumns on the Hudson by Laurel Andersen
    Recommendations: 3
    ·
    Cast: 
    2
    ·
    Genre: biography, comedy + 3 more
    ·
    Keyword: Painters, Hudson School Painters + 5 more
    Genre: biography, comedy, drama, experimental, period
    Keyword: Painters, Hudson School Painters, Edith Wilkinson Cook, Susie M Barstow, friendship, Hudson River, canoe
    Susie M. Barstow and Edith Wilkinson Cook, two very different painters of the Hudson school -- and fast friends -- take a canoe trip to Pollopel (soon to be Bannerman) Island every Autumn from 1858 to 1902.* What will they discover about themselves -- and about each other -- over long years of friendship, art, and paddling through rough water towards the reward of the elusive island?

    *While the...
    Susie M. Barstow and Edith Wilkinson Cook, two very different painters of the Hudson school -- and fast friends -- take a canoe trip to Pollopel (soon to be Bannerman) Island every Autumn from 1858 to 1902.* What will they discover about themselves -- and about each other -- over long years of friendship, art, and paddling through rough water towards the reward of the elusive island?

    *While the play is inspired by two real women and their friendship, this is a work of historical fiction, and some creative license has been taken.
  • Green Glass Dreams by Laurel Andersen
    Recommendations: 1
    ·
    Cast: 
    2
    ·
    Genre: comedy, drama + 1 more
    Genre: comedy, drama, fantasy
    (Still in development!)

    All the Man knows is he is an ever-changing character in The Woman's dreams.
    All the Woman knows is she's got something in her chest that wants Out. And that the Man could be the key to setting it free.
    Can either find answers before they lose each other to the morning?
  • Radio Hour by Laurel Andersen
    Recommendations: 2
    ·
    Cast: 
    3
    ·
    Genre: comedy, drama + 2 more
    ·
    Keyword: magical realism, queer + 6 more
    Genre: comedy, drama, fantasy, romantic comedy
    Keyword: magical realism, queer, love story, queer relationship, alternate universes, parallel dimension, beyond the veil, ambiguous ending
    Leila’s beloved Frankie is gone. Good thing magic is real. And the weird old person who sold Leila a portal to The Other Side wasn’t full of it.
  • Dispatches from the Grey by Laurel Andersen
    Recommendations: 1
    ·
    Cast: 
    4
    ·
    Genre: drama, science fiction + 2 more
    ·
    Keyword: void, lost love + 2 more
    Genre: drama, science fiction, verse, zoom
    Keyword: void, lost love, memory, Surreal
    "I woke to find myself in a place without air, without breath, without sound
    and the silence
    pulsed
    and I realized I had been holding my breath
    so I --
    (exhales)
    and I blinked
    and the world was grey
    but then suddenly
    or maybe after a very long time
    there was life in it

    mine
    and yours."

    ...
    "I woke to find myself in a place without air, without breath, without sound
    and the silence
    pulsed
    and I realized I had been holding my breath
    so I --
    (exhales)
    and I blinked
    and the world was grey
    but then suddenly
    or maybe after a very long time
    there was life in it

    mine
    and yours."

    DISPATCHES FROM THE GREY is a short magical realism/sci fi play that can be performed digitally (i.e. on Zoom), or in a live theatrical space.
  • A Dance Card by Laurel Andersen
    Recommendations: 2
    ·
    Cast: 
    2–6
    ·
    Genre: comedy, dark comedy + 6 more
    ·
    Keyword: magical realism, romance + 3 more
    Genre: comedy, dark comedy, drama, experimental, period, romantic comedy, satire, verse
    Keyword: magical realism, romance, 1930s, dance, ballroom
    The Woman finds herself in a beautiful hotel bar and dance floor. A dreamlike version of the 1930s that has never existed. The Depression is nowhere to be found. This is Idyll. A place to escape. A place to...find love?

    A Dance Card is a new verse play in which the verse changes with each and every one of The Woman's strange and singular dance partners.
  • Aileen and Nero Climb Mt Olympus by Laurel Andersen
    Cast: 
    2
    ·
    Genre: adventure, comedy + 1 more
    ·
    Keyword: friendship, grief + 1 more
    Genre: adventure, comedy, drama
    Keyword: friendship, grief, hiking
    Aileen grew up on stories from Greek mythology told by her dad. So, when he passes, where better to spread
    his ashes than the peak of Mt Olympus? Best friends Aileen and Nero will embark on the hike of a lifetime to
    help Aileen say goodbye.
  • One Day Soon or: Pandemic Daydreams by Laurel Andersen
    Recommendations: 1
    ·
    Cast: 
    1
    ·
    Genre: drama, verse
    ·
    Keyword: pandemic, Covid-19 + 5 more
    Genre: drama, verse
    Keyword: pandemic, Covid-19, daydreams, New York City, city, poetic language, monologue
    Xandra has always been sentimental, prone to nostalgia. Then a worldwide pandemic hit. Xandra's dreams look different, now.
  • Frenzy and Fury by Laurel Andersen
    Recommendations: 1
    ·
    Cast: 
    2
    ·
    Genre: adaptation, comedy + 4 more
    Genre: adaptation, comedy, dark comedy, drama, fantasy, verse
    Penthea's just moved to a new apartment. All she wants is to start over. Forget the past. Maybe order a pizza.
    So what will she do when Dionysus shows up at her door?
    Loosely inspired by THE BACCHAE, FRENZY and FURY examines the toll that repressed trauma and unreleased anger can take -- what form it might take as it manifests in our bodies, in our lives.
  • Zoe Carroll at Diane Mitchell's Retirement Party, 2019 by Laurel Andersen
    Cast: 
    6–9
    ·
    Genre: drama
    ·
    Keyword: college, music school + 4 more
    Genre: drama
    Keyword: college, music school, toxic teacher, trauma, healing, identity
    (Still in development!)

    Z (she/they) has repressed a lot about her turbulent college experience. There's nothing like a pseudo-reunion (and seeing a particularly toxic teacher again) to bring it all back up.