Laura Valpey

Laura Valpey is an actor, improviser, flying trapeze artist and coach, teaching artist, and playwright! Her
background is rooted in Improvisational Theater. While studying at the University of Washington School
of Drama, she concurrently trained for three years with the improv theater company Unexpected Productions at The Market Theater in Seattle. She has been a performer, show co-creator, and teaching artist with Freestyle Repertory Theatre, an arts-in-education improv theater company in NYC, since 2001. She has performed, directed and produced improvisational theatre with other NYC based companies including Gotham City Improv and Amnesia Wars.
Laura began playwriting in 2018 and now is a regular playwright/cast member of "Write Away", a monthly (virtual) show/jam co-produced by Synergy...

Laura Valpey is an actor, improviser, flying trapeze artist and coach, teaching artist, and playwright! Her
background is rooted in Improvisational Theater. While studying at the University of Washington School
of Drama, she concurrently trained for three years with the improv theater company Unexpected Productions at The Market Theater in Seattle. She has been a performer, show co-creator, and teaching artist with Freestyle Repertory Theatre, an arts-in-education improv theater company in NYC, since 2001. She has performed, directed and produced improvisational theatre with other NYC based companies including Gotham City Improv and Amnesia Wars.
Laura began playwriting in 2018 and now is a regular playwright/cast member of "Write Away", a monthly (virtual) show/jam co-produced by Synergy Theater and Freestyle Repertory Theatre where writers are given just 45 minutes to write a brand new play based on audience suggestions.
Her compilation of short plays, collectively titled "Where's the Baby?! (Parenting in Pieces)", received a staged reading at The Barrow Group in March, 2019. A few of these pieces have received recognition and production: The titular piece, "Where's the Baby?" was selected by Spark Creative Works Women's Playwriting Project in 2020, resulting in a virtual staged reading in 2021. "The Nanny" progressed to the Semi-Final round for MUSEUM OF DYSFUNCTION XII at Mildred’s Umbrella Theater Company before the pandemic cancelled the project. And "To Go, or Not To-Go" was was produced in January of 2024 as a winner of the Malvern Theatre Company's Short Play Writing Competition.
Laura studies playwriting with Arlene Hutton at The Barrow Group. She lives in New York City with her husband, Bones, and children, Pike and Poppy Joy.

Scripts

Where's the Baby?!

by Laura Valpey

Synopsis

Wallowing post-breakup, BELLA just wants to binge watch TV and stay home with her "dates" Ben & Jerry. Armed with a little black dress and a whole lotta tough love, GLORIA refuses to let Bella bail on Girls Night Out.

Wallowing post-breakup, BELLA just wants to binge watch TV and stay home with her "dates" Ben & Jerry. Armed with a little black dress and a whole lotta tough love, GLORIA refuses to let Bella bail on Girls Night Out.

To Go, or Not To-Go

by Laura Valpey

Synopsis

On her son's 18th birthday, a woman sits alone in a cafe. Having been stood up for their annual mother-son date, she now has an extra ticket to a show. But how can she find a friend to go with when the uptight waiter enforces a stodgy no-cell-phone restaurant policy? After a little power struggle, they ultimately connect on wishing things were as they as they used to be.

On her son's 18th birthday, a woman sits alone in a cafe. Having been stood up for their annual mother-son date, she now has an extra ticket to a show. But how can she find a friend to go with when the uptight waiter enforces a stodgy no-cell-phone restaurant policy? After a little power struggle, they ultimately connect on wishing things were as they as they used to be.

SUCKER-PUNCH

by Laura Valpey

Synopsis

A young actor is hired to be a costumed superhero at a kid's
4th birthday party, but the kid's dad is disgruntled
by the actor's lack of commitment to character. Will Super-Dad save the world from future
birthday bombs? Or will the Future itself foil his efforts?
And will someone please cut the cake already?

A young actor is hired to be a costumed superhero at a kid's
4th birthday party, but the kid's dad is disgruntled
by the actor's lack of commitment to character. Will Super-Dad save the world from future
birthday bombs? Or will the Future itself foil his efforts?
And will someone please cut the cake already?

WHERE'S THE BABY?! (Parenting in Pieces)

by Laura Valpey

Synopsis

Barely. Keeping it. Together.
In Seven Short Plays.
Bound together by the
Ups and downs,
Hopes and dreams, and
Fears and failures of
Parenting.

Barely. Keeping it. Together.
In Seven Short Plays.
Bound together by the
Ups and downs,
Hopes and dreams, and
Fears and failures of
Parenting.

BREAK-AWAY

by Laura Valpey

Synopsis

WIFE and HUSBAND share a Home Office, and WIFE has a super important Zoom meeting in, like, five minutes, but HUSBAND keeps distracting her with a new fancy Hammacher-Schlemmer doo-hickey, and now the PLAYWRIGHT is wondering "Is this logline becoming too predictable?" And "Is the working-from-home scenario even relevant and relatable any more?!" And "I haven't even mentioned the character BOB, yet, but now this...

WIFE and HUSBAND share a Home Office, and WIFE has a super important Zoom meeting in, like, five minutes, but HUSBAND keeps distracting her with a new fancy Hammacher-Schlemmer doo-hickey, and now the PLAYWRIGHT is wondering "Is this logline becoming too predictable?" And "Is the working-from-home scenario even relevant and relatable any more?!" And "I haven't even mentioned the character BOB, yet, but now this Logline is becoming a TOO-LONG-line! ARGH!!!"

The Nanny

by Laura Valpey

Synopsis

Naomi is a Single Mom by Choice - "IVF and all that." She gets anything and everything she wants, and now she needs a Nanny. Amanda, young, bohemian, bi-lingual, loves babies (and bugs), is more than perfect for the job.

A comical but ultimately dark and twisted look at the desperate measures in species proliferation.

Naomi is a Single Mom by Choice - "IVF and all that." She gets anything and everything she wants, and now she needs a Nanny. Amanda, young, bohemian, bi-lingual, loves babies (and bugs), is more than perfect for the job.

A comical but ultimately dark and twisted look at the desperate measures in species proliferation.