Laura Leininger-Campbell

Laura Leininger-Campbell

Laura Leininger-Campbell is a playwright and actor. Her writing, including the plays Eminent Domain, Worms, Terminal, and her new work, Buried Phoenix, will always be a search to illuminate the intersections between our real-world struggles and the hope we conjure within ourselves to get us through. She is currently a resident playwright with Great Plains Theater Commons. Eminent Domain premiered at the Omaha...
Laura Leininger-Campbell is a playwright and actor. Her writing, including the plays Eminent Domain, Worms, Terminal, and her new work, Buried Phoenix, will always be a search to illuminate the intersections between our real-world struggles and the hope we conjure within ourselves to get us through. She is currently a resident playwright with Great Plains Theater Commons. Eminent Domain premiered at the Omaha Community Playhouse in 2017. Her plays Worms and Terminal were workshopped at the Great Plains Theater Conference in 2017 and 2019. She wrote and directed the film The Phantom of Knockmourne Hall in 2020. Literary awards include: O’Neill Playwriting Conference (Finalist, 2015), Henley Rose Playwriting Competition (Runner-up, 2022), Great Plains Theater Conference (Playlab Playwright, 2017 and 2019), and the Omaha Entertainment Awards (Best Play and Best Original Script, 2018) She has written a number of adaptations, including Bram Stoker’s The Jewel of Seven Stars; and Dangerous Beauty, based on Oscar Wilde’s novel The Picture of Dorian Gray.

Laura received her theater training from Connecticut College, the National Theater Institute, and received the Lee Strasberg Institute Scholarship, training in New York City.

Plays

  • Buried Phoenix by Laura Leininger-Campbell
    Cast: 
    6–9
    ·
    Genre: adventure, dark comedy + 2 more
    Genre: adventure, dark comedy, drama, period
    In 1994, the lives of three generations of artists intersect within New York's chaotic Millinery District when Lark, an aspiring actress, takes a job with eccentric hat designer Beatrice Price. Lark's odyssey within the dark canyons of gritty Manhattan will introduce her to a group of fierce, dynamic women that will challenge her estimations of herself, and inspire the rest of her life. "Buried...
    In 1994, the lives of three generations of artists intersect within New York's chaotic Millinery District when Lark, an aspiring actress, takes a job with eccentric hat designer Beatrice Price. Lark's odyssey within the dark canyons of gritty Manhattan will introduce her to a group of fierce, dynamic women that will challenge her estimations of herself, and inspire the rest of her life. "Buried Phoenix" illuminates a poignant journey through the eyes of five defiant women, all struggling to make their voices heard.
  • Eminent Domain (2016 O'Neill Conference Finalist) by Laura Leininger-Campbell
    Recommendations: 2
    ·
    Cast: 
    9
    ·
    Genre: drama
    Genre: drama
    When Rob MacLeod’s family farm is threatened by construction of a pipeline underneath it, the event will light a fuse, threatening to divide the family he loves. On the surface, Eminent Domain exposes the hard-fought battle between America's family farms and corporate energy. Dig a little deeper, and the greater struggle is revealed: a Heartland way of life without its next generation. Our most crucial...
    When Rob MacLeod’s family farm is threatened by construction of a pipeline underneath it, the event will light a fuse, threatening to divide the family he loves. On the surface, Eminent Domain exposes the hard-fought battle between America's family farms and corporate energy. Dig a little deeper, and the greater struggle is revealed: a Heartland way of life without its next generation. Our most crucial resource is not the land—it is our kin, our clan, and our heritage.
  • Worms by Laura Leininger-Campbell
    Cast: 
    8
    ·
    Genre: dark comedy, drama + 2 more
    Genre: dark comedy, drama, political, satire
    "Worms" is a harrowing tale told "sometime down the road."

    As an incredible blizzard bears down upon the patrons of the Nightcrawler Tavern, one of them bursts into the bar with news of attempted murder, and far worse events to come. In the smallest town in the very center of a new America, "Worms" is a tale of reckoning, redemption, and revelation.
  • Terminal by Laura Leininger-Campbell
    Cast: 
    8
    ·
    Genre: comedy
    Genre: comedy
    Flight 537 to Springfield is experiencing delays, and the passengers waiting in Gate 23 are experiencing each other. Will their humanity outlast the mechanism of modern-day air travel?

    Leininger-Campbell's hilarious satire explores the frustrations and discoveries of a group of hapless travelers trapped in a midwest airport gate. A timely piece, for this particular piece of time.
  • The Jewel of Seven Stars by Laura Leininger-Campbell
    Cast: 
    7
    ·
    Genre: adaptation
    Genre: adaptation
    Bram Stoker's groundbreaking novel introduces the world to The Mummy. This Victorian thriller provided the basis for countless films and novels that were to follow. The era's fascination with egyptology, the occult, and women's empowerment provide an eerie backdrop to the mystery of an ancient corpse, and the folly of the men who intend to raise it back to life.