Laurel Ollstein

Instructor Biography:

MFA, award-winning playwright, director, and actor. Her plays produced around the country include They Promised Her the Moon, Cheese, Esther’s Moustache, Blackwell’s Corner, Insomniac, and The Dark Ages, among others. Her newest work includes PANDORA, commissioned from the Getty Villa.

Instructor Statement:

Writing can give us a sense of the world one person at a time. What I love about acting and writing is the permission it gives us to explore being in someone else’s shoes. Returning to the playfulness that was so accessible to us as children, can still be (and needs to be), accessed as artists. In my classes I try to create an atmosphere of playful chaos. That, coupled with energetic exploration and huge risk taking (with a comfortable net underneath) should provide the opportunity to write from your heart—later we’ll rewrite from the head. “A play’s like music—ephemeral, elusive, appearing, and disappearing all the time. No one ever left a Rolling Stone concert confused.”  —Sam Shepard

Our Students Say it Best!

“Ms. Ollstein is very engaging and giving with her knowledge. She also had very exciting writing exercises, and shared a lot of insights from her own professional experiences.”  — Writers’ Program Student

Instructor Website: Click here to leave our website and go to Laurel’s website.