Laurel Ollstein is a playwright, writer, director and educator whose plays most recently have been produced at The Old Globe and TheatreWorks Silicon Valley. Other plays produced across the county include They Promised Her the Moon; Laughter, Hope and a Sock in the Eye; CHEESE; Esther’s Moustache; Unhappily Married in Valencia; OPA! the Musical; Dorothy Parker Is in the Bath; Blackwell’s Corner; The Dark Ages; Bias Cut; and Showing Our Age. She is also currently writing the second season of a podcast radio drama for New Conservatory Theatre Center in San Francisco
Laurel has been commissioned to write new works by The Getty Villa, About…Productions, Virginia Avenue Project, New Jersey Repertory Company, Playwrights’ Arena, and Clark Library, and she has developed plays with TheatreWorks Silicon Valley, The Actors’ Gang, Cornerstone Theater Company, Ensemble Studio Theatre, Skylight Music Theatre, The Road Theatre Company, The Barrow Group, Miranda Theatre Company, and Playwrights’ Center among others. Several of her television and film projects have been optioned for development.
Her awards include grants from the National Endowment for the Arts and California Arts Council, as well as Ovation, Garland, and LA Weekly Theater Awards. She wrote the first draft of They Promised Her the Moon at The University of Oklahoma, where she was a Faith Broome Playwright-in-Residence. They Promised Her the Moon is also recipient of a 2018 Social Impact Theatre Grant from The Sheri and Les Biller Family Foundation.
Laurel also directs playwriting programs, provides writing and arts education in schools and for mature adults, and creates plays on social justice themes. She serves as adjunct faculty at California Institute of the Arts, UCLA, Loyola Marymount University, University of Redlands, and Otis College of Art and Design.
Ollstein holds an MFA in playwriting from the School of Theater, Film and Television at UCLA.
An artist with range has tastes to match
Playwright Laurel Ollstein is a bit of a cliche in this town: Actress-writer-director. But she’s the real deal. As a member of the Hollywood ensemble company the Actors’ Gang, she has worked as an actress and playwright in many collaborative pieces, including “Hysteria,” “Blood Love Madness” and “Insomniac.” Her award-winning one-woman play on writer Dorothy Parker was produced across the country and she currently teaches playwriting, acting, directing and screenwriting. Her next role is that of writer and co-director of “Showing Our Age,” a play exploring the myths and realities of aging and based on material she gathered through interviews at 40 senior centers.
Liesl Bradner, Los Angeles Times
Laurel has ongoing involvement in the artistic and educational programs of the Virginia Avenue Project, About Productions, Cornerstone Theatre, Ghost Road Theatre, Ensemble Theatre Los Angeles and Playwrights’ Arena.
Ollstein also creates her own devised theatre, community-engaged work that is ensemble-driven and documentary theatre. She has initiated and received funding for projects including an extensive, ongoing project with senior citizens of Los Angeles, garment industry workers, students in Los Angeles Unified School District, holocaust survivors partnered with university theatre students and professional playwrights and more.
Her essays and memoir pieces have been published by The Middle English Literary Group, the Sea Oats Review, Tiny Lights and Fresh Yarn.