Laurel Ollstein

Laurel Ollstein is an award-winning playwright based in Los Angeles. This year, Ms. Ollstein’s They Promised Her the Moon premiered Off Broadway at Theatre at St. Clement’s in a production by Miranda Theatre Company. She began her career as an actress before becoming a writer. Her one-woman show Laughter, Hope and a Sock in the Eye had successful engagements at three theatres in Minneapolis and toured New York City, Baltimore, and Los Angeles, winning awards and “critic’s choice” from LA Weekly and Los Angeles Reader. Returning to California, she became a founding member of Tim Robbins’ The Actors’ Gang. Her plays include Insomniac, Storage Room, Pot Roast, Cheese, OPA! The Musical, Dorothy Parker in the Bath, Blackwell’s Corner, Esther’s Moustache, The Dark Ages, andBias Cut. She also directs playwriting programs serving mature adults and teens, provides writing and arts education in schools, and creates plays on social justice themes. One result of this work is Showing Our Age, a play with music about aging produced at [Inside] The Ford. Ms. Ollstein also writes essays, memoirs, screenplays, and television. Her honors include the Marty Klein Comedy Writing Award, Kenneth McGowan Award in Playwriting, White Buffalo Mask Award, and UCLA Playwriting Recruitment Scholarship. Ms. Ollstein holds an M.F.A. in Playwriting from UCLA.