Laura James
Actress / Teacher / Director
About
Laura James has been in the theatrical media for over 35 years as an actress, teacher and director. She has enjoyed an international acting career that encompasses TV, film and theatre, which has included Italy, England, Hong Kong and East Africa, as well as major cities in the U.S. Some of her films include Raging Bull with Robert DeNiro, Losin’ It with Tom Cruise and And the Band Played On for HBO. She has worked extensively on network TV, in soaps and episodics. Among her numerous varied stage credits: Co-starred with Marion Ross at the Old Globe Theatre in San Diego in Over the River, Escalus in Measure for Measure at the Brick Box Theatre, Hollywood. Co-starred, American premiere of the German play, “Irma and Emma” at the Met theatre. Co-starred with Carmen Zapata in “Orinoco”. She directed “The Skin of Our Teeth” at Idyllwild Conservatory, “Quartet” and “Dinner with Friends” at Theatre 40 and currently directs/teaches at the American Academy of Dramatic Arts. She taught film students at Columbia College Hollywood. Created and directed ensemble projects,"Out of Your Head" and “Inside Out - or Your Roots are Showing”, at Theatre West. Created two one-woman portraits at TW: “Virginia Woolf, In Her Own Words”, Simone DeBeauvoir’s, “Monologue”. She teaches and directs at the LA SAG Conservatory, as well as coaches actors privately. Training: Lee Strasberg, Commedia del’arte with Georges Bigot of famed Paris company, ‘Le Theatre du Soleil”; Grotowski w Miguel Ponce of Argentina; Shakespeare and Company in Maine. Recently starred in, with The Zoo District the Murray Mednick premiere, “Destruction of the 4th World”. Her one-woman Gertrude Stein adaptation, Ms Furr and Ms Skeene, chosen as a finalist in the 2009 L.A. Women’s Festival, played at the John Anson Ford theatre, and again reprised for W Hollywood Gay Pride Week. She performed most recently, in the hit comedy, “Moose on the Loose” at Theatre West and directed PETRIFIED FOREST, which is currently running through April 27th, 2014 at Theatre West.