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Laura Sturm is a graduate of Northern Illinois University’s MFA Theatre Arts program and has been working as an actor in Chicago for 20+ years with a variety of theatres including New Colony, Mary-Arrchie, Signal, Remy Bumppo, Stage Left, Boho, Raven, Promethean, Accidental Shakespeare, Polarity, Bluebird Arts, Northlight, Victory Gardens, and Bailiwick, as well as a summer spent with the Texas Shakespeare Festival.  Laura has a vast array of experience, from classical (Gertrude, Imogen, Titania, Clytemnestra, Mrs. Hardcastle) to American classics (Blanche Dubois, TIME OF YOUR LIFE) to contemporary works, some brand new, and even the occasional musical.  

Click HERE to download Laura’s theater resume

HIGHLIGHTS

STUPID FUCKING BIRD - Emma

By Aaron Posner, Fall 2023, with Bluebird Arts (Jeff and Reader Recommended)

An aspiring young director rampages against the art created by his mother’s generation. A nubile young actress wrestles with an aging Hollywood star for the affections of a renowned novelist. And everyone discovers just how disappointing love, art, and growing up can be. In this irreverent, contemporary, and very funny remix of Chekhov’s The Seagull, Aaron Posner stages a timeless battle between young and old, past and present, in search of the true meaning of it all. Stupid F#@*ing Bird will tickle, tantalize, and incite you to consider how art, love, and revolution fuel your own pursuit of happiness.

“Laura Sturm is excellent as the belittling, stagey mom. She's impossible not to like, as long as you can allow her Emma to get the biggest hand at the end.” Talkin’ Broadway, Richard Green

“Cleverly and intricately staged, the cast adds the necessary warmth and humanity that comes from revealing their own flaws. Sturm’s Emma tries to protect her own ego by assuming her art is superior to her grown child’s. Yet she crumbles when he lashes out and accuses her of not loving him. It’s a heartbreaking, timeless rivalry. Later, she begs her lover to stay with her—an experienced woman who can truly understand her man’s genius, unlike the young woman he wants to leave her for—in a convincing tango that nearly steals the show.” the Reader, Kimzyn Campbell

THE MEMO - TALAURA

By Václav Havel, Summer 2019 - Organic Theater Company

This Orwellian farce about language, bureaucracies, and surveillance takes place at the surprisingly real and relevant intersection of Monty Python, The Office, and 1984. THE MEMO follows Gross, the harassed managing director who unwittingly authorizes an experiment that will introduce an incomprehensible artificial language in an absurd attempt to increase efficiency. Playwright Václav Havel explores the self-deluding rationalizations and moral compromises that characterize life under a totalitarian political system, or everyday office life…

“Organic Theater Company director Brian Wakefield and his talented team of actors must have had a wonderful time working with Czech playwright Vaclav Havel’s The Memo … Actors move in stylized, synchronized ways, and the lack of humanity in the vision before us speaks volumes: it is as if they are all cogs in a great machine … The employees of the Translation Department are played hilariously by Kate Black-Spence, Laura Sturm, and Schanora Wimpie.” Chicago OnStage - Karen Topham

“The outstanding cast assembled by Nik Whitcomb does a superb job of managing the difficult dialogue and absurd situations with an air of normalcy necessary to pull off this complex ruse.” Chicago Theater and Arts.com & ChicagoBroadcastingNetwork.com - Reno Lovison

FUN HARMLESS WARMACHINE - CAROLINE/HARRIS/SWORDBROTHER

By Fin Coe, Fall 2018 - The New Colony (currently known as the New Coordinates)

By day, Tom works a dead end job for the man and can’t get a date. But by night, he’s top of the leader board, a master gamer. Othered and lonely, Tom is sucked into the Order of the Sword, an online community that seems to promise him his digital persona in real life. Developed through The New Colony’s Writers’ Room and inspired by Gamergate and online hate movements, FUN HARMLESS WARMACHINE is a cautionary tale of the power of fear and the seductive pull of the alt right.

“All of the female players in Fun Harmless Warmachine are strong performers, and give a show that’s so full of other confused worlds a sense of groundedness… The comic relief of this dark techno-thriller comes primarily however from Laura Sturm. In one hilarious moment, she plays an avatar of a gamer that has barely played before, and fumbles around the stage moving in circles and shooting into the air… These actresses hold the course.“ Picture This Post, Nate Hall

“Despite the play’s uncomfortable subject matter, the talented ensemble, under the direction of James Fleming, keep things on track… The cast takes on multiple roles, from fellow members of the Order to Tom’s friends and family to members of the gaming media.” PerformInk, Conor McShane (Critic’s Pick)

“It is Bakari and Marso (and to a lesser extent Sturm as Tom’s mother and a police officer out to avenge these women) who have to provide the emotional backbone of the play.” ChicagoOnStage.com, Karen Topham

THE REVOLUTIONISTS - mARIE ANTOINETTE

By Lauren Gunderson, Summer 2018 - Organic Theater Company

THE REVOLUTIONISTS, a fast-paced, comedic quartet by 2017’s most produced playwright, follows four very real women who lived boldly in France during the French Revolution’s Reign of Terror. Former queen Marie Antoinette, playwright Olympe de Gouges, assassin Charlotte Corday, and Haitian rebel Marianne Angelle collide in this true story, total fiction, and play about a play. A passionate and decisive call to action through the true (and sometimes not) stories of these four extraordinary women. Company member Bryan Wakefield directs the Chicago premiere of Lauren Gunderson’s thrilling new play.

"Sturm is a hoot as Antoinette, making the queen’s privilege both careless and understandable at the same time." Theatre By Numbers, Sarah Bowden

"Laura Sturm plays a delightfully insipid and spoiled Marie Antoinette" ... “the first act earns a long run of both silly and sophisticated self-referential legitimate belly laughs that would make many a comedian envious.” Juxtaposed with “honest, thoughtful moments of anger, passion and compassion—that wring real tears and pathos from the four extraordinarily capable actors in the third act.” Performink, Sheri Flanders

"It is when Let-them-eat-cake coquette Marie Antoinette (Laura Sturm ) arrives and builds rapport with these three revolutionary oriented women, that we realize we have slipped into a LOL theater of the absurd.   This is one heckuva fun production! ... Gunderson’s script is enlivened by the palpable chemistry between these four actresses.   This writer especially found Sturm’s Marie Antoinette a hoot, and worries a bit that it will be nearly impossible to see her future performances without the lens of this Marie Antoinette stand up comedy style." Picture This Post, Amy Munice

"Bryan Wakefield embraces the challenge of [the play']s verbal choreography, as does the exemplary cast assembled for this Organic Theater Company production. Taylor Raye's bemused Marianne and Sara Copeland's peppery Charlotte anchor a dialogue propelled by Laura Sturm's revisionable Marie and Stephanie Sullivan's cautious Olympe.” – Windy City Times, Mary Shen Barnidge

"All four actresses are so perfect; if I had to pick a favorite, it would be the Narcissistic Queen Marie Antoinette played by Laura Sturm. She was so funny in her “It’s all about ME” mode… But there is a vulnerable side to her as well" CHI IL LIVE, Catherine Hellmann

TIRESIAS WAS A WEATHERMAN - JOYCE

by Jaime Mire, Summer 2018, Organic Theater Company

TIRESIAS WAS A WEATHERMAN is a world premiere comedy about serious stuff. In this kinda-sorta adaptation of Sophocles’ classic ANTIGONE, playwright Jaime Mire imagines a world, parallel to our own, where human emotions have a direct connection to the weather. These events occasionally result in immediate and disastrous meteorological events. How far are we willing to go to stay dry? Grab your umbrellas for this off-beat and touching comedy about family, mental health, and the weather. Directed by company member Josh Anderson. 

“The actors in this cast present grounded performances steeped in strong character work and in many instances, the scenes reflect remarkable similarities to the present day.”  PICTURE THIS POST – Marla Seidell

The actors “do a commendable job. I was especially impressed with three actresses who are also in The Revolutionists. Sara Copland, Laura Sturm, and Taylor Raye appear in both productions, which is admirable … 'How do they do that?' " CHI IL LIVE, Catherine Hellmann

THE MADWOMAN OF CHAILLOT - CONSTANCE

by Jean Giraudoux, Winter 2018, Promethean Theatre Ensemble

The Madwoman of Chaillot reveals a plot by a group of corrupt business executives who are planning to dig up the streets of Paris so they can pump oil that they believe lies beneath. Their plot is challenged by the titular “Madwoman,” the eccentric Countess Aurelia, an idealist who resolves to fight back and rescue humanity from the scheming and corrupt developers with the help of her fellow outcasts and her fellow madwomen. Originally written to protest thoughtless urban renewal, The Madwoman of Chaillot has remained remarkably up-to-date. Today, the play speaks to environmental concerns, the destruction of the natural world, and the manipulation of world financial markets.

"The 12-person ensemble teem with tomfoolery, including rival madwoman Laura Sturm with her conveniently invisible dog and Brian Hurst playing ideological opposites" CHICAGO THEATER REVIEW, Laurence Bommer

"[The Countess'] two “madwomen” friends Jamie Bragg and Laura Strum (sic) ... share a glorious scene midway through the play ... the actors delight" CHICAGO ON STAGE, Karen Topham

Émilie - la marquise du Châtelet defends her life tonight - ÉMILIE

by Lauren Gunderson, Summer 2017, Organic Theater Company

Passionate. Brilliant. Defiant.

Émilie Du Châtelet was a brilliant 18th century philosopher, mathematician and physicist (not to mention lover to Voltaire), who published many works, not the least of which includes a translation of Isaac Newton’s Principia, in which she made an incredible contribution to Newton’s inimitable Laws of Energy.

In this lively and imaginative play by award-winning playwright Lauren Gunderson (Miss Bennet, Silent Sky), 18th century scientific genius Émilie du Châtelet awakes from death to answer the questions she died with. What takes precedent? Love or philosophy? Head or heart? In a world shrouded in chauvinism, with dilemmas from her past sitting beyond her reach, Émilie seeks answers to the big questions. And as she brilliantly added to Newton’s understanding of the universe after his death, so she enlightens and enlivens our universe after hers.

"Strong performances (especially by Laura Sturm as Emilie)" the READER, Tony Adler

"Organic Theater Company has splendid actors and does not disappoint in execution—Sturm is a forceful Emilie" NEW CITY, Irene Hsiao

KING UBU

by Alfred Jarry, Summer 2017, Organic Theater Company

King Ubu by Alfred Jarry, is a parody of Shakespeare’s Macbeth, with bits of Hamlet and King Lear tossed in the mix. An outrageous farce, King Ubu examines the monstrous personality of Papa Ubu, a gluttonous and brutal creature who murders the royal family of an immaterial Poland in order to ascend to the throne.

One hundred twenty years later, the text displays similarities between Jarry’s characters and some of the current political scene’s more famous personalities too difficult to ignore. As Jarry intended, no one is unscathed.

"What “Ubu” has going for it is a fountain of ingenuity and a wildly dexterous cast" THEATER BY NUMBERS, Sean Margaret Wagner

"The eight-person cast display impressive physical and vocal technique in their slapstick clowning and sexual posturing" the READER, Albert Williams

"The moment-to-moment exchanges are absurdly funny and come about so unexpectedly that it’s impossible to relay them adequately ... everyone really gets their moment to shine in this lively, strange world" CHICAGO CRITIC, August Lysy

A STREETCAR NAMED DESIRE - BLANCHE

Fall 2009, Polarity Ensemble Theatre

“In Laura Sturm's magnificent, quietly sensual account, Blanche is a lady through and through whose acquaintance we as an audience are extremely glad to make … But this production ultimately is an opportunity to watch a true star performance from Laura Sturm as Blanche. This intelligent and lovely actress resists most of the chances to chew the scenery, as she yearns for beauty in an extremely ugly world. Sturm is mesmerizing.” But this production ultimately is an opportunity to watch a true star performance from Laura Sturm as Blanche.  This intelligent and lovely actress resists most of the chances to chew the scenery, as she yearns for beauty in an extremely ugly world.  Sturm is mesmerizing.” STEADSTYLE CHICAGO, Joe Stead

“As Blanche DuBois, Laura Sturm simultaneously shatters and fades, selling both camp madness and brutalized delicacy with the same aplomb. Refusing the invitation to overact Blanche’s lush, pathetically poetic language, Sturm instead handles it with a deft touch.” TIME OUT CHICAGO, Melissa Albert