9 years University and College teaching experience, with extremely positive feedback from students and colleagues

Over 20 years experience teaching/coaching working actors at two of Chicago’s top acting studios and privately

Specializations in Acting - (Stanislavski/Hagen/Shurtleff/Chekhov, Meisner, Audition Techniques) and Movement for Actors (Laban/Bartenieff, Williamson, Period Style, Viewpoints, Lessac) and Intimacy

Trained in and teaching in theatrical intimacy practice and methods, as well as consent-based practices (TIE, IDC), Mental Health First Aid Certified, Intimacy Professional in Chicago/Milwaukee

Demonstrated ability to work effectively with a diverse student body in Chicago with student-centered classrooms, consistent focus on DEI and consent-based practices

Completed Level 2 of Teacher Certification training to teach Michael Chekhov at GLMCC in June 2023, expected certification June 2024.

Consistently working, respected professional actor/director/coach in Chicago for over 20 years, Milwaukee for last 5 years

Trusted, organized director/coach; greatest strengths include assisting actors to fully comprehend and utilize text, finding a variety of verbs/actions to keep their work active, and keeping them honest and believable in the moment even when working with style or heightened language

Highly creative, passionate, energetic theatre artist balanced with strong organizational and business skills

Significant remote/online teaching skills – ability to successfully engage students even when not physically present

Proven ability to adapt to existing teaching curriculum/method or alternatively, create new classes from scratch

Strong communication skills, both written and verbal, successful problem-solver, engaging, adaptive

Significant experience developing analytical, budgeting, organizational, communication and management skills

Laura Sturm has taught acting and voice/movement for actors since 2001 at various studios in Chicago including Act One Studios, The Actors’ Center and The Acting Tank and privately at the Dance Chicago Studios at the Athenaeum Theatre. She is an Adjunct Faculty member at Columbia College Chicago (CCC) and has also taught at Northern Illinois University, North Central College, Governors State University and Oakton Community College. Laura specializes in the Meisner Technique of Acting, but also teaches non-Meisner classes such as Scene Study, Character & Ensemble, Scene Analysis and Audition Skills. Her voice/movement work is primarily based on the work of Williamson/Laban/Lessac, and she also teaches Period Styles, which incorporates text work on heightened language with movement from other time periods. She completed Level 2 of Teacher Certification training to teach Michael Chekhov at GLMCC in June 2023 and has been incorporating Chekhov work into her acting and movement classes. Laura also teaches Intimacy classes at CCC.

Laura has been performing professionally in the Chicago area since 1994, and has worked with such theatres as Organic, Raven, Mary-Arrchie, Bluebird Arts, Remy Bumppo, Victory Gardens, Boho, Stage Left, Northlight, Fox Valley Rep, Signal Ensemble, Bailiwick, Provision and the Texas Shakespeare Festival. Directing credits include the Jeff Recommended Organic Theater production of Sarah Ruhl’s MELANCHOLY PLAY, the musical I LOVE YOU, YOU’RE PERFECT, NOW CHANGE with Quest Ensemble Theatre, the world premiere of Chicago playwright Barbara Lhota's PHANTOM PAIN (also with Organic Theater), the dark, original sci-fi comedy EPHEMERA, Sheridan’s 18th century comedy of manners, THE RIVALS, and the original zoo musical, TUXEDO LOVE. In 2002, Laura received her MFA in Theatre from Northern Illinois University. She also serves as a private acting and movement coach for professionals of all levels in Chicago and Milwaukee. For the past couple of years, Laura has served as an Intimacy Professional working with theatres in Chicago and Milwaukee.

Sanford Meisner* stated that acting is “emotional truth under imaginary circumstances.” Meisner’s work has its roots in Stanislavski’s* teachings, as does my own and what I pass on to students. Whether or not I am specifically teaching the Meisner technique, I believe that statement should always be the core of the beginning section of acting training.

*See my DEIA statement below for ways I have sought to decolonize my teaching where possible, despite the white/ European patriarchy of these instructors.

These are my priorities for acting training:

Emotional Truth – This is the honest expression of emotion, a complete connection with the other person or persons, and impulsive, organic behavior that is responsive to the moment. I strongly believe this to be the most basic and essential element of acting; without it a performance is not believable, and the audience becomes disenchanted.

Imaginary Circumstances – The playwright gives us the building blocks of a character’s imaginary circumstances, and then it is up to the actor to fill in the rest. Some training methods require an actor to create a “back story.” I have found this to be only helpful to the extent that the actor creates specific, imaginary events that potently affect them. The creation of those specific, potent, imaginary moments enables the actor to honestly access their emotions in a scene or in preparation for a scene. Since the events are imaginary, the actor does not have to rehash their own personal traumas, which can be damaging. Also, the events are directly related to the other person in the scene, thus keeping the actor’s attention on their partner, instead of on their own emotions and thoughts, a frequent bad habit of actors. Additionally, I have found the practice of creating these potent specifics to be a wonderful stimulus to the actor’s creativity.

Once a student has mastered the important basics of that emotional truth under imaginary circumstances, the second piece of the training is specificity. Honest, in-the-moment behavior is crucial, but an actor’s training is unfinished until they are able to utilize the text specifically so that they can best serve the play and the production.

Specificity – Using the vocabulary of Stanislavski, specificity is, at its simplest, actions and objectives. I like to translate those technical words into something that the actor’s creative imagination can easily grasp onto and enjoy creating.

Objective – “What do I want?” Or, “What am I fighting for?” in the words of Michael Shurtleff. I like to encourage the actor to look further than just plot objectives (i.e., “I want him to give me a raise”) and to formulate an objective which is about their partner. “What is wrong with this person in this scene? In what way are they behaving that I don’t like?” (Answer: “I want them to stop treating me like a child.” Adjust that to a positive statement: “I want them to treat me like an adult.”) Answering those questions helps the actor have a reason to stay connected to their partner to see if they are achieving their objective or not within a scene.

Actions – I also like to use the words ‘tactics’ or ‘verbs.’ “What do I do to get what I want?” Emphasizing how in life we use a variety of devices to get what we want helps students to see that a character will do the same thing in a scene. The use of different actions or tactics is what keeps their acting from becoming one-note and adds variety and interest to a performance.

The final piece, and I believe the most challenging, is the combination of the two parts: keeping the honest, moment to moment, impulsive behavior and combining it with the specificity of actions that the actor crafts into a scene, script or monologue. It is challenging, but absolutely vital. Truthful behavior can only keep our attention for a little while if it doesn’t vary or serve the needs of the play. Alternatively, an actor can know exactly what, why and how they will say every line, yet, we, the audience, are not affected because it is not completely believable or urgent. I believe that the only way to master this final piece of acting training is to practice, practice, practice this combination of acting elements in scene study and performance settings.

I am trained specifically to teach the Meisner Technique (which utilizes Stanislavski principles to achieve specificity, as I have noted above), however, I have also taught many other classes in which I utilized other methods (Viewpoints, Michael Chekhov, Improvisation or Laban Efforts) to obtain these same goals. I have been quite successful in tailoring each class to fit the requirements of the school and the students, while still managing to be ultimately teaching what I feel to be the most important objectives for the actor.

The movement classes which I have taught have mostly been focused on the principles of Williamson* Technique and Rudolf Laban’s* teachings. Utilizing these principles, I have worked with actors for the past twenty plus years to help them free up their bodies and relearn how to play and move impulsively and instinctively. Once an actor develops these skills, their acting work changes radically. They become more responsive, risk-taking, and much less self-conscious, which takes their acting to a whole new level. I have been adding pieces of the Michael Chekhov work to my movement and acting training since I’ve been studying with GLMCC.

*See my DEIA statement below for ways I have sought to decolonize my teaching where possible, despite the white/ European patriarchy of these instructors.

Loyd Williamson developed his technique to complement the Meisner Acting Technique being taught at The Neighborhood Playhouse in New York City. His technique teaches students how to release tensions in their body and trains them to respond organically and impulsively from the core of their body to stimuli in the moment. It integrates extraordinarily well into any level of acting training and helps actors to free their bodies from the tensions that block or minimize their honest emotional responses. It also assists the actor in developing confidence and freedom in their body and in making strong physical choices.

In particular, I utilize Rudolf Laban’s Dimensional and Effort work to add specificity to the actors’ movement play. They start to learn how a very specific choice of a Dimension or Effort can change a character, both physically and emotionally. I also train them how to apply this kind of specificity to moments in a piece. The Effort work particularly combines brilliantly with Stanislavski’s actions and objectives. The shifts from one Dimension or Effort to another in a scene or monologue help to create a performance that is rich with variety and interesting choices.

The first level of this work, which I call “Basic Movement,” focuses on releasing tensions and inhibitions, utilizing Williamson’s concept of “shape/flow” with elements of sensorial imagination work to music and Laban’s Dimensions - Top/Bottom of Vertical, Horizontal, and Front/Back Sagittal. We also use the Dimensions to physically create, sharpen and define characters. One of my favorite parts of the Williamson work, and one of the things students connect to the most, is the idea and repetition of the phrase “NO APOLOGIES.” This helps them commit more fully to their play, learning not to worry about what anyone might think. It also starts to give them agency as well, which is so lovely to see.

The second level that I have been teaching is what I have called “Advanced Movement,” or “Laban Movement,” but it is basically an introduction to the Laban Efforts and then instruction on how to apply them to text in order to increase specificity and variety in the acting work. Ultimately, the first level teaches the actor to take their brain out of the work, and to work freely and impulsively, and the second level puts the brain back in a little – or at least in the preparation for the work. The combination of the two produces actors that are physically bold, open, responsive, and yet still specific! Depending on the amount of time and number of students in a class, the two levels can be combined, as I have been doing in my private Chicago class and in some of my college classes as well.

My Period Style Scene Study class focuses primarily on the Restoration/Georgian and Victorian/Edwardian periods, as they are the most frequently produced and farthest from our modern style of movement. This class could also include Elizabethan and potentially even Early American Classic (Williams, Wilson, Miller, Hansberry, etc.). In my Period Style class, not only do I teach the students how to move as people did in those time periods, but why they moved the way they did. Understanding the why and the ins and outs of those societies makes it much easier to translate the movement into organic, honest work. That is my goal with Period Style – to have the actors moving in a style quite unlike their own, but to be able to inhabit it honestly and truthfully. We take this and apply it to scene work from the appropriate period. It is advanced acting, but extremely valuable if one is going to work well and truthfully in these time periods. The next time I teach this class I plan on utilizing the idea of “Queering the Canon” in which I teach the movements for these specific periods as stated, but use only texts from female, LQBTQ+, or Global Majority playwrights for the students to practice. I’m currently collecting a database of these texts, some from those periods, or some modern plays that are written about those periods. I’m excited to de-colonize this class!

When the body is constrained, the voice cannot work the way it should. I find the freedom and “NO APOLOGIES” that students develop from the Williamson movement work helps the breath and voice work immensely. I am also inspired by Kristin Linklater’s work on freeing the actor’s authentic voice using physical exercises, connection to the breath, and the imagination and find that it weaves in very easily with the movement work that I teach. Additionally, I find that using Arthur Lessac’s exercises of playing the “orchestra” of consonants helps enunciation, as well as adds variety and specificity in students’ work. I use Lessac’s Y-buzz to help students get their voices forward and better placed, out of the back of the throat, and work with them to play the “music” of the vowels. Lessac’s exercises are great in helping to develop a strong awareness of how to play with sounds in order to make a point with the text, as well as an understanding of how the voice should feel when it’s being produced properly.

Ultimately …

In order for actors to reach their full capacity, I believe that the successful combination of acting, movement and voice training is vital. The movement and vocal training helps to make actors more at ease and authentic in their bodies and their voices, thus rendering it easier for them to attain the “emotional truth under imaginary circumstances” for which I strive; this kind of work is simple, connected, responsive, unstrained, and ultimately, extremely compelling.

I would be happy to and am qualified to teach all the components of this comprehensive training, yet I would also be content teaching one or two pieces of it. I am quite capable of stepping in to teach an existing class, once I was familiar with the basic fundamentals of it, or bring in my own classes, based on what I have taught and learned over the years.

Having studied consent-based, trauma-informed, anti-racist and intimacy practices for the last few years, I have endeavored to put these at the forefront of my teaching. My goal is to create students who go out into the world as well-trained professionals, but with no apologies for defining their boundaries and asking for what they need. Some of these actors will go on to leadership positions in the industry, but will do so knowing they need to put the mental and physical well-being of human beings: actors, crew, staff, and even their audiences, as the highest priority. We can make theatre better and this generation of young artists is the way we can do that.

In my own career, I was taught in many different ways and managed to learn something from all of them. However, one of the things I learned along the way was that there were certain ways that I would NOT be teaching. I believe in teaching from a place of compassion and empathy. My style of teaching is enthusiastic and very supportive. I do not “tear students down to build them back up” in the way that many of us who are teaching now were taught. That does not mean that I do not push. I constantly push my students forward, commending what they have done and asking for more. I do not hold back from criticizing work that can be improved, but I like to round my criticism with compliments on things that they do well, and specific potential solutions for problems. This prevents students from being terrorized to fail in a class or on an assignment, which I believe keeps them from really taking artistic risks. I make it very clear that I recognize that actors absolutely MUST make mistakes in order to learn and improve, and that I will not “punish” them for those mistakes but will support and assist them to take the risks that will make them dynamic artists and hone their craft.

One of the reasons I love teaching is creating student-teacher relationships, many of which grow into mentorships. I let my students know that I am more than happy to work with them outside of class at any time that I am available. I don’t have a problem with taking an hour to coach a student on a monologue or scene with which they are struggling, even if I am not teaching them that semester. As a matter of fact, I inform them that they get free coaching as long as they’re at school, but when they graduate, they have to pay for it, so they should enjoy it while they can! With several of the students who have taken advantage of this opportunity, I have developed lovely professional relationships where they feel free to ask me for advice, coaching and more for many years.

Between the pandemic and the racial and political struggles our country was (and is still) undergoing, it has been incredibly difficult and stressful for all of us, but especially marginalized communities. That being said, I believe some good has come out of the racial tensions that erupted in 2020 and the soul-searching that those and the pandemic forced on many of us. Many organizations – universities, corporations, theatre companies and more are finally becoming aware of and acknowledging the systemic racism inherent in their structure. This has led to a much stronger push to center DEIA in each of these organizations, especially universities and the theatre community. WSYWAT provides some very actionable steps to start the process of dismantling this systemic racism. The work takes a lot of effort, but if we can emerge from this period into a world where true equality of all people is the norm instead, the effort will be worth every bit of sweat, stress, discomfort and time spent to create an environment that is as safe as possible for all, with special attention to people of the Global Majority and LGBTQ+ folx.

Here are some specific action steps that I have taken in my classrooms as a result of the DEIA training and discussions I have been fortunate to be a part of in the last two years:

 My expertise, and why I have been hired to teach, is in acting and movement techniques and exercises created by Stanislavski, Laban, Williamson, and Meisner, who happen to represent the white European/American patriarchy. However, I no longer require the students to purchase, or even read full texts written by these white patriarchs. I acknowledge their original creation of the ideas and techniques, then I acknowledge their white male privilege. I don’t speak excessively of them in the classroom, once I have given credit for their ideas that I am teaching. I tell my students that I only teach the parts of what I learned from their work that I still use in my own professional acting career. I have created worksheets and exercises to teach the most important ideas based on the way I use them.

 No more assigning monologues – students now get to choose. I share a document with students that has an enormous quantity of monologues, which includes playwrights and characters from diverse backgrounds in terms of race/gender/sexual orientation from which they can choose. I tell them they don’t have to choose a playwright or a character who defines themselves the same way that they do, but in case they want to, or in case they want to look at specific playwrights, or a specific type of character, that information is given. This also exposes them to a greater variety of playwrights, many from previously marginalized communities.

 I do still assign scenes, but I have started giving students agency in the type of scene they will be assigned. I ask them which types of characters they are interested in playing, and which ones they are not interested in playing. I allow them to indicate if they actively want to be in a scene about race/gender/ sexual orientation, or if they prefer NOT to be in a scene about those things, recognizing that some of them don’t want to rehash the trauma of their daily lives in an acting class. I am learning with each class and continue to evolve this process, based on the responses of the students. I also work very hard to assign scenes by more female, BIPOC and LGBTQ+ playwrights where possible.

 Open each class by checking in with how students are doing. We do thumbs up/down, sometimes a word of how they’re feeling, and then I ask each of them to share what X they are feeling today (X being some type of object) We start simply, with what color, and then move into what animal, what sound, what TV show, etc. Then I open up the space to invite students to share something they need to get off their chests, or something that is exciting to them. At certain times, this has led to students, especially BIPOC and LGBTQ+ students, having the opportunity to vent about frustrating conditions in their lives or in school. No one is required to comment, but I make it clear that it’s a “safe” space for anything. I also acknowledge that “safe” can be a privileged term, that safety is relative, and that there are some folx that may always feel somewhat unsafe.

 Introduce TIE (Theatrical Intimacy Education)’s terms of “Button,” “Boundaries” and “Fences,” and also “Ouch/Oops/OK” (Chicago Theatre Standards) to give them words to speak up to me or other students when their boundaries have been crossed, and also giving them permission to communicate those boundaries, making it clear that will not affect their grade. “Your boundaries are perfect exactly where they are” is something that I say almost daily, so that they truly believe that I mean it.

 I have the students sit or stand in a circle that I am a part of, instead of me standing in front of them.

 Maintain a dialogue with everyone, and to do that, I frequently will call on each member of the class to answer a question, to ensure everyone’s participation, where possible. I recognize that some students aren’t as vocal as others.

 Minimize “lecture” time – I rarely do this for more than a few minutes at a time now. I’ll introduce a concept, then ask students to comment/ask questions about it. Then we do exercises so they learn the concepts in their bodies. As we continue through class, I’ll ask them to continually tell me the concepts as we see them demonstrated. The embodied learning helps them retain the concepts better.

 Listen when students make suggestions for classes, and execute some of these suggestions, if time allows and they are consistent with class objectives.

 Sometimes answer questions with “I don’t know – what do you think?” I make it clear that I learn from them as well.

 Tell students stories of my own acting mistakes and how I fixed them – allowing them to see me as human, and a reminder that no one is perfect and we are constantly learning even after many years in the business.

 Remind them of their own wonderful uniqueness consistently, ask them to repeat with me, “I HAVE NO APOLOGIES!”

  Include the following statements in my syllabi: DEI statement, Land Acknowledgement, Acknowledgement Of Black Labor, and Gender Inclusivity And Non-Discrimination In The Classroom. I also include links to resources for those who may have financial issues: emergency fund, thrift store, and food pantry on campus.

 Always include my pronouns on the syllabus, my Zoom name, and ask for everyone’s pronouns on first day if they want to share them

 Address my own positionality – I openly acknowledge that a teacher is unavoidably in a position of power, and my own white privilege, but I also share my queerness and that I have dealt with anxiety as a mental health issue, which is something that we don’t talk about much and I believe should be out in the open. Students have revealed to me that this enabled them to trust me more easily and to feel safe acknowledging their own issues with gender/sexual orientation/mental health.

 Create an Expectation Agreement together with the class – this is a discussion assignment where I lay out my expectations, ask the following questions, then allow them to discuss online.

- What are your expectations for me, your instructor?

- What are your expectations of your fellow classmates?

- What do you expect to walk away from this class with?

Then I pull together a summary of all the expectations, grouped logically, and ask if everyone will agree to abide by those. We sign these and post them on the wall, if possible. This gives the students agency and a stake in setting the “expectations” of the classroom.

 Different ways to complete assignments (allowing video/audio responses as well as written)

 Choice of texts for performance (poems, monologues, some choice/input for scenes)

 Choice of assignment in some cases – In several classes final projects could be a scene or a monologue, depending on what the student was interested in, or perhaps they want to choose working on poems rather than monologues. I want to give them agency in the class where I can, while still ensuring that I deliver class objectives.

 In certain classes I ask at the beginning of the semester about what they are interested in working on, and to the extent possible, I include those things in our work together. Sometimes they make suggestions in class like “we should do …” I listen and add in or adjust to meet these asks, if they fall in line with the course objectives.

 Reach out to students who are falling behind and ask if they are okay, instead of just being a disciplinarian and scolding. I recognize that some marginalized groups face issues that others don’t, which can lead to struggles with their classwork. I try to be open and as generous as possible, all while ensuring that students still reap the full benefits of the class.

 Thank students very genuinely for sharing vulnerable moments, many of which relate to issues from being from a marginalized group.

 Ask how the work on certain assignments is going, and if the majority of students seem to be stressed out or overwhelmed, I will offer to extend the due date or the performance date.

 Allow late submissions of homework, at a reduced grade. Sometimes students just need some extra time. I let them know that I’d rather have them do the work later than never.

I am still learning new classroom strategies to promote inclusion and I look forward to learning more!