Laura Rikard SAG-AFTRA, AEA, SDC, Theatrical Intimacy Education
Laura (SAG-AFTRA/AEA/SDC) is a director, actor, stage movement specialist, intimacy choreographer and intimacy coordinator. She is a founding member and head faculty of Theatre Intimacy Education and and Assistant Professor Theatre at the University of South Carolina Upstate.
After graduating from the College of Charleston with a BA theatre, she moved to New York where she worked in theatre and continued her training with the Actor’s Studio. In New York she worked at LaMAMA, ETC, New Perspectives Theatre and appeared at Carnegie Hall. She also lived and performed in Europe. She studied Commedia dell’Arte with master teachers Antionio Fava and Carlos Garcia, physical theatre in Denmark with Odin Teatret, and received a Master of Arts from Paul McCartney’s Liverpool Institute for Performing Arts where she performed onstage with Sir Paul McCartney. After her work in Europe she attended the University of Virginia where she received her Master of Fine Arts in Acting. She has performed in film, television, commercials and regional theatre, on national tours and internationally.
She has directed for LIVE Arts Theatre, New Perspectives Theatre, Henley Street Theatre and the University of Virginia, Brown University, Rose Bruford Conservatory in London and the Jerry Herman Ring Theatre at the University of Miami. She has taught various styles of acting, movement, mask, and theatrical intimacy in England, New York City and various universities, colleges and theatres in the United States. She has worked in Regional Theatre with NC Stage, The Hampton Shakespeare Festival, Heritage Theatre Festival, Firehouse Theatre, Florida Studio Theatre, Piccolo Spoleto Festival, and Richmond Shakespeare Festival.
Some of her favorite roles have included Lady Macbeth, Macbeth: Julia and Sylvia, Two Gentlemen of Verona; Lala, The Last Night of Ballyhoo; Hester Swane, By the Bog of Cats; Arkadina, The Seagull; Blanche and Stella in A Streetcar Named Desire; Mother Ann, A Shaker’s Path, among others. Film work includes Lincoln, Julie and Julia, Time Flies, The Last Fruit Bar and HBO’s Veep. She has had the honor to work with Steven Spielberg, Nora Ephron, Daniel Day-Lewis, Sally Field, Julia Louis-Dreyfus and Meryl Streep.
Directing credits include: Anon(ymous), The Seagull, Dead Man’s Cellphone, Spring Awakening, 13, the Musical, Romeo and Juliet, and others. Acting Credits include: A Streetcar Named Desire, By the Bog of Cats, Two Gentlemen of Verona, Macbeth, The Last Night of Ballyhoo, Rhinoceros, and others. Stage
Intimacy Choreography includes: Scenes from an Execution, Spring Awakening, Oil, Three Guys and Brenda, Tally’s Folly, Omnium Gatherum, The Red Paint, Fun Home, Tick Tick Boom, Miracle on 34th Street, Hank Williams: Lost Highway, among others.
Intimacy Coordination includes: The Untitled Tracey Oliver Project with NBC Universal/amazon.
Honors:
Virginia Film Festival Best Acting Award
Academic Keys as a “Who’s Who in Fine Arts Education”
KCACTF Merit Award for Outstanding Direction
LAURA RIKARD 