Laura is Artistic Director/CEO of Fifth Word and co-founded the company in 2008.
She is an experienced and award-winning theatre director. The plays she has commissioned and directed have gained major industry awards and national recognition. As well as developing and directing new writing Laura has worked extensively in community and education settings, working with a wide range of community partners and schools to conceive and deliver youth and community projects. Laura specialises in Dorothy Heathcote’s ‘Mantle of the Expert’: a dramatic inquiry approach that empowers participants to become peers, taking on the responsibilities of an expert team and using their initiative to generate their own activities.
Directing for Fifth Word includes: LAVA by James Fritz (Nottingham Playhouse/Soho Theatre/UK tour); ALL THE LITTLE LIGHTS by Jane Upton (Nottingham Playhouse/UK tour/Arcola Theatre– nominated for Best New Play by the Writers’ Guild Awards and Off West End Theatre Award for Best New Play; Joint Winner of the George Devine Award;); BONES by Jane Upton (Edinburgh Festival Fringe/Tristan Bates Theatre/UK tour).
Laura has previously been a guest lecturer at the University of Derby and Buckinghamshire New University for performing arts courses and PGCE students.