Laura Rose
Artistic and Education Director of Holy City Shakespeare
Laura Rose is an experienced stage and film actor, director, and educator. She earned an MA from the Shakespeare Institute in Stratford-upon-Avon (1993), where her studies included not only criticism and performance history but also acting workshops with the acclaimed coaches at theRoyal Shakespeare Company (RSC). Professor Stanley Wells, Co-Editor of the Oxford Complete Works of Shakespeare (1986) and later Director of the Institute, advised her thesis, Teaching Shakespeare: Addressing Stereotypes and Prejudice in Othello and Taming of the Shrew. She is currently pursuing her PhD as a split location researcher, living part of each year in Stratford-upon-Avon. Her dissertation, supervised by Institute Director Professor Michael Dobson, examines the rhetoric of performance and productions of Richard III.
In addition to her scholarly activities Ms. Rose has performed Shakespeare and Jacobean roles at Holy City Shakespeare, The Shakespeare Institute, the Folger Shakespeare Theatre (Washington, DC), the College of Charleston (Summer Shakespeare Project), Theatre/VERV, and St. Andrews College (NC). Locally, she has acted in productions for PURE Theatre, Footlight Players, and South of Broadway Theatre. She has starred or appeared in several films (including one screened at the Cannes Film Festival, 2004), guest starred in a History Channel television documentary, and played the lead in a television series pilot considered by the SyFy network. She has taught Theatre at Trident Technical College, the College of Charleston, and St. Andrews College, where she also directed.