About Laura Rikard
Laura Rikard is currently the Visiting Assistant Professor of Acting at Brown University Department of Theatre Arts and Performance Studies (TAPS), following three years as the Head of Acting and Movement and the BFA Coordinator with Stephen F Austin State University School of Theatre. Some of her favorite roles include Lady Macbeth, Macbeth: Julia, 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 Fruit Bar and HBO’s Veep. She has appeared at (NYC) LaMAMA, ETC, New Perspectives Theatre, Here, Producer’s Club and Carnegie Hall; (regionally) Florida Studio Theatre, American Shakespeare Center, Hampton Shakespeare Festival, Heritage Theatre Festival, Richmond Shakespeare Festival and Firehouse Theatre; (England) Battersea Arts Centre and Sennheisner Theatre, (Itlay) Teatro dell’ Vicolo and (Denmark) Odin Teatret.
As a director, performance coach and theatre clinician she has directed for Stephen F Austin State University (SFA), LIVE Arts Theatre, New Perspectives Theatre, Henley Street Theatre and the University of Virginia. In her teaching career, her students have won the ESU National Shakespeare Competition at the Lincoln Center and placed in the KCACTF Irene Ryan Acting Scholarship Program.
She received her MA from Liverpool Institute for Performing Arts (where she performed with Sir Paul McCartney) and an MFA in Acting from the University of Virginia. She grew up in Batesburg-Leesville, SC and graduated from the College of Charleston with a BA in Theatre. She is a member of SAG/AFTRA and was awarded the BEST ACTING AWARD at the 2011 Virginia Film Festival.
