LAURA EASON

Ensemble Member

Since 1993

Laura Eason (she/her) is a long-time Lookingglass Ensemble Member and has served the company as a writer, director, actor, literary manager and, for six years, Artistic Director. Now primarily a screenwriter, Laura most recently was executive producer/showrunner of the Starz forthcoming drama series Three Women. Her other writing and producing credits for TV include the Showtime drama The Loudest Voice (WGA nomination; Golden Globe nomination, limited series) and four seasons of Netflix’s five-time Emmy-nominated best drama series House of Cards (Emmy and WGA nominations, drama series.) Laura’s feature film debut, Here and Now, produced and starring Sarah Jessica Parker, premiered at the Tribeca Film Festival (then titled Blue Night) and is available on demand. A Jeff Award award-winning playwright, her more than twenty produced plays and adaptations include Sex with Strangers which began at Steppenwolf in Chicago before playing Second Stage in NYC (NYT Critic’s pick.) The play was one of the most produced in the U.S. with international productions in Argentina, Australia, Brazil, Canada, England, Finland, Greece, Luxembourg, Slovenia, Taiwan and Turkey. Laura’s adaptation of Jules Verne’s Around the World in 80 Days began under her direction in Chicago (seven Jeff Award nominations including Best Production and Best Adaptation) and went onto subsequent productions in London and eighteen other UK cities before transferring to the New Victory Theatre in NYC (NYT Critic’s pick.) Her plays are published by Nick Hern Books, Overlook Press, DPS & Broadway Play Publishing. Laura is an alumna of Piven Theatre Workshop, the Performance Studies Department of Northwestern University, and the WP Playwrights Lab in NYC. She is a member of the Writers Guild of America East, the Dramatists Guild, Actors Equity, Screen Actors Guild and the Stage Directors and Choreographers Society. A third generation Chicagoan, she now lives in Brooklyn with her family. More information at lauraeason.com.

Photo by Meredith Zinner

Bio as of 2023

Laura Eason is one of the most prolific and successful dramatists in the country.

– The Denver Post

ARTIST MEDIA

LOOKINGGLASS PRODUCTIONS

ETHAN FROME, 2011
FEDRA: QUEEN OF HAITI, 2009
OUR TOWN, 2009
AROUND THE WORLD IN 80 DAYS, 2008
THE OLD CURIOSITY SHOP, 2006
THE SECRET IN THE WINGS, 2003
LA LUNA MUDA, 2002
THEY ALL FALL DOWN: THE RICHARD NICKEL STORY, 2001
HARD TIMES, 2001
LOOKINGGLASS HAMLET, 2000
HER NAME WAS DANGER, 1999
THE ARABIAN NIGHTS, 1997
28: PICTURES OF LIFE IN A HIGH-TECH WORLD, 1997
THE VANISHING TWIN, 1996
THE NAKED KING, 1995
DREAMING LUCIA, 1995
IN THE EYE OF THE BEHOLDER, 1993
THE ARABIAN NIGHTS, 1992
ALL SOULS DAY, 1992
THE SECRET IN THE WINGS, 1991
THE JUNGLE, 1990
THE ODYSSEY, 1990

EDUCATION

Performance Studies, Northwestern University

CREDITS AND AWARDS

  • THEATRE CREDITS

    ACTING
    Broadway:

    • Metamorphoses (Circle in the Square Theatre)

    NYC:

    • Metamophoses (Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts)
    • Brooklyn Academy of Music

    Chicago:

    • The Notebooks of Leonardo da Vinci (Goodman Theatre)
    • Godiva
    • Steppenwolf Theatre Company

    WRITING

    Off-Broadway:

    • Sex with Strangers (Second Stage Theatre)
    • The Undeniable Sound of Right Now (Rattlestick Playwrights Theater/WP Productions)
    • Plainfield Ace (Developed by Rattlestick Playwrights Theater)
    • When the Messenger is Hot (59E59 Theaters)
    • Lost in the Supermarket (Vital Theatre Company)
    • The Adventures of Tom Sawyer (New Victory Theatre)

    International:

    • Sex with Strangers (Hampstead Theatre, London; Sidney Theatre, Australia; Blackwing Productions, Buenos Aires)
    • Remarkable Invisible (Theatre by the Lake, UK)

    Chicago:

    • Sex with Strangers, When the Messenger is Hot, A Tale of Two Cities, Huck Finn (Steppenwolf Theatre Company)
    • Rewind (Side Project)
    • Lost Boys in the Ruined City (Theatre Seven of Chicago)
    • USA-001A (American Theater Company)
    • Days Like Today (Writers Theatre)
    • Summerland (Chicago Shakespeare Theater)

    Regional:

    • The Adventures of Tom Sawyer (Hartford Stage, People’s Light and Theatre Company, Actors Theatre of Louisville, Kansas City Repertory Theatre, Denver Center for the Performing Arts)
    • Hans Brinker and the Silver Skates (Arden Theatre Company)
    • The Vast In-Between (Denver Center for the Performing Arts)
    • When the Messenger is Hot (Theatre Schmeater)
    • It Was Fun While It Lasted (City Theatre)
    • Smitten (Humana Festival/Actors Theatre of Louisville)
    • City Moms (Women’s Project Theater)

  • FILM CREDITS

    • Feature film writing debut, developed by and starring Sarah Jessica Parker, is set to film in 2017

  • TELEVISION CREDITS

    • House of Cards, writer/producer (2014-2107, Netflix)
    • Currently adapting Peter Nichols’ novel The Rocks

  • AWARDS

    • Three Primetime Emmy Award Nominations for Drama Series for House of Cards
    • WGA Nomination for Outstanding Writing in a Drama Series for House of Cards
    • Jeff Award for New Adaptation for The Old Curiousity Shop (Co-adapted with Raymond Fox and Heidi Stillman, 2006)
    • Jeff Award Nomination for Best New Work for Lost Boys in the Ruined City
    • Barrymore Nomination for Best New Work for Hans Brinker and the Silver Skates
    • Top Ten Most Produced Plays in America for Sex with Strangers (2015-16 & 2016-17)