Noises Off

Laura Leo Ownby played the role of Belinda Blair in Theatre of Western Springs 2004 Mainstage 3 production of Noises Off. It took me a while to get these pictures so things are a bit out of order on this site.  This was her personal favorite play to be a part of until Summer and Smoke last year.  It is a really fun production and a great comedy. The pictures are a bit small, but she is in red.

Summer and Smoke

Laura Leo Ownby finally got a lead at Theatre of Western Springs and it was a HUGE lead.  She played Alma Winemiller in Summer and Smoke by Tennessee Williams for Mainstage 2, 2007.   This show was a personal favorite of the theatre’s creative director so it was a big deal.  The part was gigantic with huge monologues and lines on all but 2 pages of the script.

As I have written about before,  I think Laura is a great dramatic actor and she really nailed this part. 

Clarksdale, Mississippi, Tom Williams and Betty Ellis

In July, Laura and I took a drive down to Clarksdale Mississippi to study the accent for her upcoming role as Alma Winemiller in Tennessee Williams’ Summer and Smoke. Clarksdale is where Tennessee Williams grew up and was the inspiration for the town Glorious Hill, where the play is set. Clarksdale is also the home of the Crossroads and is the birthplace of the Delta Blues.

We rolled into town in late afternoon and checked around for a hotel, but it appeared that Clarksdale had seen better days. We decided to head up to the Moon Lake area to stay at a crappy casino on the river. There is a Moon Lake Casino in the play, which is where John Buchanan spends many a debaucherous night so we thought this was an appropriate place to stay. In the morning we headed back into town and found the downtown area, the Delta Blues Museum and Morgan Freeman’s juke joint, Ground Zero, where we had lunch. A kindly, unofficial tour guide of Clarksdale pointed us in the direction of Tennessee Williams park so we went across the center of town to visit his 20 foot by 50 foot park. Then something pretty amazing happened.

We were there about 15 minutes just soaking up the hot Delta air, trying to absorb some Tennessee Williams energy when an older woman pulled up in her car and started walking her dog around the park and eventually found her way over to us. At some point we mentioned that we were there to research accents and the area because of Laura’s part in the play. The woman, whose name is Betty Ellis, then proceeded to tell us the story of how she met Tom (Tennessee) Williams and how Summer and Smoke was her favorite play by him. She told us that Tom stayed in the rectory of St. George Episcopal church, the church she was active in all of her life. As we were recording her voice so we could study her accent more later, she told us about how the character Alma was based on her grade school piano teacher and that the character John Buchanan, was the based on the son of the real life Blanche Dubois.

We were wondering how we just happened to be in that park at the same time as Clarksdale’s eyewitness expert on Tennessee Williams when she asked to borrow my cell phone so she could call her son to come let us into the church and rectory that is so prominent in Summer and Smoke. We tried to insist this wasn’t necessary but trying to talk an older Southern woman out of this kind of hospitality was futile. So, we followed her over to the church and toured the rectory where Tennessee Williams lived and where Alma, through his writing lived. It was quite a magical moment.

Thank you, Miss Betty!

Time and The Conways

Laura played Madge Conway in the Mainstage 4, 2007 production of Time and The Conways. I think Laura’s performance in this role really caught the attention of people at the theatre and she will likely be doing a big part every year. 

Advise and Consent

 Laura played Mabel Anderson, the main character’s wife in the Mainstage 4, 2006 production of Advise and Consent.  It was a smaller role but I think it really showed Laura’s dramatic side very well.  She always calls herself a comedic actress,  but I always knew she could play these roles.   This play was very outdated,  but it did provide a glimpse into the workings of the Executive branch and the US Senate.  There were some themes that resonated well in the current and unfortunate Bush presidency.

The Tempest

Laura played a Spirit in The Tempest for mainstage 2 in 2002. She got to put a lot of her Grateful Dead hippy dancing to work for this one. I’m not sure which spirit she played but she is in these pictures somewhere.

Pride’s Crossing

This is Laura playing Mabel Tidings in Pride’s Crossing, the mainstage 5 production at TWS in 2001. Check out those goggles and bathing suit:

Pride and Prejudice

 Here is Laura as Lizzy Bennett’s friend, Miss Charlotte Lucas in Pride and Prejudice at Theatre of Western Springs (TWS) for the mainstage 2 production in 2000. She’s on the far left:

The Seagull – Laura and the Theatre

 I am posting some theatre pictures of Laura, starting with the earliest ones from Theatre of Western Springs.  I’m doing this because blogging is the art of dorks. (according to Laura)

So here are are a couple to start things off.  These are taken from The Seagull, by Anton Chekhov at Theatre of Western Springs for the Mainstage 2 production in 1999. Laura played Masha and I am going to try to nudge her to explain the character some more at some point.