Am Dram Star of the Week is Laura Liptrot who's performing Seven Wonders at St. Thomas’ Church Hall in Stourbridge
Our Am Dram Star this week is a local actress called Laura Liptrot who not only performs, but also writes all her own material.
Laura’s latest venture is a one woman show called Seven Wonders, which she will perform at St. Thomas’ Church Hall in Stourbridge on September 29.
This is a new show and an amalgamation of stand-up comedy and a historical lecture, as Laura tells the story of her life through school, college, university and finally striving to find work as an artist, overcoming the pressures that young women today endure to be stereotypically beautiful.
I spoke to Laura about the project and why she had chosen this subject matter in particular.
“I wrote the first version of this play in 2016 by accident,” Laura laughs. “When I was at university, I had to sign up to write either an essay or a play over two semesters and somehow I managed to sign up to write one in each!”
“I therefore decided to focus on a subject that I would never tire of writing about; the story of the six wives of Henry VIII. It’s such a robust and dramatic period in history and the characters have so much depth to them to explore and make a drama out of.
“All six women are a microcosm of different parts of the human psyche: intelligence, sexuality, strength of character, survival and determination,” she explains.
“I am particularly fascinated by Anne of Cleves, who was known as the Ugly Wife. She received a lot of criticism based on her looks, which I have experienced first hand and I know so many people in today’s society who can relate to this.”
I ask Laura how she goes about building her characters.
“I start off by asking myself why they are saying each line. What are their inner thoughts? What are they not saying?” she said. “Then I look outside of the script and invent reasons why a character has got to that emotional and physical point in the play.”
“If I am writing a character myself, I like to improvise in order to get under their skin before giving them the words.”
I ask Laura is she had ever experienced heckling. She much prefers to play a character than herself and says that although she has not been heckled as such, she does feel exposed and vulnerable when appearing as herself on stage. Makes you wonder why we do this hobby doesn’t it?
I think Laura is a star just for writing and performing her own material.
For tickets call 07954692593 or email ticketsfor.7W@gmail.com Doors open at 6.30pm for a 7pm start.
