Laura A. Shamas

Laura Annawyn Shamas was born in Oklahoma, and has lived in Tulsa, Denver, and Los Angeles (and a few other places in between). She writes in multiple genres: theatre, non-fiction, fiction, and film. Her multicultural background includes Chickasaw, English, French, Irish, Lebanese, and Scottish heritage. She is an enrolled member of the Chickasaw Nation.

Her Ph.D. is in Mythological Studies. Her dissertation “'We Three': The Mythology of Shakespeare’s Weird Sisters,” was published in 2007. Her recent comments on trinitarian witch archetypes in pop culture were quoted in Bitch Media’s Monster Issue (Winter 2021) in Rebecca Long’s article: “Witching Hour: Divine Sisterhood Has Always Come in Threes.”

Laura Shamas’ many plays include: CIRCULAR, PICNIC AT HANGING ROCK (adaptation), PORTRAIT OF A NUDE, LADY-LIKE, CHASING HONEY, THE OTHER SHAKESPEARE, AMELIA LIVES, and WUTHERING (a new adaptation of Bronte’s Wuthering Heights). CIRCULAR was part of Spooky Action Theater’s 2020 New Works In Action Series. Her piece FOUR WOMEN IN RED was part of Native Voices 2020 Short Play Festival in November, 2020; an expanded new version will be performed by Transformation Theater in November 2021.

From 2018 - 2019, Shamas was one of four playwrights in residence at AlterLab of AlterTheater (San Francisco Bay area), which produced CIRCULAR in 2019. In 2017, Shamas won the Von Marie Atchley prize for Excellence in Playwriting
from Native Voices at the Autry (Los Angeles) for her short play SEEDS. In 2021, she’s an Associated Playwright at Native Voices, and an Ensemble Member at Alter Theater.

Current Memberships: WGAw, Dramatists Guild, ICWP, LPTW.

WEBSITE AND SOCIAL MEDIA
http://www.laurashamas.com
TW:  @LauraShamas

MORE ABOUT ME
What is your favorite thing to do when you’re not writing?*
Hiking on the central coast of California. It's so restorative. I love whale watching, otter gazing, seal spotting, and listening to the waves in the Monterey Bay National Marine Sanctuary. I especially enjoy visiting an elephant seal rookery there. Maybe some day I can become a volunteer docent.

WHAT I'M WORKING ON
An expanded version of FOUR WOMEN IN RED, turning one of my plays into a novel, and a screenplay.

KEYWORDS
mystery, thriller, political, nature, animals, equality, climate, environmental, historical, adaptations, fable/folktales, satire, biography, science fiction, musical, period, Young audiences, indigenous, Arab-American