Laurie Carlos

Laurie carlos

Actress Laurie Carlos
Born Laurie Smith
(1949-01-25) January 25, 1949
New York, New York, United States
Occupation Actress, playwright, director
Years active 1968–present
Children 1

Laurie Carlos (née Smith, born January 25, 1949) is an award-winning American actress and avant-garde performance artist, playwright and theater director.

Early life

Born Laurie Smith on New York City's Lower East Side, Carlos' father was a musician and her mother an exotic dancer.[1][2] Her father, Walter Smith, was a drummer for blues and R&B acts including B.B. King, Bo Diddley and Jackie Wilson.[2] At the age of 14 Carlos saw Gloria Foster perform in the play White America. As a result, Carlos said "for the very first time I realized how much power the stage had politically, and I wanted that."[1] Carlos graduated from the High School of Performing Arts and, at the age of 19, worked as a casting director for Harry Belafonte and others.[3]

Work

Carlos is the recipient of an Obie Award for creating the role of Lady Blue in Ntozake Shange’s for colored girls who have considered suicide / when the rainbow is enuf[2] and a Bessie Award for her work in Heat.[2][4] She also appeared in the original company of Shange's play Spell No. 7 and Edgar White's Les Femme Noir (also at the Joseph Papp Public Theater). Ms. Carlos is also a theater director and playwright whose plays include White Chocolate (for My Father),[5] The Cooking Show, Organdy Falsetto, Vanquished by Voodoo and Nonsectarian Conversations With the Dead. Her plays and performance pieces have been called "poetic, abstract, associative";[6] a "blending of history, poetry, mysticism and personal testimony" of "impressionistic language" and "haunting ancestral voices that balance images of brutality and agonizing struggle with those of endurance and continuity."[7] She is a co-artistic director, with Marlies Yearby, of Movin' Spirits Dance Theater Company. Film and television credits include The Landlord directed by Hal Ashby, Fresh Kill, American Playhouse (TV Series: For Colored Girls Who Have Considered Suicide/When the Rainbow Is Enuf ), and Praise House directed by Julie Dash. Carlos has collaborated with artists[8] including Urban Bush Women, Robbie McCauley, Jessica Hagedorn, David Murray (saxophonist), Sharon Bridgforth, Daniel Alexander Jones, Carl Hancock Rux, Erik Ehn, and Butch Morris , among others. Ms. Carlos has also served on the board of the Jerome Foundation.

Awards

In addition to an Obie Award for her role in for colored girls who have considered suicide / when the rainbow is enuf, and a Bessie Award for her work in Heat,[9] Carlos has received awards from the National Endowment for the Arts, Theatre Communications Group, and the New York Foundation for the Arts.[10] She was also awarded a Bush Fellowship.[10]

Personal life

She is the mother of Alternative Soul/R&B singer Ambersunshower[2] (born Ambersunshower Nadine Miligros Villenuevo Smith).

References

  1. 1 2 On Edge: Performance at the End of the Twentieth Century by C. Carr, Wesleyan University Press, 2012, page 164.
  2. 1 2 3 4 5 Preston, Rohan (May 10, 1998). "Career of extremes leads Carlos to Twin Cities; She hasn't paused, whether enjoying success or facing personal challenge.". Star Tribune (Minneapolis, MN) – via Lexis Nexis.
  3. ↑ gC&lpg=PA164&dq=Laurie%20Carlos&pg=PA164#v=onepage&q=Laurie%20Carlos&f=false On Edge: Performance at the End of the Twentieth Century by C. Carr, Wesleyan University Press, 2012, page 165.
  4. ↑ Laurie Carlos by Nicky Paraiso, Bomb Magazine, accessed December 21, 2015.
  5. ↑ "Review/Theater; Seeking Black Roots, in 'White Chocolate'" by Stephen Holden, The New York Times, February 15, 1990.
  6. ↑ On Edge: Performance at the End of the Twentieth Century by C. Carr, Wesleyan University Press, 2012, page 165.
  7. ↑ http://www.nytimes.com/1990/02/15/theater/review-theater-seeking-black-roots-in-white-chocolate.html
  8. ↑ Women Playwrights of Diversity: A Bio-bibliographical Sourcebook by Jane T. Peterson and Suzanne Bennett, Greenwood Publishing Group, 1997, page 154.
  9. ↑ Laurie Carlos by Nicky Paraiso, Bomb Magazine, accessed December 21, 2015.
  10. 1 2 Biography for Laurie Carlos, Playscripts, accessed Dec. 21, 2015.
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