Laura Simms

When: Monday, March 22, 2010
Time: 7:30 p.m.
Where: The Gorge

Laura Simms, professional storyteller, performs her one-woman show “Reconciled in the Book of Secrets (or How to Find Romania).”

While telling her audience the history of her childhood in Brooklyn, NY, Laura reveals the remarkable journey of an artist's coming to terms with history, spirituality, and family after World War II. She becomes a myriad of characters including a Maori elder, a stubborn father, her Romanian grandmother, and herself: as fantast child, delinquent adolescent, and adult seeker. She tells stories from Africa and Babylon, shifting time and place with a subtle change of voice and the simplest of costume change. Directed by A Traveling Jewish Theater director Naomi Newman, "Reconciled" breaks new ground with a direct theatre genre of storytelling that engages the audience with the immediacy of a kitchen table conversation.

Laura Simms is a member of the American Repertory Theatre Company. In addition to being a professional storyteller, she teaches Buddhist meditation at Karme Choling retreat center.