Laurel has been teaching and devising performance with folks inside of jails and detention centers since 2004.
(above: Laurel congratulates a student at the David Gonzales Probation Camp after the performance of an original, collaboratively-devised play
created during Laurel's 2015 residency with the Unusual Suspects Theater Company)
created during Laurel's 2015 residency with the Unusual Suspects Theater Company)
Laurel specializes in facilitating collaborative creative experiences on the inside, and has devised performance work with students from:
Currently, Laurel is the instructor of AE 105: Arts Programs in Correctional Institutions - History, Theory & Practice at UCLA.
She is also a featured presenter at the 2017 Arts In Corrections: Building Bridges to the Future conference, an organizer with the UCLA Justice Work Group, and a lead member of the Beyond the Bars LA: The End of Mass Incarceration 2017 Fellowship Committee.
- Stanford University and the Hillcrest Juvenile Detention Facility
- The University of San Francisco and San Francisco Jail #5
- The University of New Mexico and the Bernalillo County Juvenile Detention Center
- Keshet Dance Company and the New Mexico Youth Diagnostic and Development Center
- The National Hispanic Cultural Center and the Bernalillo County Metropolitan Detention Center
- The Unusual Suspects Theater Company and the David Gonzales Probation Camp of Los Angeles County
Currently, Laurel is the instructor of AE 105: Arts Programs in Correctional Institutions - History, Theory & Practice at UCLA.
She is also a featured presenter at the 2017 Arts In Corrections: Building Bridges to the Future conference, an organizer with the UCLA Justice Work Group, and a lead member of the Beyond the Bars LA: The End of Mass Incarceration 2017 Fellowship Committee.
TRUTH BE TOLD
Collaboratively created by the men of the Resolve to Stop the Violence program at San Francisco Jail #5
and the youth of the Young Artists at Work program at the Yerba Buena Center for the Arts
Directed by Laurel Butler. Co-facilitated by Laurel Butler and Kaela Terreson.
Yerba Buena Center for the Arts Forum Theater
San Francisco CA, April 2014
Collaboratively created by the men of the Resolve to Stop the Violence program at San Francisco Jail #5
and the youth of the Young Artists at Work program at the Yerba Buena Center for the Arts
Directed by Laurel Butler. Co-facilitated by Laurel Butler and Kaela Terreson.
Yerba Buena Center for the Arts Forum Theater
San Francisco CA, April 2014
WE ARE THE ONES
Directed by Laurel Butler
Assistant Directed by Freddy Gutierrez and Lauren Lasorda
Collaboratively created by the students of the Performing Arts and Community Exchange (PACE) class at the University of San Francisco
and the students of the Resolve to Stop the Violence Program (RSVP) at San Francisco Jail #5.
November 2012
Directed by Laurel Butler
Assistant Directed by Freddy Gutierrez and Lauren Lasorda
Collaboratively created by the students of the Performing Arts and Community Exchange (PACE) class at the University of San Francisco
and the students of the Resolve to Stop the Violence Program (RSVP) at San Francisco Jail #5.
November 2012
LUCID DREAMING
Directed by Laurel Butler
Revolutions International Theater Festival
Bernalillo County Metropolitan Detention Center, Albuquerque NM, 2011
Directed by Laurel Butler
Revolutions International Theater Festival
Bernalillo County Metropolitan Detention Center, Albuquerque NM, 2011
TOXICITY IN THE FAMILY
Co-facilitated and script supervised by Laurel Butler for the Unusual Suspects Theater Company
David Gonzales Probation Camp, Los Angeles CA, 2015
Co-facilitated and script supervised by Laurel Butler for the Unusual Suspects Theater Company
David Gonzales Probation Camp, Los Angeles CA, 2015
Laurel was also a co-creator of Visions of an Abolitionist Future, a year-long, thematic, arts-based interrogation of the Prison Industrial Complex and mass incarceration in America, using multidisciplinary arts and community organizing to theorize strategies for intervention, change, and liberation.
She is also the co-founder of Agency Arts: Arts-Based Juvenile Diversion Programming for System-Impacted Los Angeles Youth
