Laurel Butler is an educator, facilitator, organizer, and multidisciplinary performance artist. Laurel is currently based in Los Angeles, where she is the Performing Arts Specialist for the Los Angeles County Office of Education, the Youth Development and Leadership Specialist for the Arts for Incarcerated Youth Network, and director/producer of the ACT TWO Performance Project. She is also the Ambassador of Pedagogy and Program Development for the Keshet Dance Company Art & Social Justice National Leadership Team, and serves on the advisory committee for the Arts Network for Youth and Justice: New Mexico.
Laurel is the lead singer of Lady Stardust (San Francisco) and Cassandra (Los Angeles), a member of The Royal Frog Ballet performance collective, and the founder of the Sharon is Karen work-in-progress salon. Her work has premiered at REDCAT NOW, the International Home Theater Festival, the Revolutions International Theater Festival,
Laurel is the lead singer of Lady Stardust (San Francisco) and Cassandra (Los Angeles), a member of The Royal Frog Ballet performance collective, and the founder of the Sharon is Karen work-in-progress salon. Her work has premiered at REDCAT NOW, the International Home Theater Festival, the Revolutions International Theater Festival,
CounterPULSE, the Yerba Buena Center for the Arts, and the Women's Center for Creative Work; her show September
(created with her husband, Ewen Wright) toured nationally throughout the summer of of 2014.
From 2016 to 2018, Laurel taught on Faculty in the World Arts and Cultures/Dance Department of the UCLA School of Art and Architecture, where she served as both Associate Director and Professional Development Coordinator of the Visual and Performing Arts Education Program. At UCLA, she was a Faculty Advisor for the UCLA Justice Work Group, a facilitator of the Beyond the Bars LA Fellowship Committee, and founder of the Art as Resistance student group. Prior to moving to Los Angeles, Laurel lived and worked in the San Francisco Bay Area, where she was the Youth Arts Manager and Education/Engagement Specialist at the Yerba Buena Center for the Arts, as well as an Adjunct Professor in the Performing Arts and Social Justice Department at the University of San Francisco.
(created with her husband, Ewen Wright) toured nationally throughout the summer of of 2014.
From 2016 to 2018, Laurel taught on Faculty in the World Arts and Cultures/Dance Department of the UCLA School of Art and Architecture, where she served as both Associate Director and Professional Development Coordinator of the Visual and Performing Arts Education Program. At UCLA, she was a Faculty Advisor for the UCLA Justice Work Group, a facilitator of the Beyond the Bars LA Fellowship Committee, and founder of the Art as Resistance student group. Prior to moving to Los Angeles, Laurel lived and worked in the San Francisco Bay Area, where she was the Youth Arts Manager and Education/Engagement Specialist at the Yerba Buena Center for the Arts, as well as an Adjunct Professor in the Performing Arts and Social Justice Department at the University of San Francisco.
Before moving to California, Laurel served as the Artistic Director of The Actor Inside Program, facilitating theater and dance in jails and detention centers in Albuquerque, New Mexico. She has also been the Executive Director of Theatre-in-the-Making, Multi-Arts Theater Director for the Idyllwild Arts Academy, Dance Teacher at St. James Episcopal School, Social Justice Instructor at Windward School, Teaching Artist with The Unusual Suspects Theater Company. and an educator for numerous institutions and organizations including Stanford University, Enchanted Circle Theater, Working Classroom, and the National Hispanic Cultural Center. Laurel received her M.A. in Theater Education and Community Outreach from the University of New Mexico in 2010.
Laurel is a proud recipient of the Creative Capacity Fund Next Gen award, the California Arts Council Re-Entry Through the Arts grant, the 21st Century Fox Social Impact award, and an Arts for LA ACTIVATE Fellowship for her leadership in arts advocacy. She has presented about her work as a community arts facilitator at the Emerging Dance Audiences Learning Exchange at Dance USA Conference, the National Teens-in-the-Arts Convening at the Institute of Contemporary Art Boston, the Allied Media Conference Transformative Arts Practice Space, Create Justice, Beyond the Bars LA: The End of Mass Incarceration, and the Arts in Corrections: Building Bridges to the Future conferences. She has been published in Theater Topics, Museum 2.0, the Journal of Museum Education, and the National Teens-in-the-Arts Report, and featured on numerous media platforms including The Huffington Post.
She lives with her husband, Ewen, and their dog, Oliver, in Los Angeles, California.
