At the age of 24, the young and ambitious Erica Lauren McLaughlin is just beginning an increasingly accomplished career as an actress, writer, and activist. She graduated Cum Laude from the University of Maryland, Baltimore County with her Bachelor of Fine Arts in Acting in May 2006. She currently serves as Managing Director and Board Member for the Unmentionable Theatre of Baltimore, MD.As an actress, she has performed in several prestigious venues such as the American College Theatre Festival at the Kennedy Center, and in the New York International Fringe Festival. She has appeared on stage as an actor, dancer, singer, and puppeteer. In addition to UMBC, she studied acting at the Shakespeare Theatre Company in Washington, DC, and is currently a student at HB Studio in New York, NY.As a playwright, she was the 2001 ACT-SO gold medalist for her play Refined Brutality: A Civil War, and her play Love and Wood has received production at Baltimores Mobtown Theatre, in the Capital Fringe Festival and at Bellarmine University.Erica has taught acting, improv, musical theatre and dance at Slayton House, Dance Foundations, Creative Kids, Columbia Gymnastics, and was formerly a head coach for the very first Columbia Ravens Dance Team.As an activist, she has been involved with the NAACPs Youth & College Division since 1997, and currently represents its Mid-Atlantic Region on the NAACP National Board of Directors. She hopes to pursue acting professionally and enhance her skills through graduate study.Reviews
2005, Much Ado About Nothing @ UMBC
Baltimore Sun Review
"Among the big supporting cast, a standout is Erica McLaughlin as Hero's father, Leonato. The cross-gender casting might distract some theatergoers at first, but this actor captures the essential quality of Leonato as a parent whose firm authority seems increasingly shaky as the domestic world is turned upside down by all the crazy developments."2005, Basura! New York Fringe Festival
Village Voice
"The puppeteers give their refuse a broad range of emotions with the tiniest flick of a wrist. And by engaging the lyrical beauty in common garbage, they remind us that wonder is not the exclusive purview of children."NY Theatre.Com
"Director Colette Searls and her skillful puppeteers Erica Lauren McLaughlin, Katie Sasso, and Jessie Touart invest their creations with playfulness and inner desires, and immediately I felt a remarkable bond with ordinarily revolting matter..."Erica was also featured on the front page of the September 6th-13th 2006 edition of the City Paper.Love and Wood was a January 2006 City Paper Critic's Pick!http://www.citypaper.com/calendar/event.asp?whatid=6722
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