Laurie Carlos | |
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| Born | Laurie Dorothea Smith (1949-01-25)January 25, 1949 New York City, U.S. |
| Died | December 29, 2016(2016-12-29) (aged 67) St. Paul, Minnesota, U.S. |
| Occupation(s) | Actress, playwright, director |
| Years active | 1968–2016 |
| Children | Ambersunshower |
Laurie Dorothea Carlos (néeSmith; January 25, 1949 – December 29, 2016) was an American actress andavant-garde performance artist, playwright and theater director. She was also known for her work mentoring emerging artists in the theater.[1]
Carlos was born onNew York City'sLower East Side; her father, Walter Smith, was a drummer for blues and R&B acts includingB.B. King,Bo Diddley andJackie Wilson, and her mother was an exotic dancer.[2][3] At the age of 14, Carlos sawGloria Foster perform in the documentary playIn White America byMartin Duberman. As a result, Carlos said, "for the very first time I realized how much power the stage had politically, and I wanted that."[3] Carlos graduated from theHigh School of Performing Arts and, at the age of 19, worked as a casting director forHarry Belafonte and others.[4]
Carlos initially performed and worked in New York City, and joined the cast ofNtozake Shange's "for colored girls who have considered suicide when the rainbow is enuf" during its conceptual period in 1975 as the work performed at bars on the Lower East Side.[5] She followed it on its journey from the New Federal Theater to the Public Theater to the Booth Theater on Broadway, and onward to a television adaptation seen on the PBS seriesAmerican Playhouse in 1982, originating the role ofLady in Blue and appeared in the televised version of the play on PBS. She also appeared in the original company ofNtozake Shange's playSpell No. 7 andEdgar White'sLes Femme Noir (also at theJoseph Papp Public Theater).
Carlos also frequently collaborated with dance companies, including theUrban Bush Women, and with them performed and co-created the works "Heat" and " Praise House" both on stage and on the televised version directed byJulie Dash. Carlos was also a theater director and playwright whose plays includeWhite Chocolate (for My Father),[6]The Cooking Show,Organdy Falsetto,Vanquished by Voodoo andNonsectarian Conversations With the Dead. Her plays and performance pieces have been called "poetic, abstract, associative";[4] 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 was a co-artistic director, with Marlies Yearby, of Movin' Spirits Dance Theater Company.
Mid-career, Carlos relocated to the Twin Cities ofMinneapolis–Saint Paul during the 1990s, performing at theWalker Art Center and the Guthrie Theater. In 1998, she took a curatorial producing position at Penumbra Theatre Company.[1] As part of her role, Carlos helped select scripts for the company to produce; one of her goals was to "bring more feminine voices into the theater."[1] In addition, Carlos assisted emerging artists through Naked Stages, a fellowship for new talent. based at Pillsbury House Theatre.
Carlos also curated Pillsbury House's Late Nite Series, which showcased new works by artists from both New York and Minnesota. Some of the people she worked with moved on to particular success, such asSuzan-Lori Parks. Carlos's film and television credits includeThe Landlord directed byHal Ashby,Fresh Kill,American Playhouse (TV Series:For Colored Girls Who Have Considered Suicide/When the Rainbow Is Enuf), andPraise House, directed byJulie Dash. Carlos collaborated with artists[8] including contemporary dance companyUrban Bush Women, Robbie McCauley, Don Meissner (composer)Jessica Hagedorn,David Murray (saxophonist), Sharon Bridgforth, Deborah Artman,Daniel Alexander Jones,Carl Hancock Rux,Erik Ehn, andButch Morris. Carlos also served on the board of theJerome Foundation.
Carlos's final performances was as the narrator inQUEEN (written by Erik Ehn andJunauda Petrus and directed by Alison Heimstead) atIn the Heart of the Beast Puppet and Mask Theatre in Minneapolis, September 2016.St.Paul.[1]
In addition to anObie Award for her role in Ntozake Shange'sfor colored girls who have considered suicide / when the rainbow is enuf, and aBessie Award for her work inHeat,[9] Carlos received awards from theNational Endowment for the Arts, Theatre Communications Group, and the New York Foundation for the Arts.[2][9][10] She was also awarded aBush Fellowship.[10]
Carlos was the mother of Alternative Soul/R&B singerAmbersunshower[2] (born Ambersunshower Nadine Milagros Villenueva Smith). Carlos was diagnosed with stage 4colon cancer in September 2016 and died in the Sholom Home East Hospice in St. Paul, Minnesota, on December 29, 2016.[1]
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