Bay Area Theater

Playwright Interview: Laurel Ollstein: “Pandora”

Laurel Ollstein, whose latest play, “Pandora,” will be streaming on the theatreworks.org website, is interviewed by host Richard Wolinsky.

Laurel Ollstein is also the author of “They Promised Her the Moon,” which was produced at TheatreWorks Silicon Valley and shut down prematurely due to the pandemic. She has been a theatre and television actress, short story writer and director over the course of her career, and worked with Tim Robbins’ Actors Gang in Los Angeles for fifteen years.

This latest project is a theatrical retelling of the myth of Pandora, the first human woman in Greek Mythology, who was said to have opened a box which allowed all the ills of the world to escape. The production, recorded in Zoom toward the end of May, 2020, is a workshop reading featuring actors from the Bay Area and beyond, and is directed by Giovanna Sardelli, is free on-line as a benefit for TheatreWorks Silicon Valley. Originally scheduled for the first weekend in June, it has been postponed to a later date.

Special thanks to Richard Lavin for his post-production assistance.