Laura has been enamored with live performance since a very young age. One of her earliest memories is receiving a plastic echo microphone for Christmas and giving concerts in her basement to no audience. At the age of seven, Laura began singing with the Amabile Choir of London, Canada with whom she sang for 12 seasons. 

 

After a continual engagement in her high school’s drama and music departments, her pursuit of the live performance took her to Western University where she graduated with an Honours Specialization in Voice Performance and cultivated her mezzo-soprano voice under the guidance of soprano Bethany Horst. During her time at Western, she continued to do choral singing, participating three years in the women’s ensemble Les Choristes. 

 

While she has found great joy performing on stage in all show mediums, some of her favourites being Elena (If/Then) and Katisha (The Mikado), Laura has found a great passion in the production of such shows and setting others up to shine. In her final year in University, Laura became Director of Promotions of the campus theatre group Theatre Western and aided First Steps Co-founder Joshua Patrick in their role as Program Coordinator. It was in this position that she was introduced to the beauty and creativity of working behind the scenes.

 

Though Joshua and Laura have a great love for arts, they spoke for many hours about the gaps they saw within these industries. They decided at the end of 2020, after watching Covid-19 ravage the performance industries, that they wanted to be a small portion of the incredible people and groups closing the gaps they once spoke about. Thus the creation of First Steps Theatre.

 

This September 2021, Laura will be pursuing a Diploma in Non-for-Profit Management in hopes to continue her passion of producing and working within art organizations and helping others discover the wonders that live performance can bring.