ABOUT
Lauren Campedelli is a Los Angeles-based actress and director who began her career in Chicago before driving old Route 66 to LA sight unseen. Maybe not so coincidentally, she had left her hometown Pittsburgh for Chicago sight unseen, too. This spirit of adventure and discovery likewise inspires and fuels her creative work, delving into new worlds, stories, and characters.
Chicago’s theater scene was exploding in the ‘80s. When Campedelli booked a role in Young Psycho-Vivisectionists Meet Marilyn Monroe at Victory Gardens Theater, she worked with its writer/director Steven Ivcich, who would be the biggest influence for her as a theater artist. She became an initial core member of the research and development company Society For New Things that Ivcich founded to explore and develop performance process and to create new work in experimental/experiential ways. There Campedelli began to write and direct as well as act, and she was part of Chicago’s performance art scene and “straight” theater scene, too.
Los Angeles theater was having a creative growth spurt in the late ‘90s when Campedelli arrived, and she soon fell in with an up-and-coming company that would have a profound effect on her artistic career: Evidence Room. In addition to challenging and varied acting roles in more than a dozen bold productions, she served as literary manager and was part of the small ensemble that kept the award-winning theater running and producing during its residency on Beverly Blvd. in the Westlake area. Other SoCal credits include work at The Actors’ Gang, Sacred Fools, Kirk Douglas Theatre, The Old Globe, McCadden Place Theatre, The Production Company, and the late-great Glaxa Studios.
Campedelli is also a member, and former literary manager, of the esteemed Ensemble Studio Theatre/LA, a company dedicated to developing and producing new work. In addition to acting, there she has further honed her directing and dramaturgical skills working with both new and established playwrights.
Works that push boundaries, that seek to evolve their medium, that offer a fresh voice, a new story—those are the projects that attract Campedelli. Comedy or drama, unconventional or mainstream, stage or screen, she seeks projects that challenge her skills and creativity; that expand her range and consciousness; and that can shift the perspective of an audience and move them emotionally, intellectually, and viscerally.
AFFILIATIONS
Evidence Room
Ensemble Studio Theatre/LA
Directors Lab West: 2017 Alumna
Sacred Fools Theater Company
Intimacy Directors International
The Blank Theatre
AWARDS
LA Weekly Theater Award: Best Supporting Actress, Pentecost, Evidence Room
LA Weekly Theater Award: Best Comedy Ensemble, Margo Veil, Evidence Room
Los Angeles Drama Critics Circle Award: Ensemble Performance, Margo Veil, Evidence Room
LA Weekly Theater Award: Best Revival, Flow My Tears, the Policeman Said, Evidence Room
LA Weekly Theater Award: Best Production, The Berlin Circle, Evidence Room