back Laura Giannarelli  AFTRA-SAG • AEA

"Mrs. Brummett is masterfully portrayed by WSG veteran actor Laura Giannarelli, most recently seen in a more glamorous role in
All Save One
. Giannarelli, returning to the role from last season’s See Rock City, plays the hardscrabble and tough-as-nails Ma Brummett with a salty edge that hides a vulnerable heart."

—DC Theater Scene

“Not that there's a notably heroic quality to Laura Giannarelli's production [of Widowers House] at the intimate Undercroft Theatre. It's simply well balanced, with each actor colorfully putting forth self-interests and contradictions….It's a swell night of Shaw.”

The Washington Post




“You see things and you say ‘Why?’ But I dream things that never were, and I say ‘Why not?’”


Back To Methusaleh (part 2 of 3)

"...Laura Giannarelli, her raven hair cascading over luscious robes, puts a sharp edge on Shaw’s satire and anger."

Back To Methusaleh (part 1 of 3)

"Naturally, in this first scene the Serpent is the star: Laura Giannarelli is luminously seductive, using her voice like a Stradivarius to lure Adam and Eve out of the only life they have ever known...Laura shines once again as Frances Barnabas—the double-casting is hardly coincidental-but here we get to see a less seductive character whose appeal is more down-to-earth."

Andrew White, broadwayworld.com


"...each of the actors in The Gospel of the Family Barnabas creates a memorable individual portrait of his or her character, with Giannarelli’s mix of warmth, power, and intelligence leading the list."

showbizradio.com

for Washington Stage Guild's 
The Old Masters directed by
Laura Giannarelli

Nelson Pressley , The Washington Post
"The best thing about director Laura Giannarelli’s straightforward, handsomely designed production — it’s in the Stage Guild’s usual base, the intimate Undercroft Theatre at the Mount Vernon Place United Methodist Church — is how unimpressed the actors are by the highbrow talk. They keep an easy humor in the air, even as they let you know that between all these operators, there’s blood on the floor.


Full review
Photo by Stan Barouh

for Theatre J's production of
Pangs of the Messiah


Peter Marks, The Washington Post
"The director and actors bring Shmuel's family to vibrant life, from Lindsay Haynes's terrific Chava, broken by worry that husband Benny will return to a life of terrorism, to Giannarelli's excellent Amalia, wed as much to a man's religious dream as the man himself." (click here for full review)

Trey Graham, The Washington CityPaper
"Laura Giannarelli, playing Shmuel’s wife, compresses her formidable presence into the even more formidable persona of a veteran of many a struggle; her Amalia can mother sons and husband alike as they wrangle and plot, then summon a warrior’s resolve when it’s time to organize crowds at the checkpoints, deciding ruthlessly in one breath that elementary-school children ought to be deployed at a protest march and warning in the next that there are elements among the settlers who might easily go too far." (click here for full review)

Ronnie Ruff, DCTheatreScene.com
"Laura Giannarelli as Shmuel’s wife is the strong, solid rock the family needs when the male characters make all the wrong decisions leading to a surprising but inevitable ending. Her performance is exceptional."

for Washington Stage Guild's
Husbands and Lovers

"I love Giannarelli as a young girl, when she babbles hysterically at her beau because he’s ruined her first kiss for her forever by kissing her as Miss Choti always kisses her “inside eye, outside eye” and she is sure he’s learned that kind of kissing from that same Miss Choti."
— Rosalind Lacy, dctheatrescene.com

for Washington Stage Guild's
Dante's Inferno directed by Laura Giannarelli

Nelson Pressley, The Washington Post
"Giannarelli keeps [Bill] Largess moving to low flickering lights and a dense murmuring soundscape. The churn and burn of Hell feels ever-present. Largess and Giannarelli forged the script, their own adaptation...with energetic language and comic relief, which includes an excellent gag about PowerPoint. That screen, those slides — that’s when you know you’re in Hell."

 

for Washington Stage Guild's 
Village Wooing directed by Laura Giannarelli 

Celia Wren, The Washington Post
"Village Wooing is a gem..."

for Washington Stage Guild's
Pygmalion

Nelson Pressley, The Washington Post
"Start with Laura Giannarelli’s sturdy demeanor and incorruptible decorum as Mrs. Pearce, Higgins’s no-nonsense housekeeper; the way Giannarelli keeps Carpenter’s Higgins on his heels is a delight."

for Olney Theatre's
Angel Street

Jane Horwitz , The Washington Post
"Laura Giannarelli, too, does a fine job sketching in a working woman’s inner life as Elizabeth, the cook. She seems stoic, proper and passive at first — but wait."

full review

for GALA Hispanic Theater's production of
Elliot: A Soldier's Fugue

" ...Yet the actors make Hudes's poetry their own, especially Giannarelli, who lends the play a palpable earthiness."
— Peter Marks, The Washington Post

(click here for full review)

"Actress Laura Giannarelli, who embodies the earth mother in the character of Ginny, gives a memorable, warm-hearted portrayal that conveys the warmth of a nurse’s healing touch...Her behavior implies that through communion and sharing, silent suffering can be brought to the surface and life goes on."
— Rosalind Lacy, DCtheatrereviews.com


C. Stanley Photography

for Washington Stage Guild's Strange Bedfellows

"...Laura Giannarelli playing a gloriously imposing firebrand named Mrs. Banger..."
— Nelson Pressley, The Washington Post

"Two one act plays are connected by a performed reading of excerpts from the writings of and about Shaw by none other than Laura Giannarelli."
— Brad Hathaway, Potomac Stages

"The cast gives the work a vigorous staging, with Lescault’s brisk and officious general and Giannarelli’s bellicose female fighter providing the most fun."
— Steven McKnight, DC Theatre Scene
 


for Washington Stage Guild's

Lord Arthur Savile's Crime

"Laura Giannarelli and Lynn Steinmetz, embodying those patently stuffy dowager types of the late Victorian age, deliver Wilde's epigrams with verve..."
— Peter Marks, The Washington Post

for Studio Theatre's
The Long Christmas Ride Home

" As dad and mom, Paul L. Nolan and Laura Giannarelli bring a brutal, cutting honesty to a sterile partnership." — Peter Marks, The Washington Post

"The grownups, mother Laura Giannarelli and father Paul L. Nolan, are exceptionally strong even though neither has a puppet-self which would amplify their traits."
— Brad Hathaway, Potomac Stages

for Washington Stage Guild's
Fanny's First Play

"...Lynn Steinmetz and Laura Giannarelli double with stalwart capability as mothers and reviewers..." Washington Post

"...Giannarelli, with her clear, rich voice and stately presence, is also a standout as the pious, excitable Mrs. Knox."BroadwayWorld.com

"...Giannarelli's marvelous representation of social superiority..."
Potomac Stages

for Washington Stage Guild's
An Empty Plate in the Café du Grand Boeuf

"Just as with last year's Hollinger play, Laura Giannarelli gets a late entrance of note. This time, however, instead of being hysterically funny, she's touchingly affectionate - just what the part requires." Potomac Stages

for Washington Stage Guild's
Humble Boy

"...the gathering of the soon-to-be Humble-Pyes offers a series of sight gags that the actors pull off beautifully...the horrified reaction of Mercy (Laura Giannarelli), a family friend, when she realizes that the small decorative pot left on the table wasn't filled with seasoning..."
The Washington Post



"There are many good reasons to see this enjoyable, often funny and occasionally touching play...However, the real reason not to miss this one comes when Laura Giannarelli sinks her comic teeth into a pre-lunch blessing which covers all the problems in the lives of everyone at the table. Audiences in this town...rarely interrupt a scene with applause. The audience with whom we saw this show couldn't contain themselves at the end of Ms. Giannarelli's prayer. Neither could we..."

Potomac Stages



AroundTown (RealAudio)

for Wayside Theatre's
Blithe Spirit

"After coming down with...pneumonia, [the actor] was replaced by actress Laura Giannarelli in the central role of Madame Arcati, the spirit medium who begins the otherworldly chaos around which the play revolves...Giannarelli offers a full-voiced, big-gestured Madame Arcati, a character it would be easy to overplay. It’s entertaining to watch her bound and skip across the stage in childish delight when she learns that her incantations actually brought a spirit from beyond."

The Winchester Star

 

 

for Washington Stage Guild's
On the Rocks

"Laura Giannarelli makes "Dame Dextra Rightside" a Margaret Thatcher without having to change a word of the original 1933 script..." Potomac Stages

for Washington Stage Guild's
Incorruptible

"Laura Giannarelli's last-act appearance as Agatha, Charles's blowhard sister and abbess of the competing monastery, is a refreshing...distraction just when things start getting a little too slapsticky." Washington Post

"...Laura Giannarelli makes a fabulous entrance as the Abbess...and the energy level, the volume and the humor all step up one notch." Potomac Stages

"Laura Giannarelli adds some late energy to the show with her Agatha, Abbess of Bernay...she comes on strong and never lets up...'" Curtain Up

 

 

 

for Washington Stage Guild's
The Unexpected Man

"...Giannarelli is an actress of natural intelligence and an underplayed kind of sexiness, who communicates complex emotions with the simplest gestures. In larger venues these two fine character actors often are employed in supporting parts. Here, happily, they own the stage, and for 75 minutes our complete attention as well."
The Washington Post

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