Laura A. Lodewyck is an Assistant Professor of Theatre at North Central College in Naperville, IL, where she teaches courses on both performance and theory, and heads the Student Directed Series. She is a scholar and performer who has worked in the Chicago area for over a decade. Laura holds a PhD from Northwestern University and an MFA in Acting Performance from the Chicago College of the Performing Arts at Roosevelt University. Her academic research focuses on the transformative power of theatre, particularly during times of war, and she is a scholar with the Latinx Theatre Commons’ El Fuego initiative.