Photo of Laura in front of a white wall, smiling, wearing a black long sleeve shirt. Photo credit, Dana Patrick.
Laura rikard (SHE/HER)
Specialties: Teaching, Directing, Acting, Intimacy Choreography, Movement, Masks, Shakespeare, Intimacy Coordination
Research: Consent in the Acting Classroom, Instilling Self-Care in Actor Training, Intimacy Choreography and Coordination
Asheville, NC
Laura Rikard (SAG-AFTRA/AEA) is a director, actor, educator, acting and movement teacher, intimacy choreographer, intimacy coordinator, and child acting coach. She founded and leads Theatrical Intimacy Education (TIE) and serves as Professor of Theatre and Head of Acting at the University of South Carolina Upstate. Her career spans film, television, regional theatre, national tours, international performance, and devised solo work.
Her directing credits include Gruesome Playground Injuries, Macbeth, Eurydice, Every Christmas Story Ever Told, John Proctor Is the Villain, Rent, A Midsummer Night’s Dream, A Sudden Spontaneous Event, Anon(ymous), The Seagull, Dead Man’s Cell Phone, Spring Awakening, Romeo and Juliet, and The Glass Menagerie, among others.
Her stage acting credits include How It Feels to Fall From the Sky, Death of a Salesman, Matt & Ben, A Streetcar Named Desire, By the Bog of Cats, Two Gentlemen of Verona, Macbeth, The Last Night of Ballyhoo, Bad Dates, The Heidi Chronicles, Language of Angels, Last Train to Nibroc, and Boston Marriage, among others.
Her film acting credits include Steven Spielberg’s Lincoln, Nora Ephron’s Julie & Julia, Great World of Sound, Killing Lincoln, Time Flies, The Fruit Bar, Dr. Goldsmith, Camino, The Balloon, and Ten Years at Sea. Her television appearances include Veep, The Men Who Built America, Happily Never After, and FBI: Criminal Pursuit.
Laura’s devised and physical theatre work includes Duse’s Blush, a solo performance exploring the life of Eleanora Duse; A Shaker’s Path, based on the life of Mother Ann Lee and performed at the Piccolo Spoleto Festival; and The Pink Ribbons Are Choking Me. Her international performance credits include The Seven Kings with Odin Teatret/The Magdalena Project in Denmark, The Haunt at the Brighton Festival in the United Kingdom, and Tutti Alla Guerra, directed by Antonio Fava at Teatro del Vicolo in Italy.
Her intimacy coordination credits include Interview with the Vampire, Anne Rice’s Mayfair Witches, The Supremes at Earl’s All-You-Can-Eat, Appendage, Harlem, Mother’s Instinct, Anything’s Possible, and Ramy, among others. Her stage intimacy work includes the Off-Broadway production of A Guide for the Homesick and regional and university productions of Cabaret, Next to Normal, Jersey Boys, The Mountaintop, Spring Awakening, and many others.
A nationally recognized advocate for consent-based performance and pedagogy, Laura contributed to Staging Sex: Best Practices, Tools, and Techniques for Theatrical Intimacy. Her additional publications include chapters in Stanislavski and Intimacy, The Intimacy Coordinator’s Guidebook, Directing Intersectionally, and A History of Intimacy Professionals in Entertainment. She co-founded and manages the Journal of Consent-Based Performance and is developing two books: Consent in the Acting Classroom and Theatrical Intimacy Education: Best Practices. She also serves as Secretary of the Association for Theatre in Higher Education (ATHE).
Laura brings more than 20 years of teaching and coaching experience to her work. Her former students have won the National Shakespeare Competition at Lincoln Center, gained admission to leading training programs, and built careers on and off Broadway, in regional and international theatres, and in film and television. She has taught at the University of Virginia, Stephen F. Austin State University, Brown University, and the University of Miami.
Her honors recognize her achievements in teaching, directing, acting, and consent-based performance. In 2026, she was named the national recipient of the National Alliance of Acting Teachers’ Outstanding Acting Teacher Fellowship. She has also received the ATHE Ellen Stewart Award and the Kennedy Center Medallion for her contributions to intimacy direction and choreography. Her production of Gruesome Playground Injuries earned eight national ACTF awards, including recognition for directing. She has received ACTF Merit Awards for directing Eurydice, John Proctor Is the Villain, A Midsummer Night’s Dream, A Sudden Spontaneous Event, and Anon(ymous), as well as for script editing on Macbeth. Additional honors include USC Upstate’s Excellence in Teaching and Advising Award, the Glasswing Butterfly Award for developing TIE’s Educator Advocate Program, and a Best Actor award at the Virginia Film Festival.
Laura holds an MFA in Drama/Acting from the University of Virginia, an MA in Acting from the Liverpool Institute for Performing Arts, and a BA in Theatre from the College of Charleston. Her additional training includes clowning and commedia dell’arte with Christopher Bayes; commedia dell’arte with Antonio Fava and Carlos García Estévez; Strasberg technique with Elizabeth Kemp; Stella Adler technique with Marjorie Ballentine; and Meisner technique with Steve Buckwald and Joy Vandervort-Cobb. She also studied devised theatre at Odin Teatret with Roberta Carreri.