Podtalk: Laura Ann Parry on Her Passionate Journey as an Actor

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CHICAGO – With film/TV production and stages still shut down for the most part, what are actors doing to fill the void? For Laura Ann Parry, it’s been a chance to sharpen her craft, to do “new normal” auditioning and focus on what projects are upcoming. The Chicago character actor considers it part of the overall journey.

Actor Laura Ann Parry
Photo credit: Laura Ann Parry

Laura Ann Parry is also a lawyer, and took on her next career of being an actor after observing her daughter in classes. She hit the ground running after encouragement from her first instructor, and landed her first professional part in the independent film “You Don’t Say!” That was shortly followed by a role in a Lifetime Channel film, “Cleveland Abduction.” She also worked side-by-side with Jim O’Heir (Gary/Jerry in “Parks and Recreation”) in the indie film “Mind Over Mindy,” and has done several stage plays in the Chicago area, including a recent turn in “The Vagina Monologues.”

With the quarantine slowly being lifted, actors and production crew will come back to a different reality on various sets, which Parry reflects on in the Podtalk below. As a member of SAG-AFTRA, she has been closely monitoring not only the notices from the union, but the procedures of the Chicago stages and productions.

Jim O’Heir and Laura Ann Parry on the Set of ‘Mind Over Mindy’
Photo credit: Laura Ann Parry

In Part One of a Podtalk with Patrick McDonald of HollywoodChicago.com, Laura Ann Parry reflects on her activities during the quarantine, her beginnings as an actor and working with Jim O’Heir.

In Part Two, Parry talks about acting on stage, what roles she wants to experience and an observation on the “new normal” in TV/film production and theater.

By PATRICK McDONALD Editor and Film Writer HollywoodChicago.com pat@hollywoodchicago.com