Natalie Lurowist is an actor/singer/director/educator from outside Boston, Massachusetts. In 2018, she graduated from the MFA Acting program at the University of Iowa, where she worked closely with new playwrights, seasoned faculty, visiting artists, student collaborators, and members of the Iowa City and Chicago theatre communities. While studying acting, voice, movement, and more, Natalie played over twenty roles in both professional and academic theatre and on-camera productions. She also had the life-changing opportunity to teach acting to undergraduates for three years, in which she directed students in devised solo pieces and contemporary scenes, culminating in a Festival of Scenes each semester. Prior to graduating, she completed an MFA Thesis on her acting process, and participation in her third and final Iowa New Play Festival (an annually-occurring magical week of new work).
Following showcases, Natalie signed with a Chicago agency and moved to the city with her fiancé, fellow educator and UI Alum Eli Jolley. They got a puppy, Sasha... a beautiful genius and force to be reckoned with. In 2019, Natalie reclaimed her time by co-directing "Shelter," a new play co-produced by The Navigators, based in New York, and Chicago's Otherworld Theatre in Lakeview. The following year, she began assistant directing a student production of "Kiss of the Spider Woman" at Northwestern University and was cast in the new musical "The Battlefields of Clara Barton" as part of the American Music Theatre Project. Unfortunately, the pandemic led to the sudden cancellation of both productions (as well as Natalie and Eli's June 2020 wedding). But good news was just around the corner and in January 2022, they finally welcomed their son, Jamie, into the world! They've just moved to Eli's hometown of Auburn, Alabama to be closer to family and hope to plant some strong theatre roots here.
A proud member of Actors' Equity and former resident of NYC, Natalie has acted in plays, musicals, workshops, readings, and concerts with various New York and Regional Theatre companies, including Gateway Playhouse, Yorktown Stage, Syracuse Stage, and the Michael Chekov Theatre Co. among others. She toured the country coast-to-coast as an Actor/ASM with Theatreworks/USA, and then left the USA to perform with Norwegian Cruise Line for two contracts in the Mediterranean, Mexico, and Central America. On ships Natalie sang, acted, and danced in productions and cabarets, and devised a variety production for the Norwegian Spirit's "Christmas Spectacular." Ultimately, she found that she missed theatre and returned to the Boston area to study with Russian masters of the Moscow Art Theatre School. She aspires to further explore Russian theatre, language, and culture, as her great-grandmother emigrated from Eastern Europe as a lone teenager and Natalie has been fortunate enough to visit a couple times.
Following showcases, Natalie signed with a Chicago agency and moved to the city with her fiancé, fellow educator and UI Alum Eli Jolley. They got a puppy, Sasha... a beautiful genius and force to be reckoned with. In 2019, Natalie reclaimed her time by co-directing "Shelter," a new play co-produced by The Navigators, based in New York, and Chicago's Otherworld Theatre in Lakeview. The following year, she began assistant directing a student production of "Kiss of the Spider Woman" at Northwestern University and was cast in the new musical "The Battlefields of Clara Barton" as part of the American Music Theatre Project. Unfortunately, the pandemic led to the sudden cancellation of both productions (as well as Natalie and Eli's June 2020 wedding). But good news was just around the corner and in January 2022, they finally welcomed their son, Jamie, into the world! They've just moved to Eli's hometown of Auburn, Alabama to be closer to family and hope to plant some strong theatre roots here.
A proud member of Actors' Equity and former resident of NYC, Natalie has acted in plays, musicals, workshops, readings, and concerts with various New York and Regional Theatre companies, including Gateway Playhouse, Yorktown Stage, Syracuse Stage, and the Michael Chekov Theatre Co. among others. She toured the country coast-to-coast as an Actor/ASM with Theatreworks/USA, and then left the USA to perform with Norwegian Cruise Line for two contracts in the Mediterranean, Mexico, and Central America. On ships Natalie sang, acted, and danced in productions and cabarets, and devised a variety production for the Norwegian Spirit's "Christmas Spectacular." Ultimately, she found that she missed theatre and returned to the Boston area to study with Russian masters of the Moscow Art Theatre School. She aspires to further explore Russian theatre, language, and culture, as her great-grandmother emigrated from Eastern Europe as a lone teenager and Natalie has been fortunate enough to visit a couple times.
Natalie holds a BFA in Acting from Syracuse University, where she wore snowsuits to class and her training was principally in musical theatre. Through Syracuse's Semester Abroad program, she also studied classical theatre in London at Shakespeare's Globe Theatre during Mark Rylance's final season as Artistic Director. Later, she was one of eight drama students selected to study film, television, commercials, and voiceover through the inaugural Aaron Sorkin Week in Los Angeles. This led her to obtain a summer internship working for the man himself on his developing NBC TV show "Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip." As proof, here Natalie is pictured next to Steven Weber and Bradley Whitford in a billboard poster that stood on Sunset Boulevard. It was quite a summer!
Looking forward, Natalie plans to continue acting professionally while also incorporating teaching and directing, which she's found to be thrilling, challenging, and fulfilling in new ways. She hopes to work with interdisciplinary actor-collaborators interested in devising new work, utilizing old and new storytelling forms, highlighting unique and diverse voices, and contributing as equals in the creation of live art. She believes in the power of storytelling; at the heart of theatre, music, film, and other performance art, storytelling continues to forge connection through the exploration of our humanity. She's interested in promoting the study of acting and theatre as vehicles of connection, communication, and ways to access creative and professional skills such as mindfulness and emotional intelligence. Natalie is committed to anti-racist and inclusive teaching, with special interest in Women's and LGBTQIA+ topics, and supporting diversity, representation, and equal opportunity within the theatre community.
Favorite roles include Alison Bechdel (Fun Home), Hermione (The Winter's Tale), Cathy (The Last Five Years), Irina (Three Sisters), and Jeremy (If You Give a Pig a Pancake...). She was honored to originate the roles of Mimi Ford (Known), Carol Keynard (Doxxed), Senator Casca and Soothy Sue (Rome Sweet Rome), Sonja (Aurora Fra Bergen, or, IBSANITY), Tabitha Haskel (Found), and Eileen Myles (The Age of Innocence) at the University of Iowa. Production photographs for these new plays and others can be found in the Gallery.
Looking forward, Natalie plans to continue acting professionally while also incorporating teaching and directing, which she's found to be thrilling, challenging, and fulfilling in new ways. She hopes to work with interdisciplinary actor-collaborators interested in devising new work, utilizing old and new storytelling forms, highlighting unique and diverse voices, and contributing as equals in the creation of live art. She believes in the power of storytelling; at the heart of theatre, music, film, and other performance art, storytelling continues to forge connection through the exploration of our humanity. She's interested in promoting the study of acting and theatre as vehicles of connection, communication, and ways to access creative and professional skills such as mindfulness and emotional intelligence. Natalie is committed to anti-racist and inclusive teaching, with special interest in Women's and LGBTQIA+ topics, and supporting diversity, representation, and equal opportunity within the theatre community.
Favorite roles include Alison Bechdel (Fun Home), Hermione (The Winter's Tale), Cathy (The Last Five Years), Irina (Three Sisters), and Jeremy (If You Give a Pig a Pancake...). She was honored to originate the roles of Mimi Ford (Known), Carol Keynard (Doxxed), Senator Casca and Soothy Sue (Rome Sweet Rome), Sonja (Aurora Fra Bergen, or, IBSANITY), Tabitha Haskel (Found), and Eileen Myles (The Age of Innocence) at the University of Iowa. Production photographs for these new plays and others can be found in the Gallery.
