Bio for Laurette Hankins-O'Connell:                                

The majority of Laurette Hankins-O’Connell’s performing experience is in musical theater. Her first roles were at Duke University as Petra in A Little Night Music, Bonnie in Applause and Joanne in Company; she then played Gypsy Rose Lee in Annapolis Summer Garden Theater’s production of Gypsy.

Moving on to professional theater, she first appeared in two productions at the short-lived Heritage Equity Dinner Theater in Severna Park:  Marge MacDougal in Promises, Promises and Winnie Winslow in No, No Nanette. At the Lazy Susan Dinner Theater in Woodbridge, VA, she played Eliza Doolittle in My Fair Lady, Sally Bowles in Cabaret, Nancy in Oliver and Agnes Gooch in Mame. At the Wye Mills Summer Theater, she played Hope Langdon in Something’s Afoot, and Joan in Dames at Sea.

Laurette then moved to New York City, where she became a member of Actors Equity, AFTRA and SAG.  She performed in the Equity summer tour of The Student Prince, in the Equity Coachlight Theater’s production of South Pacific, and also worked in commercials, films and television.

Laurette was a featured soloist in the AFTRA Variety Showcase in New York City’s Nat Horne Theater (Off-off Broadway). Upon her return to Maryland, she was a featured soloist in two of Maryland Arts Festival’s Superstar Galas. In 2010 and 2011, she debuted her one-woman cabaret, It’s the Journey: Life a La Carte at Standing O Productions, and subsequently performed it at Germano’s in Little Italy. She debuted her Starstruck at the Stork cabaret at Germano’s and brought it back twice.   It was then her pleasure to debut  Musicals, Movies and Moxie—Oh My! , Broadway Goes to the Movies, as well as Broadway Divas & Dames and Broadway Goes Hollywood at Germano’s. She has also performed similar shows more than a dozen times at various local retirement communities, Ginger Cove, Brightview and Charlestown. She is delighted to be doing this special performance to benefit SPAN!

A graduate of Severna Park High School and Duke University, Laurette lives in Severna Park with her husband of 20 years, Kevin O’Connell, and their golden retriever Katie. For the past 11 years, her “day job” has been Associate Dean of Development and Alumni Relations for the University of Maryland School of Nursing.

Laurette dedicates tonight’s performance to her mother, Kathie Giddings Hankins, who was an active member of the Severna Park Community for more than 5 decades. In addition to receiving the ASPIRE award in 2009, and co-chairing SPOT (Severna Park Old Timers) with Scott Jay, her mother co-edited the historical accounting of the early days of Severna Park:  Severna Park Reflections: an album of Memories.

Bio for Anita O'Connor: