The Playwright

Rob Lauer

The Playwright, First Freedom

Rob. Lauer is an award-winning playwright and director. His first play "Digger" won the 1982 Mayhew Award, was later produced to critical acclaim and published in 1988. In 1990 he became the first playwright to win both the Best Play of the Year Award (for his satire ("Tom and Penny's Yard Party") and the Paul T. Nolan Award (for his urban drama "The Church Street Fantasy") at the Deep South Writers conference.

In 1986 Rob founded the Olde Theatre Company in Virginia, serving as Artistic Director until 1990. While at the Olde Theatre Company he directed and designed over 20 productions of classic American plays, musicals and original new works. In 1988, his production of "Sunday in the Park with George" won three Portfolio Awards—including best show of the year. In 2000, "Portfolio" magazine chose "Sunday in the Park" as one of the ten best shows produced in southeastern Virginia over the previous fifteen years.

From 1996 until 1999, Rob served as Artistic Director of Sail Productions in New York City, writing, directing and designing three national tours annually of new family-oriented musicals. These productions—which continue to tour the country annually—include the authorized stage version of "The Hundred and One Dalmatians."

You will need the Adobe Flash Player plugin to play this video.		You will need the Adobe Flash Player plugin to play this video.
You will need the Adobe Flash Player plugin to play this video.		I grew up in Virginia just a few moments from Colonial Williamsburg, Jamestown, Yorktown. I am very familiar with that period of history having visited those places since childhood and studying the period. —Rob Lauer

The central message of First Freedom is one that is often forgotten I think in our county on both sides of the political spectrum and that is that the best way to preserve religious freedom is to have a completely secular government. That that can seem revolutionary in 2006 to a lot of people I think is a testament of how we have come from our actual roots in the founding era, and to remind Americans of that and of the virtue of that of having a completely secular government that allows people to follow their conscience and their own convictions regarding God, faith, ethics, is really a huge advancement in the history of mankind. Virginia was the first government in human history that we know of to have a completely secular government, it predated even the constitution. And James Madison was the man behind it all, even though Thomas Jefferson wrote the Statue of Religious Freedom and took great pride in it. In fact it was one of three things that he was most proud of in his career. It was James Madison that was a good 10-12 years younger than Jefferson, a man just starting out in politics who actually maneuvered, and fought, and argued, and wrote, and campaigned, and eventually succeeded in passing the statue in to law and making a huge difference in the history of mankind."

—Rob Lauer

In 2000 and 2001, Rob served as production manager and head writer of MGA Films, Inc. in Colorado. At MGA, he worked as researcher and head writer of the award-winning film "Terror from Within"—an investigative documentary on the Oklahoma City Bombing. He also wrote and directed the documentary "Fear No Evil"—an exploration of the lives of the survivors of the bombing. His final project for MGA was writing the treatment for the upcoming film, "The Great Dane Thor"—based on the classic teen novel by Walter Farley.

From 2002 until 2005, Rob served as Artistic Director of the State of Georgia's "official folk-life play," the nationally renowned "Swamp Gravy" in Colquitt, Georgia. In this position he also founded and served as Artistic Director of a professional theatrical company at the Cotton Hall Theatre. Casting all productions out of New York City, Rob directed productions of "Smoke on the Mountain," wrote and directed a new version of "Huckleberry Finn," and for three years directed his critically acclaimed musical "A Southern Christmas Carol."

In 2003, First Freedom Productions commissioned Rob to write an outdoor historical pageant celebrating the work of Thomas Jefferson and James Madison in bringing to pass the Virginia Bill for Religious Freedom. Over the course of development, the proposed outdoor pageant became the new musical "First Freedom," for which Rob wrote the book and lyrics. The musical made its world premiere in a successful workshop production directed by Jamie Young, at Western Wyoming College in November of 2006.

Rob has over 25 years experience working as a professional actor in theatre and TV. From 1992 until 1996, he was a member of New York's world famous children's theatre troupe, The Prince Street Players. His numerous theatrical acting credits include "Joseph & the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat," Marilyn: An American Fable," "Anything Goes," "Fiddler on the Roof," and "The Lion in Winter." His TV credits include regular appearances on the Family Channel series "Big Brother Jake," the Discovery Channel series "The New Detectives" and "The FBI Files," as well as TV commercials for New York City's Tavern on the Green.

Rob has also worked as a commercial artist, a story board artist for film, a scenic and costume designer in theatre and book illustrator. He illustrated the 1983 best-seller "Sensitive Parenting" by nationally syndicated columnist Dr. Katherine Kersey.

Also I am somewhat of a philosophy nerd, I love reading and studying philosophy, especially the ideas that emerged in the 1700s during the Enlightenment. These are the same ideas that influenced are founding fathers in organizing our government. And so when I was approached in 2003 with the possibility of writing First Freedom, I was very excited. It seemed like the perfect project for me, almost like a dream come true. In fact I tried to control my excitement for fear I might not get the job. But in the end I was hired and I have enjoyed working on it for the last three years. Its been a dream project for me."

—Rob Lauer

The main debate that we dramatize in First Freedom that existed between the founding fathers was on the purpose of government. There were those who believed then as now that it was the purpose of government that the people were virtuous and that if people were virtuous, liberty would be maintained. There were others who believed that the purpose of government was to protect the rights and the liberty of the individual and if the laws were rational that in the end people would choose to be virtuous on their own accord. And so the debate was whether to have a state church, state sanctioned religion, state supported religion, or no religion whatsoever. The battle was won over 200 years ago and it was pretty much that liberty should be defended and rights should be defended by a completely secular government. And in that way people would be free, completely free without government interference to pursue their own religious convictions and beliefs."

—Rob Lauer