Laura Bergquist

is honored with a Brick from the Stage One Singers - 1997.

Most of us 1997 Stage One Singers met Laura several years ago when she taught and conducted a class on show music at the Wichita Center for the Arts. She invited people who sing in the shower to come sing with a group. We have learned a lot about music--she is a teacher. But we keep re-enrolling in Singers because Laura encourages us to have fun as we make music. Laura Bergquist, "Of Thee I Sing".

Laura Bergquist, Artistic Director of Stage One, loves conducting musicals. As one-half of the team in a brand-new regional theatre, she also uses any of her other talents: writing original incidental music, writing vocal arrangements of the songs for the performers, auditioning performers, accompanying rehearsals, teaching roles, leading the orchestra.

A typical day for this naturally cheerful woman includes teaching high school classes, Stage One business, family life, directing and performing. It's in her nature to be able to juggle a lot, but she occasionally wonders what it would feel like to be rested. Much as she loves and admires her three "very mature" children, she is enjoying her just-emptied nest.

Since her birth in Phoenix, Arizona on May 27, 1956, Laura has been surrounded by the sounds of music. Her parents, Bruce and Lorraine Anthony, are amateur singers and musicians who filled their home with music, dramatic readings and regular trips to theatrical productions. Laura, first of four daughters, began piano lessons at age six with a teacher who recognized and nurtured her tendencies toward improvisation and composition.

By the end of high school, she had to choose between spending time on the team sports she loved or concentrating on music. She chose to major in voice and minor in piano with an eye to becoming an opera diva. The Past Presidents' Club of the Wichita Music Club awarded her a full four year scholarship at Wichita State University.

Laura's college years were productive in several ways. At age 18 she married Joe Bergquist. By her senior year at WSU, they had three children: Philip, Patrick and Lindsay. Her peers and friends include performers who continue to make careers in the arts. Together they performed, gave master class to each other, listened to recordings for hours and managed to travel to operas and recitals.

Because she and Joe had no money to buy tickets, they volunteered as ushers for Music Theatre of Wichita. She soon moved from the door to the stage.

She took a hiatus after college to stay home raising children. Well, perhaps it's more accurate to say she chose another side to her career. From home she taught private piano lessons, accompanied at WSU and joined the music staff at Immanuel Baptist Church. In her "spare time," she wrote and published music, primarily sacred. She has more than 60 works in print or recorded.

When the children grew older, her life shifted again. Beginning in 1988, she enrolled in the Master of Music program at Friends University; re-joined Music Theatre, where she was its first woman conductor/musical director; directed music for the First Methodist Church, including its weekly television show; was hired by Kathy Page-Hauptman to do musical direction and education at the Wichita Center for the Arts; and was assistant to Dr. Cecil Riney with the Singing Quakers. Oh, and she completed the Master's Program with a 4.0 GPA and was named ''Outstanding Graduate Musical Student."

At the Wichita Center for the Arts, Laura developed the theatre musicals and Center Singers (our original venue). When Kathy Page Hauptman moved into developing new musicals with nationally recognized composers, Laura was in charge of choral arrangements, incidental music and organizing musical chaos.

Wayne Bryan, who worked with Laura on a number of Center musicals and at Music Theatre of Wichita, says she is among the most instrumentally-gifted musicians he knows. "She has "the chops" to handle all types of music." Friends and family concur that Laura shows passion for every project she's involved in. Asked what she would rather be doing, she immediately answered, "Nothing else." On further thought, she added, "I like nothing better than relaxing on a beach under an umbrella with a stack of books. But my work will always involve music. My future will probably include education and perhaps ministry.''

Thanks, Laura, for sharing some of your talent and passion with us.

Submitted by the 1997 Stage One Singers; Liz Hicks, compiler

September 3, 1998