“The first movie I saw absolutely carbon dates me,” recalled Laura. “It was Beauty and the Beast. The crane shot in the ballroom scene! I remember watching that scene and being absolutely blown away. That was the moment I fell in love with movies.”

Laura grew up watching movies and syndicated reruns on cable.

“I saw new movies in the theaters, and I loved old movies on TNT, TBS, and AMC,” she recalled. “We also got VHS rentals from the library and small independent video stores.”

Laura said her parents always encouraged her to pursue her love of television, movies, and theater. Her father, Marshal Gibson, serves on our Hamden Hall Board of Trustees.

“I remember writing this paper in fifth grade about teenagers in the late ‘50s and early ‘60s,” said Laura. “My father said, ‘if you're interested in this, you need to watch Happy Days and Wonder Years.’’ When I heard the music, I wanted to learn more about the wider culture. When I went to see The Thomas Crown Affair remake, my mother said, ‘when we get home, you’re watching the original from 1968.’”

Looking back, Laura also received support from her Hamden Hall teachers. 

“I remember we all had a big term paper in our junior year,” she said. “Anything was pretty much fair game, but you had to get your topic approved. My teacher was Mr. Iampietro. I wrote about violence in movies in the late 1960s as a reflection of the violence occurring during that decade. That was the first time I realized that I could actually do serious academic work on fun, pop-culture topics.”

Those formative years inspired Laura to pursue her college and postgraduate degrees.

“I have a B.A. in American studies and a minor in cinema studies from American University in Washington, D.C., and an M.A. in cinema studies from New York University's Tisch School of the Arts,” said Laura. “I went on to earn my Ph.D. in U.S. history from American University, and my dissertation was on the history of single parents, blended families, and adoption in prime-time American domestic sitcoms from 1955-1990.”

 

Laura also started watching musicals with her family back in kindergarten.

“We used to go to the Shubert Theatre in New Haven,” she recalled. “I remember seeing Kiss Me, Kate and West Side Story. I also saw Damn Yankees in third grade with Jerry Lewis playing Mr. Applegate.”

Laura’s love of musicals came in handy when she recently contributed an essay to the first scholarly work on Newsies.

“I loved the 1992 film,” said Laura. “I bought it on DVD and owned the soundtrack. I saw a ‘call for papers’ at an academic conference, looking for submissions for a book on the film and stage production of Newsies. I wrote my essay on how one character in the film was coded as Jewish and how his involvement with the newspaper delivery strike is tied to the larger history of Jewish involvement in organized labor, unions, and strikes in the late 1800s and early 1900s. My essay was accepted, and the book came out on January 16.”

In addition to her writing career, Laura has also been an adjunct professor at American University.

“I taught a course on The 1980s Teen Films of John Hughes,” said Laura. “I also taught a course called All in the 70s: American History through Sitcoms and one called Rom-coms and Sitcoms: Redefining Gender Roles and Family in American Popular Culture. That course covered TV and movies from the 1930s through the 1990s. When Harry Met Sally was the clear favorite rom-com, and the biggest laugh of the entire semester was the deli scene, which seems to be absolutely timeless.”

Laura also has lasting memories of former Hamden Hall English teacher Bill Hunter from her days on his debate teams.

“One of the extracurriculars that I did all four years at Hamden Hall was debate,” recalled Laura. “And now, I am an assistant debate coach with the Washington Urban Debate League at the City Center Public Charter School, NoMa campus.”

Laura is also a fan of the cultural scene and many wonderful theaters in the D.C. area.

“I love watching old movies at the AFI Silver Theatre and Cultural Center in Silver Spring, Md.,” recommended Laura. “I saw a Robert Redford retrospective and a Valentine's Day festival with Cary Grant movies. There was also nothing like watching classic films, like Lawrence of Arabia and Ben Hur, on the big screen. There are also the Wolf Trap in Vienna, Va., and the Music Center at Strathmore in Bethesda, Md. They often show movies with a live orchestra on stage. I've seen the original Star Wars trilogy, Indiana Jones, and Jurassic Park.”

While it was difficult to choose, Laura was able to name her top five films.

“My favorite movie is Rebel Without a Cause,” said Laura. “And, the rest of my top five are unranked and listed below in no particular order: Back to the Future, Adventures in Babysitting, West Side Story, and Breakfast Club.”