About Me

"If I were to ask you why, my sincerest hope is that your answer would be: Why Not?"

Lara Jay grew up in a small town in Western Massachusetts, a little bit to the left of the middle of nowhere. She distinguished herself at an early age as a smart, overly-imaginative child who would spend more time reading The Hobbit than whatever else she was supposed to be doing. At the age of 13 she asked her parents for a sword for her birthday. Much to her surprise she got it and the rest is, shall we say, history.

Not having any brothers or sisters, she found herself with plenty of time to teach herself how to use said sword. In the vast woodlands behind her childhood home she learned how to make the sword an extension of her body. She was fascinated at how people in movies and films performed sword fights without hurting each other. Mimicking movements that she studied from such shows as "Highlander" and "Xena" she taught herself broadsword stage combat. In her Sophomore year of High School she decided to take what she had taught herself and developed a performance which she calls "Sword-Dancing." This consists of picking a piece of music she is familiar with and improvising a "dance" using sword fighting techniques. Basically a variation on the Japanese weapon "katas." She performed to Lorena McKennit's "Mummer's Dance." She received a standing ovation and has not looked back.

Lara has trained with some of the best stage combatants and stunt performers in the industry. The bulk of her traditional stage combat training came from Edward "Ted" Sharon while she was attending Salem State College. Under his tutelage she was certified with the Society of American Fight Directors as an Actor/Combatant. In 2004 she travelled to Seattle, WA to be a part of the International Stunt School presented by the United Stuntmen's Association and run by David Boushey; the founder of the Society of American Fight Directors and the United Stuntmen's Association. There she trained in fight work, including Wu-Shu lessons from Eric Chen who has worked with such actors as Jet Li, Jackie Chan and Jason Statham. She decided to forgo the stunt driving section of class work; realizing that no one in their right mind would pay her to do any driving, and instead spent more time focusing on wire work and horse riding. Lara had previously spent time training with horseback riding and is very good with horses, having worked with them extensively at a rare-breeds conservation farm in Maine.

Lara particularly enjoyed working with Bill Boggs, learning how the technical aspects of stunts worked, and also loved being set on fire.

In 2005 Lara auditioned for a show called "The Young Blade" which was a real turning point for her. From that audition she gained a great group of friends, multiple roles and her best friend and greatest love, Daniel Minkle. They have worked together in "Pastimes"; an interactive theatre group in the Boston/North Shore area, with the group he had founded; "Suit of Sables Theatre," including the production "Demonslayers" in which she played Ryan Cross, the lead character, a vampire hunter, in what may be the most challenging performance known to mankind, a 2 hour action filled show, described by the Weekly Dig as; "WICKED FUN!"

Her favorite roles include being a priest in "Jesus Christ Superstar," E.K. Hornbeck in "Inherit the Wind," and her recurring role as Anne Bonney in "Pastimes' Salem Pirate Faire" despite the fact that they killed her off when she wasn't looking...

Lara has been a fixture of the Salem Haunted Happenings for 6 years, with a vaguely acrobatic performance as a cat on the Essex Street walking mall, and has been featured on several channels' news programs, and had a front page article written about her in the North Shore Sunday about her work with Pastimes, her stunt training and the aforementioned street performance.