All Her World's a Stage
by Timothy McKernan
If
you're one of those USD alums with less-than-fond memories
of commuting to campus, meet Lauri Thompson. Then quit yer
bellyachin'. Even the I-15 on a rainy Friday afternoon pales
beside Thompson's trek.
While attending the School of Law, Thompson rose every day at 5:30 a.m. in Las Vegas, a city that boasts an active volcano and a replica of the Eiffel Tower, but at the time had no law school. After an hour-long flight to San Diego and a full day of classes, she hopped a plane back to Las Vegas, heading directly to the Tropicana Hotel and her job as the principal dancer in Les Folies Bergere, one of the city's longest running revues. She came off stage after midnight, rushed home to bed, only to wake at dawn and do it all over again - five days a week.
"It wasn't easy at times," says the 1998 graduate, now an associate at the law firm of Quirk & Tratos in Las Vegas, where she specializes in entertainment law. "But I always wanted to go to law school, so after waiting for years for one to open in Las Vegas, I pursued other options.
"I wanted a good law school with an accessible airport," adds the 43-year-old Thompson."USD has a well-respected law school, and I managed to make the airline flight schedules work at a reasonable price. I studied between classes, on the plane and in my dressing room."
Many of her classmates worked through school, but it's
a safe bet no others performed twice nightly in a sequined
costume before thousands of people. For Thompson, however,
it was second nature. She began dancing at age 3 and by
the end of her teen-age years had performed professionally
with the Pioneer Memorial Theater Company and Ballet West
in Salt Lake City, and the Jackson Ballet in Mississippi.
In Les Folies, she was the principal adagio act,
combining the strength and agility of gymnastics with elements
of
classic dance.
Despite the tiring commute, Thompson says working with the Folies was the easiest part of her law school career.
"My third year was the most difficult, even though I was only flying to San Diego three days a week," she says. "I was with the Folies for 14 years and knew exactly what I was doing, but then I stopped performing to clerk with Quirk & Tratos. The law was completely new and required an entirely different type of concentration."
But
Thompson was determined — and, it seems, destined -
to have a career in entertainment law. After earning a degree
in fine arts from the University of Utah, she began an odyssey
through the entertainment industry. At an international
ballet competition in Jackson, Miss., she met dance partner
Jamey Gallagher, who suggested the duo put together an act
for Las Vegas. The two honed their routine on the television
series "Star Search," then joined the Folies in
1984.
Thompson didn't stop at dancing. During her 14-year Folies career, she also started a production company, owned an entertainment consulting business and, for two seasons, moonlighted as Susie Spirit in the "Gorgeous Ladies of Wrestling" television series.
"That was an experience," laughs Thompson, "but I kept my ears and eyes open and learned how television works."
All that on-the-job training taught her that the spotlight is anything but a lonely place, and led naturally into her current career.
"There is really no such thing as a solo performer," she says. "It takes the talents of hundreds of people to make a production like the Folies happen - the vast majority of whom the audience never sees. I've always been fascinated by that collective accomplishment, and now, as an attorney, I act as a facilitator, doing the deals that help bring all the creative people together."
Thompson and husband Allen Bracken, the production manager for Las Vegas magician Lance Burton, have two sons, Nikolas, 4 and Alexander, 2. The family, she says, helped ease her transition from the stage to the world of copyrights, contracts and rights of publicity.
"Becoming a mom totally changed the focus of my life,"
she says. "I had been performing for as long as I can
remember, and it got to be second nature for me. Hearing
the applause was pretty nice, but now I come home after
a long day, see my beautiful children and know my clients
incorporate my work into successful endeavors. That is even
more rewarding than a standing ovation."