LOCAL ATTORNEY FULFILLS A LIFELONG DREAM
- May 18
- 3 min read
Providence RI - From a young age, a Providence Estate planning attorney, Erica Laros, imagined a life shaped by art. She dreamed of being a writer, an artist, a performer, someone who lived inside stories and brought them to life. As a teenager and young adult, she visited the homes of famous artists, hoping proximity to their creative worlds might illuminate her own path. But life, as it often does, charted a different course.
After graduating from Boston University, Erica followed a more traditional professional route, attending law school and becoming an attorney. With a father who practiced real estate law and a mother who worked as a CPA, the legal profession felt like the expected next step. She spent years exploring different areas of the law, working in firms, learning the craft, and eventually finding her place in estate planning, where she now practices full time.
Yet the artistic longing never left her, not for a moment. Erica picked up a camera and discovered a new way to see the world. Photography became her creative outlet, a space where intuition and expression could breathe. Later, after marrying a professional musician, Dave Laros, whose talent and musical imagination she deeply admired, her artistic life shifted again. One day, she stumbled upon a story she felt compelled to tell, and she realized the form it needed was a musical. Her research led her to the life of British writer Anthony Burgess, most famous for writing A Clockwork Orange, whose personal history echoed the struggle she hoped to dramatize. She adapted elements of his life story as a framework to explore the fight against self‑doubt and the ghosts we carry within us.
Together with her husband, she began writing a piece about the most universal antagonist of all: the inner critic. The voices that whisper you’re not good enough, not talented enough, not destined to succeed. These were the same voices Erica had battled throughout her life, and she wanted to give them shape, sound, and ultimately, a reckoning. The result is a fantastical dark musical comedy called MY GHOSTS.
MY GHOSTS pulls back the curtain on the agony of creation. The story follows acclaimed author Cab Curio as he struggles to defeat his most relentless "inner critics" -- the literal ghosts of Shakespeare, Marlowe, and Wilson. Ater being told he only has weeks to live, we watch him racing against a ticking clock, Cab seeks the aid of Lenore, a mysterious clock tower ghost with a secret of her own, in a desperate bid to find his voice before his time runs out, while his ghosts are telling him Don’t Die With Your Music Inside You.
After four years of development, Erica and Dave’s musical My Ghosts, a work born from persistence, vulnerability, and a lifelong yearning to create, will be presented in New York at the Manifestival of plays and musicals. It marks an exhilarating milestone in Erica’s artistic journey, and a testament to the truth she has lived: the creative path may bend, pause, or reroute, but it never truly disappears.
And now, as My Ghosts steps onto its biggest stage yet, Erica and Dave are inviting their community to help carry this dream the final distance. Bringing a new musical to New York requires resources as much as vision, and they are raising $20,000 to meet the practical demands of production; from orchestrations and design elements to lighting, sound, and the venue itself. These are the invisible structures that allow a story to stand upright and be seen. Supporting this work is participation in the birth of a Rhode Island–grown musical that has already resonated in two New York workshops; one at the cabaret Don’t Tell Mama, another at The Open Jar, and on Channel Indie TV. In a world crowded with noise, My Ghosts offers something rare: a chance to confront the voices that hold us back and to watch an artist who once doubted her own creative calling step fully into it.
For those who believe in new work, in local artists, and in the power of a story that dares to speak from the soul, this is a moment to help raise the curtain. Tax deductible contributions of any size move the production closer to the light. To join the effort, readers may contact Erica Laros at ericaelsalaros@gmail.com or go to Fractured Atlas to make a donation https://fundraising.fracturedatlas.org/my-ghosts
For Tickets: Monday August 3rd Tuesday August4th and Saturday August 8th
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