Harriet Vee Lawrence

Harriet Vee Lawrence, age 85, of Fairfax, Virginia passed away on Friday November 8, 2019 with her loving husband at her side. She was preceded in death by her daughter Marsha and her sister Rona Balser. Harriet is a native of Chevy Chase; she performed on stage at the age of eight in DC; learned improvisation with Viola Spolin and Paul Sills at the Young Actor’s Company in Hollywood before they began Second City and the Improv, Chicago in the 1950s. She earned a BS in Communication at Syracuse; a Master’s degree in Education at GMU; a Doctorate in Human Resource Development at Virginia Tech; and taught as an adjunct professor at the VA Tech Graduate Center in Falls Church. For 25+ years she consulted nationally and abroad in her firm, Management by Communication. Harriet enjoyed learning from the outstanding GMU faculty in Theater Arts. Her new play, INDOMITABLE, was completed May, 2013. Harriet was affiliated with GMU; the Dramatists Guild, NYC; and the Forum, Bethesda, Maryland. Harriet began writing plays in 2004 at George Mason University (GMU), Fairfax, VA, with Heather McDonald, playwright and artistic director in Performing Arts. She made the final cut of the 2011 First Light Theater of the First Amendment (TFA) Playwriting Competition with her unfinished fourth play, LEGACY. A reading of LEGACY was performed February, 2012, at Wellesley College, MA, in a class on Memoir for Nora Hussey, Director of Theatre and Theatre Studies. Her second full-length play, SEASON won the First Light Theater of the First Amendment Competition, in March, 2007, at GMU. Her award was a week of workshopping her play with a professional cast of Equity actors, a director and dramaturg. The week culminated in a staged reading with audience feedback. SEASON had four staged readings in the DC Metro area. The revised copy made a final cut at Stageworks/Hudson, 2011 “Play By Play” Festival, New York. She also had staged readings of her play Indomitable! at Potomac Playmakers in Hagerstown, MD, where she gave a reading of her 5th play in 2016, with Drs. Raymond V. Damadian (inventor of the MRI) and Larry Minkoff, the lead characters in Indomitable! about the Inventor of the first MRI in the world. She is survived by her husband, of 43 years Myron "Mike" Lawrence, her children; David Baturin and Joni Grigsby, David's children; Chelsey Baturin, Joni's children; Eli and Raymond Grigsby. She is also survived by her sister Phyllis Wolowitz. A funeral service for Harriet will be held Friday, November 15, 2019 at 10:00 AM at Temple Rodef Shalom, 2100 Westmoreland Street, Falls Church, VA 22043. A committal service will follow at King David Memorial Gardens, Hollywood Road, Falls Church, VA 22042.