About Elana Gartner

I am a native Brooklynite and a lifelong playwright, starting as early as first grade when my teacher allowed me to direct and act in the first play that I wrote, "The Good Butterfly". Since then, my work has evolved.

My writing tends to focus on character exploration and inner conflict: dramatic circumstances that force characters to confront cognitive dissonance within them. I have always tried to be true to a character's language and have built my capacity for this by actively overhearing conversations wherever I go.

A number of my plays have gone on to full productions or staged readings. "Because of Beth" was produced by Small Pond Entertainment at the Workshop Theater. My script, "Peanut Butter and Jelly" received three productions (The Cat in the Cream, OH; Dramatists Guild, NY; Pulse Ensemble Theater, NY). "Ernie Evan", my first play with a male lead, was performed at Genesis Repertory Ensemble, Heights Players and received a staged reading in 4th Meal Productions' 6x10-A Reading of 6 New Short Plays at the Manhattan Theater Club's Creative Center. "Invisible Lines" was a multi-media collaboration written for and performed by the Department of International Students at Oberlin College. I have written and directed "Baby M" (The Sco, Oberlin, OH), "If I Had Known" (Williams College, MA), "Mind Games" (Saint Ann's Playwriting Festival) and "Platonic" (Saint Ann's Playwriting Festival).

Two of my plays have received additional recognition. "Spinning" was the winner of Fabrefaction Theatre Company™ 2008 New Works Festival and "Because of Beth" was the recipient of third prize in the Pen and Brush Playwriting Competition as well as a finalist in the Open Book 2007 Playwriting Competition.

I am the founder of EMG Playwriting Workshop, which fosters a supportive community for New York City playwrights on a weekly basis. In addition, I am a member of Dramatist Guild, the New York State Theater Association, the New York City Arts in Education Roundtable and I am listed on Doollee.com search engine for playwrights.

In addition to my playwriting, I took turns at many other roles in the theater: singing, acting, stage management, literary, education, props, directing, lighting, and sound. I developed a great fondness for the evolution of Christopher Isherwood's "Berlin Stories" after my first stage managerial experience with John van Druten's dramatic adaptation "I Am A Camera". Several years later, I was thrilled when I got to be a props assistant on the Kander and Ebb musical adaptation, "Cabaret". Having lived in Brooklyn in the 1990's, I also developed a deep love for Anna Deveare Smith's one-woman plays, "Fires in the Mirror" and "Twilight in Los Angeles", based on the Crown Heights and L.A. riots, respectively.

During my exploration of the many aspects of the theater, I had the great fortune of working as a technical apprentice at Williamstown Theater Festival, a technical assistant at Lincoln Center Institute, a props assistant at Connecticut Repertory Theater, a literary intern at both Cherry Lane and Second Stage, an education intern at the Brooklyn Academy of Music, a "Play by Play" Ambassador for the Theatre Development Fund and an editor for Milton E. Polsky's second edition of "You Can Write A Play!".

I helped to found Girls Write Now, a mentoring organization where professional women writers mentor teenage girls on the process of writing. I mentored several teenage girls, taught playwriting and journal writing workshops. I also taught playwriting workshops at a number of the New York State Theater Education Association's "Share Your Drama Power" conferences for New York City students.

I am married to an incredible husband, David, and we live in Prospect Heights, Brooklyn.