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. "Spinning" received a full production at Fabrefaction Theatre Company™ in Atlanta. My script, "Peanut Butter and Jelly" received two productions (The Cat in the Cream, OH; Pulse Ensemble Theater, NY) and one staged reading (Dramatists Guild, NYC.). "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).

Many of my scripts have received additional recognition. "Pilar's Brother" was a finalist for Repertorio Español's 2010 Met Life Nuestra Voces Playwriting Competition. "Cortex Kin" was a finalist for Stone Soup Theatre's Double (XX) Fest 2.0 and a semi-finalist in the 2010 Drury University One-Act Playwriting Competition. "Spinning" was the winner of Fabrefaction Theatre Company™'s 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. "Tag on Toe" was a finalist for Little Fish Theatre's Hella Fresh Fish 3.0 Short Play Festival.

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.

My writing has many influences. 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" at Connecticut Repertory Theater. 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 literary intern at both Cherry Lane Theatre and Second Stage Theater, 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!, in addition to ten years of stage management at various theaters.

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.

Outside of playwriting and theater, I have also done some freelance writing for various websites, anthologies and newsletters.

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