Responses

Elana in the Press

4/20/17, Passionate World Radio Network, "Interviews with Lillian S. Cauldwell"
Interview with playwright Elana Gartner on her new play, "Before Lesbians"

5/18/16, TreePress.com
Interview with playwright Elana Gartner

6/18/15, Dramatists Guild Fund "Scholarship Recipient: Elana Gartner"
The essay Elana wrote that got her a scholarship to the Dramatists Guild Conference, 2015

3/19/15, Te Aria Nui "Drama Exposes Family Skeletons"
Press release on the opening of "Because of Beth" at Howick Little Theatre (Auckland, NZ)

10/21/14, Mommikin "Elana Gartner on the best and worst of being a playwright"
Profile of Elana as playwright mom

1/31/13, Samuel French "Sitting Down With Elana Gartner of the International Centre for Women Playwrights"
Interview with Elana as board member of ICWP

1/31/13, Playscripts.com "5 Questions for Elana Gartner of the International Centre for Women Playwrights"
Interview with Elana as board member of ICWP

March 2009, Insight for Playwrights, "The Doer"
Profile of Elana as a playwright

February 25-March 11, 2009, Battery Park City Broadsheet,
"February 10 Pen Parentis Meets Downtown"
Elana attends Pen Parentis reading

Audience and professional feedback about performances

"I think that it is a very important play that deals with difficult issues. It is very rare that a playwright tackles mental illness and even rarer that it addresses mental illness and homosexuality in youth....[Elana's] writing is both humorous and tragic....[the] characters speak with honesty and simplicity."
-Ellen Goldberg, audience member

""Pilar's Brother" was a delightful and thought-provoking performance"
-Jon Greenman, audience member

"It was a powerful production. I grew attached to the characters and was pained to see the evolving trauma they were facing."
-Jonathan Cohn, audience member

"It's a very gutsy play. The writing was sensitive and thoughtful and passionate. I loved it."
-Gail Elberg, audience member

"I thought Cara's journey was compelling and believable....Though everyone changes in this play, she's the one who changes the most. Essentially, this play is about when she grows up, and that's something fascinating to watch."
-James Armstrong, playwright

"It was an engrossing, intense and wonderful play - so beautifully written!"
-Andy Cohn, audience member

"It's moving, engaging, and poignant. The performances were terrific."
-Rose Ortiz, audience member