About Elana Gartner

Internationally produced and recognized playwright Elana Gartner is a native Brooklynite and a lifelong playwright, starting as early as first grade when her teacher allowed her to direct and act in the first play that she wrote "The Good Butterfly". That experience led her to believe that a career in playwriting was possible. Since then, she has written Runtime Error (semi-finalist for the Eugene O'Neill National Playwrights Conference), , Jagged Journey (finalist for the Gulfshore Playhouse New Works Festival 2022), Before Lesbians (Dayton FutureFest Finalist, 2nd Place Recipient of the Henley Rose Playwriting Competition for Women; Good Luck Macbeth; Dayton Playhouse; YellowRose Productions; Oberlin College), Because of Beth (Howick Little Theatre; The Workshop Theater), Daughter (UpTheater Company; PlayLab Selection, Great Plains Theatre Conference), Pilar’s Brother (Repertorio Español), Cortex Kin (Dixon Place), Spinning (Fabrefaction Theater Company), and Ernie Evan (Genesis Repertory Theater; Heights Players, 6x10 Festival). Two monologues from Elana’s plays Daughter and Because of Beth were published in “Audition Monologues for Young Women #2: More Contemporary Auditions for Aspiring Actresses “(Meriwether Publishing, Ltd., 2013). Elana founded the EMG Playwriting Workshop and is also a member of the Manhattan Oracles playwriting group. Elana founded the International Centre for Women Playwrights (ICWP) 50/50 Applause Awards and served on the ICWP board for five years. Elana is a member of the Dramatists Guild and holds an MFA from Spalding University.

In addition to playwriting, Elana has worked in many aspects of the theater: stage management, technical theater, theater education, literary, producing and some dabbling in acting and directing. Through these, she has had the great fortune of working at Williamstown Theater Festival, Lincoln Center Institute, Cherry Lane Theatre, Second Stage Theater, Brooklyn Academy of Music, and the Theatre Development Fund. During the corona virus crisis, she founded Four Walls Theater, a socially responsible theater company presenting new works online, using artists from around the nation.

Elana's freelance writing covers gender parity, parenting, theater and disability.

She lives with her family in Prospect Heights, Brooklyn, the unrecognized land of the Lenape people.