Elana Gartner

Internationally produced and recognized playwright Elana Gartner has written Runtime Error (Transformation Theatre, due for reading, 2021), Before Lesbians (2020 Dayton FutureFest Finalist; 2nd Place Recipient of the 2018 Henley Rose Playwriting Competition for Women. Readings: Oberlin College, Yellow Rose Productions. Virtual readings: Dayton Futurefest; Good Luck Macbeth), Because of Beth (Productions: Howick Little Theatre; The Workshop Theater), Daughter (Reading: UpTheater Company; PlayLab Selection, 2013 Great Plains Theatre Conference), , Pilar’s Brother (Reading: Repertorio Español), Cortex Kin (Reading: Dixon Place), Spinning (Production:Fabrefaction Theater Company), and Ernie Evan (Productions: Genesis Repertory Theater; Heights Players, 6x10 Festival). Elana is the founding member of EMG Playwriting Workshop, and holds memberships with the Dramatists Guild, Honor Roll!, Manhattan Oracles, and the International Centre for Women Playwrights (ICWP), where she was a board member for five years. She was the co-founder of the ICWP 50/50 Applause Awards, recognizing those theaters who demonstrated gender parity in a given season internationally. Elana is currently an MFA candidate at Spalding University. During the pandemic, Elana founded Four Walls Theater which produced socially responsible theatre virtually.

WEBSITE AND SOCIAL MEDIA
http://www.elanagartner.com
https://www.facebook.com/elanagartnerplaywright
TW: @elanagartner
IG: @elanamgartner

MORE ABOUT ME
​Right now I believe that theater has to face a number of changes in how it operates. For years, I have worked to shed light on the lack of gender parity in the industry. I feel that the theater industry also needs to look at the lack of BIPOC artists and administrators in our industry and what stories we are telling our audiences. As a parent artist and one of many, I have advocated for years for better support for parent artists. With the founding of PAAL, some of that reality has started to emerge but the awareness and culture still needs to shift. Due to the pandemic, theater has an opportunity to pause and have a reckoning. Will it move forward as it has been or will it attempt to be more inclusive?

WHAT I'M WORKING ON
I am in my fourth semester in my MFA program. I have a script that I have just completed that I have been working on for four years and I am also working on some additional requirements for graduation. I will be starting some new work soon. 

KEYWORDS
​Family, realism, surrealism, LGBTQ, historical, sexual abuse, #MeToo, abuse, disability, epilepsy