Eliza Beckwith (HR! ALLY)

A director of new plays and as well as a producer and an educator, Eliza Beckwith lives in Brooklyn, NY. She is Co-Artistic Director of New Directions Theater, with frequent collaborator and playwright Richard Willett, and has directed premieres of his plays "Tiny Bubbles", "The Flid Show" (starring Mat Fraser), "Random Harvest" and "Triptych". A production of Mr. Willett’s "9/10" is planned for 2021. Also with NDT, Olga Humphrey’s "F-Stop". She is member of The Ensemble Studio Theatre, and has directed four times in their Marathon of One-Act Plays, many times in Youngblood’s Asking for Trouble and held the post of Managing Director. In the Cabaret world, Eliza has staged shows in numerous venues throughout NYC (Don’t Tell Mama, The Metropolitan Room, West Bank). As a teacher, Eliza led the E.S.T. Institute Lab, has taught at Alfred University (her alma mater) and Prince George’s Community College. Eliza began her New York theatre career backstage at the Orpheum Theatre with the original production of "Little Shop of Horrors", where she was Wardrobe Mistress, Dresser and “Stage Right Finale Plant Puppeteer” all at the same time.

WEBSITE AND SOCIAL MEDIA
FB: Eliza Beckwith
IG: @oscarsperambulator

MORE ABOUT ME
My most gratifying moment in theatre came this past early fall when I sat with an audience outdoors at the Stull Observatory at Alfred University, and watched my students perform Annie Jump and the Library of Heaven, by Reina Hardy. We had started rehearsals for an indoor production in February, switched to zoom rehearsals in March, met all summer virtually, and then put the play up while following all safety protocols in the open air for a distanced and limited audience. To see live theatre again, especially something that I'd directed, filled me with more joy than I can describe, and sharing the moment (via facetime) with the playwright was fantastic. Faced with seemingly insurmountable odds to producing live theatre in 2020, we had done it!

WHAT I'M WORKING ON
Preparing for a 2021 production of Richard Willett's play "9/10" to commemorate the 20th anniversary of the attack on the World Trade Center.