Elana Gartner is an internationally produced playwright, the founding artistic director of Four Walls Theater, a socially responsible virtual theater and the founding co-chair of the International Centre for Women Playwrights' 50/50 Applause Award, championing gender parity in theater. Her work has been recognized by the Eugene O'Neill Playwriting Conference, the Kennedy Center Playwriting Initiative and the Great Plains Theatre Conference. She has written articles for HowlRound, WomenArts, Kveller.com and A Child Grows in Brooklyn. Elana holds an MFA in Playwriting.
Internationally produced and recognized playwright Elana Gartner has been produced in New York, Ohio, Tennessee, New Zealand, and has had virtual readings through theaters in Ohio, Colorado and Washington DC. Elana’s work has been a semi-finalist for the 2021 Eugene O’Neill Playwriting Conference. She participated in the Great Plains Theatre Conference and the 2021 Kennedy Center Playwriting Initiative. Elana is the founding member of EMG Playwriting Workshop, and holds memberships with the Dramatists Guild, Honor Roll!, Manhattan Oracles, the League of Professional Theatre Women and the International Centre for Women Playwrights (ICWP), where she was a board member for five years. Elana was the co-founder of the ICWP 50/50 Applause Awards, recognizing those theaters demonstrating gender parity. She has had three monologues from her work published in anthologies. During the pandemic, Elana founded Four Walls Theater which produced socially responsible theatre virtually. Elana has an MFA from Spalding University.