Liz Frankel

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Bio

Liz Frankel is an Austin and New York–based dramaturg and creative producer. She helmed the literary office at the Public Theater for nine years, then became the first Director of New Work at the Alley Theatre, where she founded the Alley All New Festival. Her ongoing freelance work has taken her to the Oregon Shakespeare Festival, Williamstown Theatre Festival, the Colorado New Play Summit, the Ojai Playwrights Conference, The Playwrights’ Center, the Eugene O’Neill Theater Center, and Chautauqua Theater Company. Most recently, she has worked as an advisor for Austin’s Texas Performing Arts, sourcing projects for its expanding new work development program and, as a dramaturg, guiding multiple musician-driven projects into world premiere story-centered productions.

A white woman with long brown hair wearing a black scoop-neck top stands with her arms casually crossed in front of a stone wall attempting to look professional while her (unseen) husband photographs her in her apartment (her last New York apartment, which she misses very much.)

Under Liz’s tenure, new works developed and premiered at Houston’s Alley Theatre have received numerous productions around the country, including on Broadway: Sharr White’s Pictures from Home; and off-Broadway: Describe the Night by Rajiv Joseph (Obie Award for Best New American Play), The Cake by Bekah Brunstetter, 72 miles to go… by Hilary Bettis, Amerikin by Chisa Hutchinson and the upcoming Torera by Monet Hurst-Mendoza and The Emporium by Thornton Wilder adapted and completed by Kirk Lynn.

Currently based in Austin, Liz got her start in New York and spends a portion of every year there. She began her career at Manhattan Theatre Club then worked at Waxman Williams Entertainment and Miramax Films before joining the Public Theater.

At the Public, Liz was core to founding and running the Emerging Writers Group, which supported the writing of Appropriate by Branden Jacobs-Jenkins (2024 Tony Award for Best Revival of a Play), Manahatta by Mary Kathryn Nagle, Detroit ’67 by Dominique Morrisseau and The Vagrant Trilogy by Mona Mansour among many other wonderful new plays. She also helped curate and produce the New Work Now! reading series and the Native Theater Festival and worked with the Public LAB and Public Studio workshop programs.

Liz was a Lucille Lortel Awards Nominator during the 2007–2008 and 2008–2009 theater seasons, and she has been on the Reading Committee for the Susan Smith Blackburn Prize, the Terrence McNally Award and the Horton Foote Prize. Her journalistic work has appeared in The Village Voice, Time Out New York, American Theatre, and Northeast Magazine. She is a graduate of Colby College in Waterville, Maine.