Liza Birkenmeier / Playwright

LIZA BIRKENMEIER is the Tow Playwright-in-Residence at Ars Nova, where her play Dr. Ride’s American Beach House premiered this past fall, 2019, directed by Katie Brook. Her work has been developed at Lincoln Center Directors Lab, Rattlestick, The Playwrights Realm, New Georges, Invisible Dog, the Catch Series, Prelude NYC, City Theater in Pittsburgh, University Settlement, and elsewhere. She is a recent member of the Emerging Writers Group at The Public Theater. Her play radio island was on the 2016 Kilroys list and was a finalist for the inaugural Relentless Award; workshop production at NYSAF Powerhouse. She is the writer of the upcoming Jill Sobule musical, to premiere at City Theater in Pittsburgh, Spring, 2020. She is a Macdowell Colony and Yaddo fellow and received her MFA in playwriting from Carnegie Mellon University’s School of Drama.

Liza Birkenmeier and Islander director Katie Brook – most recently worked on Ars Nova’s premiere of Dr. Ride’s American Beach House in November of 2019. Previously, they have developed work together at CATCH, Prelude, Dixon Place, The Public, Playwrights Realm, and The University Settlement Artist-in-Residency program. Their collaborative efforts are always experimental—using text and their roles as director/writer differently almost every time.