Lizzie Stern (she/her) is a playwright and the Literary Director at Playwrights Horizons, where she provides dramaturgical support to plays both on and off the stage. She has collaborated with many writers at Playwrights, including Will Arbery, Jaclyn Backhaus, Sylvia Khoury, Tori Sampson, and Sanaz Toossi. As a playwright, she is a member of EST/Youngblood and a Colt Coeur 2021-22 resident artist, and has developed her work with SPACE on Ryder Farm, Clubbed Thumb, The Tank, The Hearth, Dixon Place, Two Headed Rep, and New Brooklyn Theatre in Istanbul. She has a B.A. from Williams College.

RECENT SELECTED WORK
-Wish You Were Here by Sanaz Toossi, directed by G.T. Upchurch (upcoming production at Playwrights Horizons)

-Wives by Jaclyn Backhaus, directed by Margot Bordelon (production at Playwrights Horizons)

-If Pretty Hurts... by Tori Sampson, directed by Leah C. Gardiner (production at Playwrights Horizons)

RECOMMENDED BY

"Lizzie is one of the most brilliant, thoughtful, devoted dramaturgs in our field. I worked with her most recently on my play WISH YOU WERE HERE, during which she helped me unearth discoveries about my play without ever losing sight of the play I was trying to write. I love the way she thinks about art, and how she tirelessly interrogates what our field, our stages, and even our processes could look like. I love that she does not separate the person from the artist but thinks holistically about the two. She is the best listener I know. I treasure her deeply and am a better artist for having worked with her."
—Sanaz Toossi, playwright

"Lizzie Stern possesses all of the qualities one could hope for in a dream dramaturg: she’s smart, patient, incisive, generous, articulate, and thoughtful. We worked together on Jaclyn Backhaus’ Wives at Playwrights Horizons and Lizzie was in the trenches with us from the moment the play was programmed. Her script notes, thoughts on rehearsals, and fantastic dramaturgical design eye were invaluable to the process. She was an instrumental part of the team and I felt grateful every day to have her as my dramaturg/collaborator. I can’t wait until I have the chance to work with her again."
— Margot Bordelon, director