| Alice Austen | |
| Birth Name: | Alice Lawton |
| Occupation: | playwright, screenwriter, producer |
Alice Austen is an American playwright, screenwriter, and producer known for writing and producing the critically acclaimed 2019 film Give Me Liberty.[1]
Austen grew up in the Pacific Northwest. She attended the University of Oregon in Eugene, where she ran on the women’s track team.[2]
While at Harvard Law School, Austen co-founded the Harvard Human Rights Journal. She represented the Ministry of Industry in Václav Havel’s nascent Czech government. Austen studied creative writing under Seamus Heaney.[3]
Austen is a past resident at the Royal Court Theatre. Her playwrighting credits include Water, La Musica, and Ninth Man Out at Goodman Theater.[4] [5] [6] Water was a 2006-07 season the Jeff Award Nominee.[7] Her credits with Steppenwolf Theatre include Next Stop[8] and George Orwell’s Animal Farm,[9] which was noted for “its removal of Orwell's dystopian story from its overtly British agrarian setting: The famous anthem "Beasts of England" is now rendered as "Beasts of Earth"”, – wrote Chris Jones of The Chicago Tribune.[10] “A remarkable script, solidifies why this novel and its impact reverberates throughout the world today“ (Newcity Stage).[11]
Girls in the Boat, premiered in 2018 at The First Stage Children's Theater, is a “fast-paced script, which mimics the intensity of an actual sporting event. Audiences dare not blink or they might lose track of a gesture or a thread of a conversation” (Shepherd Express).[12]
Austen won the John Cassavetes Award for Give Me Liberty at the 35th Independent Spirit Awards.[13]
She is a co-founder with Kirill Mikhanovsky of Give Me Liberty, Mfg., a Milwaukee-based film and TV production company.
| Year | Title | Credit | Notes | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2019 | Give Me Liberty | Screenplay, Producer | ||
| 2021 | Brighton 4th | Producer | ||
| 2022 | Happy Birthday Charlie | Producer |
| Year | Association | Category | Nominated work | Result | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2007 | New Work – Play | Water, Chicago Dramatists | |||
| 2020 | Give Me Liberty |