ELISE FREE
Elise Free is a contributor for, Scary Mommy, The Mighty, Buzzfeed, Mamalode, LA Parent, with essays shared on social media by Amy Schumer, Elizabeth Banks, Felicity Huffman and Helen Hunt.
In 2017, her screenplay, A SONG UNSUNG won Best Screenplay at The LA Femme International Film Festival, won Second Runner-Up at the 2018 Beverly Hills Film Festival and was a finalist with the International Family Film Festival in Los Angeles and a semi-finalist in the Academy-Award-qualifying Nashville Film Festival and a Finalist with The Lady Filmmakers Festival in Beverly Hills. In 2019, her one-hour dramatic television pilot IOWA won Best Television Pilot at the LA Indie Film Festival, a Finalist in the Cannes Screenplay Festival, Finalist with the LA Femme Film Festival in Beverly Hills and qualified as a quarter-finalist with the LA International Screenplay Awards. In 2018, her short screenplay THE INTERROGATION was a semi-finalist in the 2018 Nashville Film Festival and in 2019 won Best Comedic Short at The Atlantic City Cinefest, Distinctive Screenplay Achievement at the Muscatine Independent Film Festival and was accepted to the Northeast Film Festival and The Sioux City International Film Festival.
Her plays have been produced at the Harold Clurman Theatre, the Abingdon Theatre and the Creative Place Theatre in NYC and The Gardner Stages in Los Angeles.
Her play HOSPITAL CORNERS was selected for submission to the Williamstown Playwriting Festival and the Ojai Playwriting Festival. In 1994, Elise won the Dartmouth Book Award and was offered a scholarship. Her plays HOLDING ACHILLES and HOSPITAL CORNERS have received readings and staged readings with The Road Theatre Company, Deaf West Theatre and East West Players in Los Angeles. Her one-act “The Hypothetical Ginko Biloba Cello Who Fell in Love with a City Bus” was nominated for the Pittsburgh New Works Festival.
In 2014, her essays, “Finding Out” and “The Amazing Grace of a Snake” were published by Literary Mama Magazine and her poem, entitled, “The Farmer’s Wife” appeared in Kindred Magazine by Anchor and Plume Press. Her short play, "Only Visiting" was published by Heuer Publishing.
In 2018, Elise and her daughter Adelaide appeared on NPR’s “Talk of Iowa” discussing life with cystic fibrosis.
Elise holds a B.A. in English and Theatre/Playwriting from the University of Iowa (where she won the Nicholas Meyer Playwriting Scholarship). She later studied with the David Henry Hwang Playwriting Institute at East West Players in Los Angeles, and with playwright Paula Cizmar and A.S.K. Theatre Projects. She was nominated a second year as a Los Angeles Stage Alliance member as an Ovation voter for all of LA’s theatre productions (LA’s equivalent of the Tony Awards). She works for the beloved Broadway and television director, Arvin Brown (NCIS, American Buffalo, The Practice), and previously as a research assistant for producer, screenwriter Rick Cleveland (The West Wing, Nurse Jackie, Mad Men, Six Feet Under). She lives in Iowa with her daughter Adelaide, a naughty Corgi pup, two kittens, two fish, a guinea pig and they’re thinking about a getting a goat.
(2018)
Elise Free is a contributor for, Scary Mommy, The Mighty, Buzzfeed, Mamalode, LA Parent, with essays shared on social media by Amy Schumer, Elizabeth Banks, Felicity Huffman and Helen Hunt.
In 2017, her screenplay, A SONG UNSUNG won Best Screenplay at The LA Femme International Film Festival, won Second Runner-Up at the 2018 Beverly Hills Film Festival and was a finalist with the International Family Film Festival in Los Angeles and a semi-finalist in the Academy-Award-qualifying Nashville Film Festival and a Finalist with The Lady Filmmakers Festival in Beverly Hills. In 2019, her one-hour dramatic television pilot IOWA won Best Television Pilot at the LA Indie Film Festival, a Finalist in the Cannes Screenplay Festival, Finalist with the LA Femme Film Festival in Beverly Hills and qualified as a quarter-finalist with the LA International Screenplay Awards. In 2018, her short screenplay THE INTERROGATION was a semi-finalist in the 2018 Nashville Film Festival and in 2019 won Best Comedic Short at The Atlantic City Cinefest, Distinctive Screenplay Achievement at the Muscatine Independent Film Festival and was accepted to the Northeast Film Festival and The Sioux City International Film Festival.
Her plays have been produced at the Harold Clurman Theatre, the Abingdon Theatre and the Creative Place Theatre in NYC and The Gardner Stages in Los Angeles.
Her play HOSPITAL CORNERS was selected for submission to the Williamstown Playwriting Festival and the Ojai Playwriting Festival. In 1994, Elise won the Dartmouth Book Award and was offered a scholarship. Her plays HOLDING ACHILLES and HOSPITAL CORNERS have received readings and staged readings with The Road Theatre Company, Deaf West Theatre and East West Players in Los Angeles. Her one-act “The Hypothetical Ginko Biloba Cello Who Fell in Love with a City Bus” was nominated for the Pittsburgh New Works Festival.
In 2014, her essays, “Finding Out” and “The Amazing Grace of a Snake” were published by Literary Mama Magazine and her poem, entitled, “The Farmer’s Wife” appeared in Kindred Magazine by Anchor and Plume Press. Her short play, "Only Visiting" was published by Heuer Publishing.
In 2018, Elise and her daughter Adelaide appeared on NPR’s “Talk of Iowa” discussing life with cystic fibrosis.
Elise holds a B.A. in English and Theatre/Playwriting from the University of Iowa (where she won the Nicholas Meyer Playwriting Scholarship). She later studied with the David Henry Hwang Playwriting Institute at East West Players in Los Angeles, and with playwright Paula Cizmar and A.S.K. Theatre Projects. She was nominated a second year as a Los Angeles Stage Alliance member as an Ovation voter for all of LA’s theatre productions (LA’s equivalent of the Tony Awards). She works for the beloved Broadway and television director, Arvin Brown (NCIS, American Buffalo, The Practice), and previously as a research assistant for producer, screenwriter Rick Cleveland (The West Wing, Nurse Jackie, Mad Men, Six Feet Under). She lives in Iowa with her daughter Adelaide, a naughty Corgi pup, two kittens, two fish, a guinea pig and they’re thinking about a getting a goat.
(2018)
