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Northwestern School of Communication

Elizabeth Horn

Associate Professor
I believe every young person deserves access to high quality theatre that reflects their lived experience, helps them navigate the world around them, and empowers them to dream big.

Department

Theatre
Elizabeth Horn

Elizabeth Brendel Horn is an associate professor of theatre, specializing in theatre for young audiences and creative drama at Northwestern University, where she joined faculty in 2025. Her creative interests include personal narrative and devised theatre; applied theatre; and arts and wellness. 

Previously, Elizabeth was an associate professor at the University of Central Florida in partnership with Orlando Family Stage. At UCF, Elizabeth taught in the MFA Theatre for Young Audiences program and undergraduate courses in script analysis, creative drama, devising theatre, and theatre for young audiences. During 2021-2022, she worked on the university level to support faculty integrating High Impact Practices into courses as the HIP Faculty Fellow of the Division of Student Learning and Academic Success. Elizabeth’s teaching has been recognized with the Barbara Truman Award in Blended Teaching (inaugural recipient, 2023); Excellence in Graduate Teaching Award (2020), Excellence in Undergraduate Teaching Award (2022), and a Teaching Incentive Program award (2023).   

Elizabeth’s credits as a director, applied theatre artist, teaching artist, and facilitator of devised theatre include First Stage Academy (Milwaukee, WI), Alliance Theatre Education (Atlanta, GA), Adventure Theatre and ATMTC Academy (Glen Echo, MD), The Coterie (Kansas City, MO), Orlando Family Stage, Orlando Shakespeare Theatre, Dr Phillips Center for the Arts, and Orange County Public Schools. Elizabeth's recent applied theatre initiatives include: "Mind Matters," a new plays and curriculum initiative about mental health for high school students; and the "Jeanette M. Gould Traveling Theater," a creative drama program facilitated by UCF students with pediatric hospital patients. Her most recent directing credits include the Theatre for the Very Young productions Dinosaur Dance Party, The Teddy Bears’ Picnic, and Yo, Ho, Ho! Let’s Go!, all with Orlando Family Stage. Elizabeth’s playwriting credits include Elektra, Medea, and SWALLOWED (an existential crisis) all available through YouthPLAYS, as well as works in development Pitter Patter and Antigone and Ismene. With collaborators Nicole B. Adkins and Scottie Rowell, Elizabeth has also developed two interactive bedside shows for pediatric patients: Let’s Go Camping! and Color Quest.   

Elizabeth has shared research about applied theatre, devising, diversity, and body image and the young actor in over forty presentations at national and international conferences, professional theatres, and universities. She is published with Theatre Topics; Research in Drama and Education; TYA Today; Youth Theatre Journal; Reflective Practice; Storytelling, Self, Society; Teaching Artist Journal; and Canadian Journal of Disability Studies. Her book, Activated Script Analysis (Routledge, 2023), explores ensemble-based play, devised theatre strategies, and creative expression in the script analysis classroom. UCF acknowledged her research and creative activity accomplishments with a Research Incentive Award in 2021.  

Prior to her appointment at UCF, Elizabeth served six years as Artistic Director of the Timber Creek Thespians, where she built a multi-award winning program from the ground up. There, her directing credits included Metamorphoses, Doubt, Oedipus Rex, Elektra, A Midsummer Night’s Dream, A Servant of Two Masters, Rabbit Hole, Urinetown, Legally Blonde, Chicago, Anything Goes, The Wizard of Oz, and Little Shop of Horrors. At Timber Creek, she mentored over twenty student-directed productions and her students performed by invitation at Florida Thespian Festival and the Orlando International Fringe Festival. 
 
Elizabeth has served on the boards of TYA/USA and Florida Theatre Conference (Theatre for Youth division chair). She was awarded the Johnny Saldaña Outstanding Professor of Theatre Education by the American Alliance for Theatre and Education (2021) and the Tom Behm Award in Theatre for Youth by Southeastern Theatre Conference (2020). She holds an MFA in Theatre for Young Audiences from UCF and a BFA in Musical Theatre from Brenau University with the Gainesville Theatre Alliance.