"The high-quality productions are a credit to the vital artistic community Fields has cultivated. Inventive directors who can work on a shoestring budget (such as Abigail Deser and Alana Dietze) and some of the city’s most brilliant oddball performers are as integral to Echo’s success as its deep bench of maverick dramatists."
Charles McNulty, The Los Angeles Times
"The 52 best places to see plays and musicals in Southern California"
Alana Dietze is a Los Angeles-based director, educator and actor. During her tenure as Associate Artistic Director of the Echo Theater Company, KCRW’s Anthony Byrnes said “Ms. Dietze has directed a string of plays at the Echo, including Dry Land and A Small Fire, that have provided tender, poignant and fierce windows on the female experience. If you don’t know her work, you should.” Her 2021 World Premiere of Poor Clare with the Echo received 8 LADCC Awards including Production and Direction. Other notable productions with the Echo include Crabs in a Bucket (LADCC Winner for Writing and Costumes, World Premiere), The Wolves (LADCC Winner for Ensemble), Dry Land (Ovation Winner for Production, Intimate Theater), The Found Dog Ribbon Dance (included in Best Season Ovation Nomination) and A Small Fire (Ovation, Stage Raw and LADCC nominee). Dry Land was remounted at the Kirk Douglas Theatre as part of Center Theater Group’s inaugural Block Party program (7 Ovation nominations including Direction and Production, Large Theater). Other directing work includes Sometimes the Rain, Sometimes the Sea (Cal Rep), Red Bike (Cal Rep), Poor Clare (Occidental College), Our Dear Dead Drug Lord (Cal Rep), I'll Get You My Pretty (LATC/ USC), A List of Happenings at 1016 14th St (UCLA), Elevada (Occidental College), Still Harvey Still (UCLA), You On The Moors Now (CSARTS-SGV) and Ripe Frenzy (Greenway Ct. Theater). A devoted champion of new plays, she has led workshops and readings with Playwrights Center, USC, The Getty Villa, CTG, Public Assembly (where she is also a founding company member and the resident Casting Director), Playwrights Arena, Ammunition Theater, Luna Stage, Garry Marshall, Skylight, IAMA, EST/LA, Moving Arts, Antaeus and more. Alana is originally from Oakland, CA and holds a BA in Theater from Occidental College. Prior to becoming Associate Artistic Director, she served as the Echo’s Literary Manager for ten years. In addition to her frequent guest directing appointments at colleges and universities, she serves as a Faculty Lecturer at CSULB and Occidental College.