Gwen Arner

Gwen Arner was born in 1936 or 1937 in Omaha, Nebraska, and later raised there.[1] Having become interested in acting during her adolescence, she studied theater at the University of Michigan, gaining her bachelor's and master's degrees in the field.[1]

After abandoning her initial pursuit for a doctoral degree in favor of stage performance work, she made her acting debut at the Mark Taper Forum and later co-founded the Los Angeles Actors' Theatre (LAAT), where she marked her directorial debut.[1] In 1970, she married Donald Moffat, who was one of the LAAT's co-founders; they would remain married until his death on December 20, 2018.[1][2]

Among her LAAT directing credits are productions of The Kitchen and Waiting for Godot, the latter which was shown at Great Performances on PBS in 1977.[1][3] Writing for King Features Syndicate, Charles Witbeck praised her Waiting for Godot production as a "lively, joyful version" of the original, saying that "word reached New York that Los Angeles had a Beckett smasher, the "definitive Godot" in the words of an influential critic."[3] Dana Elcar, who starred in the production, also recalled that Arner had "managed the transition without losing touch".[3] Two of her Mark Taper Forum productions, The Vienna Notes (1979) and Passion Play (1984), won the Drama-Logue Award for Outstanding Direction.[4] Passion Play was also nominated for Best Direction at the 1984 Los Angeles Drama Critics Circle Awards.[5] After Passion Play, she stopped doing stage direction work in Los Angeles for a while, preferring work in television films for residency flexibility reasons.[1]

In 1974, she directed one episode of The Waltons, having received an opportunity to do so "through a connection".[1] She later went on to direct episodes of The Bionic Woman, The Paper Chase, American Playhouse, Dallas, The Colbys, Falcon Crest, Dynasty, Hotel, Alien Nation, The Commish, Law & Order, Beverly Hills, 90210, Dr. Quinn, Medicine Woman, Sisters, and Homicide: Life on the Street.[6] She also directed the films My Champion (1981), Please Don't Hit Me, Mom (1981), Mother's Day on Walton's Mountain (1982), My Town (1986), Necessary Parties (1988), Majority Rule (1992), and Something Borrowed, Something Blue (1997).[6]

Although Arner "found directing much more interesting, more stimulating", she also had some acting credits.[1] particularly in The Trial of the Catonsville Nine (1972), A Question of Love (1978), Stickin' Together (1978), and Making Love (1982).[6]

Arner continued her stage direction career in the Midwestern United States. In his review of a 1988 production of The White Plague (an adaptation of The White Disease) in Evansville, Indiana (starring Derek Rhys-Evans, John Gegenhuber, and Bruce A. Young), Tom Valeo said that, as director, she "heightens the impact of the words by encouraging the cast to deliver them without affectation or melodrama".[7] In 1991, she directed the world premiere of Jeremy Lawrence's play Uncommon Ground at the Northlight Theatre in Evanston, Illinois, starring his husband Moffat and Anna Gunn.[8]

Writing for the Los Angeles Times, Jan Breslauer wrote in 1996 that Arner "has accomplished what few women in her generation--or any generation, for that matter--have. At 59, she's had a successful directing career in both theater and television for more than 20 years."[1]

• Gwen Arner at IMDb