Zander Brietzke grew up in Joplin, MO and graduated from Missouri Southern (BA, Theatre). He earned an MFA (directing) from Alabama and later worked as a production assistant for the inaugural seasons of the Alabama Shakespeare Festival in Montgomery. Pivoting from performance to research and scholarship, Zander accepted a fellowship from Stanford University and completed a PhD in Drama in 1993. He subsequently taught at Lehigh University and The College of Wooster for six years.

He left Wooster in 1998 to support his wife Carol’s career move to New York. Staying home in Cobble Hill, Brooklyn, with two small children, Zander embarked on his new path as a stay-at-home dad and independent scholar. Since then, he’s written five books and contributed essays to several more books. He created a teaching guide for the Norton Anthology of Drama, served as president of the Eugene O’Neill Society, and edited seven volumes of the Eugene O’Neill Review at Suffolk University in Boston. He also taught modern and contemporary drama as an adjunct professor for eight years in the English Department at Columbia University.

After raising a family in the lovely town of Montclair, New Jersey, Zander and Carol moved to Decatur, Georgia in 2024. Now engaged on a new project that pairs O’Neill with August Wilson, Zander welcomes opportunities to teach and speak about his work.