E.J. Westlake was born Jane Elizabeth Westlake in Dayton, Ohio, the daughter of Curtis Edison Westlake, a factory worker at Delco Products, and Joy Louise Hauser, a political activist and printer. After graduating from Colonel White Performing Arts SchoolinDayton, Ohio in 1982, Westlake attended the University of Minnesota in Minneapolis where she majored in Theatre Arts and Business (Bachelor of Individualized Studies, 1985).
Westlake moved to Portland, Oregon and began working at the New Rose Theatre first as the Box Office Manager, then as the Marketing Director. There she met Rod Harrel. She, Harrel, and Robin Suttles founded Stark Raving Theatre in 1988 and began developing and staging new plays. Several of Westlake's own plays were staged there, including The Foofy, Open-Toed Shoe: a Not Necessarily Politically Correct, Lesbian, Feminist, Mystery Farce,[2]From Here to Absurdity,Mothers of Heroes, about Westlake's experience with the Benjamin Linder Construction Brigade in Nicaragua,[3] and A.E.: the Disappearance and Death of Amelia Earhart.[4] Westlake also directed several of the plays at the theatre, including Cold Hands, and Split Britches' Little Women: the Tragedy.[5]
Westlake left Stark Raving to begin graduate studies at the University of Wisconsin–Madison in 1992[8] and completed her PhD in Theatre and Drama in 1997.
Westlake is the author of Our Land is Made of Courage and Glory: Nationalist Performance in Nicaragua and Guatemala[9] and is co-editor of Political Performances: Theory and Practice.[10] She is also the author of the popular textbook "World Theatre: The Basics.[11]
