He was raised in Cleveland's Mount Pleasant neighborhood and graduated from St. Ignatius High School in 1968 with Classical Honors.
[2] After trying a career as a poet, Litz took a job as press agent for the New England Repertory Theatre, a small theater company in Worcester, Massachusetts, where he also worked as a stage and production manager.
With the New England Repertory, Litz had roles in Dracula, Chekhov's The Seagull, Molière's The School for Wives, Kyogen comedies, and was an understudy in American Buffalo.
After this experience, he shifted from writing poetry to writing plays early in the 1980s, signing with his first and longtime theater agent, Lois Berman, owner of the boutique agency that represented such playwrights as Sam Shepard, Barbara Fields, Lee Blessing, and Emily Mann.
During the rest of the 1980s, Litz moved to New York City and began working in off-Broadway and regional theater productions.