Elizabeth Dinkova is an itinerant director, writer, and creator originally from Sandanski, Bulgaria, and a graduate of the MFA Directing program at the Yale School of Drama, where she received the Julian Milton Kaufman prize for directing. She is the Artistic Director of Spooky Action Theater in Washington, DC.

 

In 2021-22, she served as the Associate Artistic Director at 7 Stages Theatre in Atlanta, GA. Recent projects include Cracking Zeus (by Christopher Hampton, at the Alliance Theatre Digital Spotlight Channel), TIT (a visual album inspired by Titus Andronicus, at 7 Stages, a special selection of the NYC Indie Film Theater Festival),  RAGE (adapted from Stephen King, with book & lyrics by Elizabeth and original music by Frederick Kennedy, at Quinnipiac University), The Seagull (adapted by Elizabeth, at Serenbe Playhouse), the opera Orfeo ed Euridice (by W. Gluck Bel, at Cantanti Opera Company), and The Congresswomen (adapted from Aristophanes with original music by Stew, at Queens College). Elizabeth also directed developmental workshops of The Gun Show (co-created by Elizabeth & company, at Synchronicity Theatre), Borderstone (by Natasha Patel, at Actors' Express and WTP), The Uninvited Guest (by Jacqueline Goldfinger, at The Wilma Theatre,),  Elizabeth has taught classes and led workshops at the University of California Riverside, Ryerson University, Quinnipiac University, Queens College CUNY, Working Title Playwrights, Emory University, and the Alliance Theatre. 

 

Elizabeth was the 2017-18 Yale Directing Fellow at the Alliance Theatre in Atlanta, GA. During her fellowship, Elizabeth taught acting classes, produced audience engagement events, including Sanctuary in the Arts, a celebration of the resilience of the local refugee community through showcasing the work of refugee service organizations, and devised a project about gun culture and ownership with theatre professionals, teaching artists, and community members. She was the recipient of a 2019 Idea Capital grant.

 

At the Yale School of Drama, she has directed Bulgaria! Revolt!, co-created with and written by Miranda Rose Hall, If Pretty Hurts Ugly Must Be a Muhfucka by Tori Sampson for the Carlotta Festival 2017, Othello by William Shakespeare and Best Lesbian Erotica 1995 by Miranda Rose Hall. At the Yale Cabaret, she has directed Leonce and Lena by Georg Büchner, the English-language premiere of Boris Yeltsin by Mickaël de Oliveira and How We Died of Disease-Related Illness by Miranda Rose Hall.  As Co-Artistic Director of the Yale Summer Cabaret's 2016 season, Elizabeth co-curated a 4-play season entitled "Seven Deadly Sins,"directing the debut production of Antarctica! Which Is To Say Nowhere, Miranda Rose Hall’s adaptation of Jarry’s Ubu Roi; and the North American Premiere of Adam Geist by Dea Loher. Additional directing credits include a staged reading of Bull by Mike Bartlett (Studio Theater); 14’000 Gray with Machina eX (Goethe Institut participatory theater festival);  Facebook in Memoriam, a devised work (Source Festival DC);  Intertwined by Eli Todorova (Sfumato Theater Festival);  Female Kingdom by Stanislav Kostov (Small Bulgarian Theater in Seattle);  and, at Reed College: King Lear; The Suede Jacket by Stanislav Stratiev; The Bacchae, adapted from Euripides; The Story of a Mother, adapted from Hans Christian Andersen with Jane Doerflinger; and the premiere of Kyle Giller’s The Portrait of the Idiot as a Younger Idiot. 

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As an Assistant Director, Elizabeth Dinkova has worked with directors Susan V. Booth, Timothy Douglas, Rebecca Taichman, David Muse, Michael Kahn, KJ Sanchez, Serge Seiden, Kim Weild, Javor Gardev, Tinashe Kajese-Bolden, Ricgard Garner, Kathleen Worley, and Indumathi Manohar. Before coming to Yale, she served as Studio Theater’s Artistic Apprentice. She is also New York-based ensemble theater company One Year Lease’s former Directing Apprentice.

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She received a BA in Theater and Psychology (double major, Phi Beta Kappa) from Reed College where she wrote her thesis on cultural translation in the theater.