ELIZABETH DINKOVA
Director & Writer
ABOUT

Photo by Darrow Montgomery
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. She was the recipient of the DC Commission of Arts and Himanities's Fellowship Grant in 2024, and an 2019 Idea Capital grant in 2019. In 2021-22, she was an Associate Artistic Director of 7 Stages Theatre, Atlanta's hub for boundary-pushing international theater. She is an alum of the Alliance Theatre’s Artistic Leadership fellowship and the Studio Theatre's Artistic Apprenticeship. During her time at the Yale School of Drama, she served as the co-artistic director of the Yale Summer Cabaret in its 2016 season.
Recent projects include: Richard Strauss’s opera Salome with Heartbeat Opera (NYC); Spooky Action’s Frontiéres Sans Frontiéres, Sonnets for an Old Century and workshop of Syrena; Hamlet and Coriolanus at Shakespeare in the Woods; Rage, a play with music inspired by Stephen King's eponymous novel, at Quinnipiac University; the visual album TIT, inspired by Titus Andronicus and co-written with Jesse Rasmussen, at the NYC Indie Theatre Film Festival; The Seagull at Serenbe Playhouse; and the opera Orfeo ed Euridice at Bel Cantanti Opera Company. Elizabeth has also developed new work at The Wilma, Woolly Mammoth Theatre Company, the Actor's Express, and the Alliance Theater. Elizabeth has taught classes and led workshops at the University of California Riverside, Toronto Metropolitan University, Quinnipiac University, Queens College CUNY, Working Title Playwrights, Emory University, and the Alliance Theatre.
At the Yale School of Drama, she 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 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).
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.
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.



