Elena is a Russian-born, New York–based director and performer. She began her theatre career at 16, performing with the nonprofit Children’s Musical Theatre MIF and the award-winning Francophone Theatre Les Partisan in Izhevsk, Russia. After participating in numerous national and international theatre festivals, she moved to New York in 2010 to pursue an MA in Theatre and Theatre Management at CUNY Hunter College.
Since then, Elena has been actively involved in the New York theatre and film scene, gaining over a decade of experience in both performance and production. Her directorial debut in NYC was The Smoke by Conor McDonald, followed by several years of work with Steps Theatre. Recent credits include White On White by Maya Pramatarova and Theatre Will Not Prepare You For Death by Nika Velt, which premiered at La MaMa in 2024.
A passionate practitioner of physical theatre and mask work, Elena continues to train in modern dance, puppetry, mime, and butoh. She is thrilled to collaborate with an amazing team of artists and bring her creative vision to The Mutt, an adaptation of Dostoevsky—a writer whose exploration of the human soul first inspired her artistic path.