Elena Araoz (Director) is a stage director of theater and opera as well as an actress and writer. As a director, she works internationally, Off-Broadway and across the country. Upcoming this season, Araoz will direct the world premiere opera I Am A Dreamer Who No Longer Dreams by creator and librettist Cerise Jacobs and composer Jorge Sosa (White Snake Projects at The Paramount in Boston), the New York premiere of Migdalia Cruz’s Fur (New York Theatre Workshop Next Door and Boundless Theatre Company), the 30-city national tour of Sugar Skull! A Dia de Los Muertos Musical Adventure (Mexico Beyond Mariachi), and Melisa Tien’s Best Life (JACK). Araoz’s most recent NYC productions include the Off-Broadway world premiere of Adam Seidel’s Original Sound (Cherry Lane Theatre), Mac Wellman’s A Chronicle of the Madness of Small Worlds (New York Theatre Workshop Next Door), Maria Irene Fornes’ plays Mud and Conduct of Life (Boundless Theatre Company), Melisa Tien’s Swell created with 10 immigrant composers (HERE), Catherine Filloux’s Kidnap Road (La Mama), Octavio Solis’s Prospect (Boundless Theatre Company), Dipika Guha’s Mechanics of Love (To-by-For Productions), Virginia Grise’s She-She-She (Ice Factory Festival, New Ohio Theatre), Hilary Bettis’ Alligator (New Georges and The Sol Project), Warren Leight’s new play Union Square Incident for The 24 Hour Plays on Broadway (American Airlines Theatre), and theatrical events for Anna Deavere Smith and the Institute on the Arts and Civic Dialogue, PEN America and The Cathedral of St. John the Divine. Internationally, she directed the world premiere of Li Tong Chen's The Power in Beijing, the first English-language play commercially produced in Beijing, A Midsummer Night’s Dream for Prague Shakespeare Festival in the Czech Republic, and the world premiere of Jaclyn Villano's Unanswered, We Ride for the Edinburgh Festival Fringe, Scotland (which was also seen at 59E59 and Last Frontier Theatre Conference).

Opera credits include La traviata (New York City Opera at BAM’s Howard Gilman Opera House), Lucia di Lammermoor (Opera North), Falstaff with Sir Thomas Allen (Brooklyn Philharmonic at BAM’s Howard Gilman Opera House), and choreography for Latin Lovers arranged by Steven Blier (Glimmerglass Opera).