Bio
Dina Vovsi is a New York-based director, writer, and theatermaker.
Currently, she is a 2022 Brooklyn Arts Council SU-CASA Grantee, developing a play about the complexity of love with Pete McGuinness Senior Center in Greenpoint, Brooklyn, as well as a guest director at the American Academy of Dramatic Arts this spring, directing Lauren Gunderson’s The Revolutionists in May. She will be directing a reading of Liba Vaynberg’s The Matriarchs as part of The Civilians’ R&D Group’s Findings Series this June, and just wrapped filming Ponytail, a comedic short film she wrote and directed.
Recent productions as a director include Marie Antoinette, Passage and Three Sisters (all at the American Academy of Dramatic Arts), The Agency by Lia Romeo (Fairleigh Dickinson University), Sincerity Forever (The Flea), Shady Acres: a homegrown epic (Rutgers/Mason Gross MFA Playwriting), Iphigenia and Other Daughters (Long Island University), First by Faith: The Life of Mary McLeod Bethune (2019 AUDELCO Award for Best Solo Performance, Best Educational Show at United Solo, sold-out run at the National Black Theatre Festival, 14th Street Y), The Bastard (Dixon Place), and Visiting Hours (TheaterLab).
With theater artists Rachel Gita Karp, Deneen Reynolds-Knott, and Emerie Snyder, Dina co-created a site-specific, traveling theatrical experience across Fort Greene, Brooklyn in October 2021 called EXITS, collaborating with playwright Ran Xia to activate Greenlight Bookstore. The recipient of a 2021 Brooklyn Arts Council Grant and a New Georges Supported Production, EXITS is an audio-theatrical experience that uses physical distance and aural intimacy to connect audiences with beloved Fort Greene spaces we’ve departed due to COVID-19.
Other works as a writer and creator include Show Me, a site-responsive audio play, and I’m Gonna Keep You Alive (in collaboration with Amanda Marikar), both with The Motor Company, as well as Untitled Parlor Play, or, For Home Amusement (Access Theater Residency, co-created with Kyle Metzger in collaboration with a company of artists) and everything’s whispered (for now). Dina is the recipient of a Working Theater 5 Boroughs 1 City Initiative commission, currently developing a play about the Russian-speaking and Pakistani immigrant communities in Brighton Beach, Brooklyn with playwright Liba Vaynberg.
Dina has developed and directed new work with The Civilians, New Georges, Working Theater, The Culture Project’s Women Center Stage, Dartmouth VoxFest, The Barn Arts Collective, Pipeline Theatre Company, Fresh Ground Pepper, The Motor Company, Theatre 167, FringeNYC, and The Flea. Dina was a Robert Moss Directing Fellow at Playwrights Horizons, a member of The Civilians’ R&D Group, a resident director at The Flea, the recipient of an SDC Foundation Observership at Hudson Valley Shakespeare Festival, a member of the Lincoln Center Directors’ Lab, an O’Neill National Directors Fellowship Finalist, and a Mass MoCA Assets for Artists Grantee. She is a New Georges Affiliated Artist and a 2021 Brooklyn Arts Council Grantee.
Associate and assistant directing credits include Stephen Karam’s adaptation of The Cherry Orchard on Broadway with Roundabout Theatre Company, Taylor Mac’s Hir, Danai Gurira’s Familiar, Gregory S. Moss’s Indian Summer (all at Playwrights Horizons), Eugene Onegin (Spoleto Festival USA), A Midsummer Night’s Dream (HVSF/The Pearl), Lloyd Suh’s Jesus in India (Ma-Yi), Stefanie Zadravec’s The Electric Baby (Quantum), The Nourish Project (WP Theater) and more.
Dina has also worked in artistic, literary, educational and producing capacities at various New York theater companies, and has been the Program Coordinator of PlayTime at New Dramatists since 2016.
Dina immigrated to the United States from the former Soviet Union (Riga, Latvia) when she was a child, and is bilingual in English and Russian. She is an alumni of the University of Michigan’s School of Music, Theater, and Dance.
