about

Elizabeth Carter explores the intersection of identity, ancestral healing, liminal spaces, visual arts, technology, and storytelling. 

Elizabeth Carter is a regional director based in the San Francisco Bay Area. Some of her favorite productions include FAT HAM (Oregon Shakespeare Festival), Confederates (Repertory Theatre of St. Louis), WOLF PLAY (Shotgun Players), SWEAT and THE LEGEND OF GEORGIA MCBRIDE (Center REPertory Co.), STEEL MAGNOLIAS (TheatreWorks SV), AS YOU LIKE IT (California Shakespeare Festival), Stoop Stories (Aurora Theatre Co.), FOR COLORED GIRLS… (African American Shakespeare Co.)  and the new musical SIGN MY NAME TO FREEDOM (SF Bay Area Theatre Co.). She was associate director on the ripple the wave that carried me home (Berkeley Rep/Goodman Theatre) and assistant director on HOW I LEARNED WHAT I LEARNED (Oregon Shakespeare Festival). She directed the groundbreaking 2020 virtual King Lear (SF Shakespeare Festival) and FEEL THE SPIRIT (Shotgun Players/Colt Couer NYC). Her directorial film debut BOTTLED SPIRITS won Best Narrative at the London Pan African Film Festival. She was the inaugural SDCF Lloyd Richards New Futures Resident Director at the Oregon Shakespeare Festival and is a current Lucas Arts Fellow. As a Black queer director, Elizabeth is passionate about creating theater that examines and celebrates the complexity of identity and the joy of embodied liberation. 

As an actor, Elizabeth Carter’s theatre credits includeYOU NEVER CAN TELL, OTHELLO, AS YOU LIKE IT,  ROMEO AND JULIET, RICHARD II,  for California Shakespeare Theater, THE CRUCIBLE andTHE CONVERT for Marin Theatre Co. where she was nominated for both San Francisco Bay Area Theatre Critics Circle Award and Theatre Bay Area Awards, FENCES, JOE TURNER’S COME AND GONE at Lorraine Hansberry Theatre, NICKEL AND DIMED  at TheatreWorks, MERRY WIVES OF WINSOR for SF Shakespeare Festival and THE BLACK RIDER at Shotgun Players. At the Aurora Theatre Co. she has been seen in TROUBLE IN MIND, WITTENBURG, where she was nominated for a SFBATCC Award and THE HEIR APPARENT and most recently the acclaimed EUREKA DAY!, winner of the Theatre Bay Area Award for Best World Premiere and one of the SF Chronicle Top Ten plays of 2018. In 2019 she reprised the role of Carina Off Broadway in the Coult Couer production. Elizabeth continues to dive into new works with The Ground Floor at Berkeley Rep.