Dr. Elena Stabile (she/they) is a dramaturg, librettist, and producer specializing in the development of new works for music theater. Her work centers on helping artists transform ambitious ideas into compelling theatrical experiences, combining rigorous dramaturgical analysis with a collaborative process that centers curiosity, compassion, and open communication. Drawing on her background as both a performer and literary analyst, she approaches every project from the inside out, considering not only how a work functions on the page but also how it breathes in rehearsal and connects with an audience in performance.
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A passionate advocate for opera as an ever evolving artform, Elena is especially interested in the unique interaction between text and music that is inherent to opera’s multi-media nature. As a developmental dramaturg, she works with composers, librettists, and interdisciplinary creative teams at every stage of the creative process, helping to shape dramatic structure, clarify storytelling, and strengthen the expressive union between music and text. Her process is grounded in the belief that a dramaturg's role is not to impose solutions, but rather to ask questions that spark ingenuity and explore new avenues of creative opportunity, such that each piece can become the fullest realization of the creators' artistic vision. 

Elena's writing for theater spans both original works and adaptations. She is currently collaborating with composer Jocelyn Hagan on Blood Money, a new opera scheduled to premiere at Ventura College in the spring of 2028, with an original libretto based on the Elizabeth Holmes Theranos scandal. She is also the adapter and script writer for The Carmen Files, an in-progress adaptation of Bizet’s Carmen developed with composer Gary Ruschman and in partnership with Mixed Precipitation, a Twin Cities-based theater company, through Park Square Theater's inaugural LAB Series, where workshop performances were presented in March 2026.  
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Beyond writing for the stage, Elena is a prolific poet, and her scholarly research and writings primarily feature interdisciplinary explorations of music theater, with particular focus on cross-medium or -genre adaptation processes. Topics of past research include Shakespearean adaptations in music and film; Restoration literature, music, proto-feminism, and gender anxiety; 19th and 20th century Russian literature; and modern musical and theatrical developments in opera. 

Throughout her career, Elena has served in a wide range of dramaturgical and producing roles. From 2020-2023, she collaborated with Strange Trace on the creation and production of numerous chamber and micro-operas by composer-librettist teams from across the globe—serving in a variety of capacities from director, performer, producer, dramaturg, and editor—to help shepherd new works from initial concept to digital release. She has also served as a production dramaturg for Clevername Theater and for Opera Reading Project, and she has self-directed a semi-staged production of Poulenc's La voix humaine.