Pálína Jónsdóttir is a theatre and opera director born in Iceland. Her alchemic direction of physical theatre and audio-visual work draws from her expansive background in theatre, dance and music. She is the founder and artistic director of Reykjavik Ensemble International Theatre Company, established in 2019 together with her company partner Ewa Marcinek. Their launching project Opening Ceremony opened at Tjarnarbíó Theatre in December same year and in the beginning of 2020 Reykjavík Ensemble was honored with the title Art Group of Reykjavík. She dramatized and directed Polishing Iceland for the company based on series of short stories by Ewa Marcinek that opened in Tjarnarbíó Theatre in March. Pálína directed Í hennar sporum by Svanlaug Jóhannsdóttir at Tjarnarbíó Theatre in March 2019,  Ég heiti Guðrún by Rikke Wölck at the National Theatre in Iceland and the opera Trouble in Tahiti  by Leonard Bernstein at Tjarnarbíó Theatre in the fall of 2018. Her staged reading direction of Courtyard by Tanya Lorentson Sleepwalking in the Nether World by Jacob Hirdwall played at Theatre Row, NYC  in April 2018 as a part of the Nordic Stage, Festival for New Scandinavian Theatre. She assistant directed  The Flying Dutchman by Richard Wagner with Brad Dalton for Opera San Jose, CA. 

Her stage production, Darkside by Tom Stoppard and Pink Floyd for the Burning Coal Theater Company, opened in October 2017. She adapted and directed Babette’s Feast (2017) based on the eponymous story by Isak Dinesen that ran in The Connelly Theater in New York.  She directed a staged reading of Playing the Queen by Antti Mikkola for The Scandinavian Theater Company at the Scandinavian House in New York.  She served as directing candidate with Robert Lepage and Kaija Sarariaho for their production L´Amour de Loin at the Metropolitan Opera and she assistant directed Mata Hari for the Prototype Festival in New York. For Columbia Stages she directed A Dream Play by August Strindberg, The Three Sisters by Anton Chekhov and The Seven Deadly Sins by Bertolt Brecht.

Pálína is also an accomplished actor and she has performed in artistically diverse projects for stage, films and performance art in Iceland, Europe and the US. Her productions include Völva, commissioned by the Prologus Fund co-produced and performed at the National Theatre in Iceland, earning the Icelandic Gríma Performing Arts Award and her production The Secret Face was programmed and performed at the Here Arts Center in NYC and wider.  Pálína was commissioned by The Hudson Valley Center for Contemporary Art to create The SeaMare - Tableau Vivant for Origins and she collaborated and performed in Still Life with Commentator,  commissioned for BAM in NYC. Her stage roles include May in Footfalls by Samuel Beckett, Miss Julie in Miss Julie by August Strindberg, Solveg in Peer Gynt by Ibsen, Snæfríður in The Icelandic Clock by Laxness and Edda in Schiller by Night and her film credits include Devil´s Island, The Dance, In His Life – The John Lennon Story and Wildlife. 

Pálína is a graduate (2017) of the MFA Theatre Directing Program at Columbia University, mentored by Anne Bogart and Brian Kulick. She holds a PGDip in Contemporary Dancing from the Conservatoire National Superior of Music and Dance in Lyon, France and she studied literature and philosophy in the University of Iceland. Pálína graduated from the Acting Program at The Icelandic Academy of the Arts and studied opera singing in The Reykjavík Academy of Singing and Vocal Arts and she holds a Diploma in Arts Education in Drama from the Icelandic Academy of the Arts.

Pálína is associate member of Stage Directors and Choreographers Society (SDC) and the Icelandic Association of Stage, Film and TV Directors. 

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