Chicago Based Director
About Emma
Born and raised in Minnesota, Emma spent several years teaching Middle and High School English to students with behavioral and cognitive needs around the Twin Cities before moving to Chicago to focus on theatrical direction. As a director, Emma brings the same care, compassion, and playfulness she did as a teacher to help her team work together to understand a script. Her rehearsal room transforms into a playground for actors and designers to explore and find new ways of collaborating. She strives for her productions to be a spectacle of the human psyche by having visuals mirror the internal conflicts that the characters face. Her process encourages artists to find truth in the absurd and make bold physical choices, which leads to a clean product and a company that feels unified and safe with one another.
Her years as a teacher have inspired her storytelling to encourage people to look at traumatic situations and other mature themes through a child’s lens. She enjoys directing dark comedies that have adults play children or childlike characters because, from her experience, children are often more aware of the horrors of the world than their adult counterparts. However, kids also see the joy around them and use that foresight to push through difficult situations, and she wants to share that childlike fear, humor, and perseverance with others.
Proof by David Auburn
Beyond Therapy by Christopher Durang
The Last Nickel by Jane Shepard, Photography by Michael Brosilow