Graduate of The Western Australian Academy of the Performing Arts and The Neighborhood Playhouse, NY.
Associate member of the Stage Directors and Choreographers Society (SDC).
Ensemble Theatre Sandra Bates Director’s Award 2023
Work includes Einstein and Mileva (World Premiere at Theatre Row, NY), Peter and The Starcatcher (The Naples Players, nominated for Best Director of a Musical, Broadway World Regional Awards), Silent Sky (The Naples Players, Naples Florida Weekly Top Pick), Hollywood, Hollywood (Midtown International Theatre Festival, nominated for Best Direction and Best Choreography), Yellowpants (SOLOCOM at The Pit, NY), America (Downtown Urban Theatre Festival, winner of Best Audience Award), Thick Gnat Hands, The Brazilian Dilemma, Stick, Stiff , Any Given School Day, Twenty (Collective NY), The Tempest: Remixed (Teatro Heckscher, NY), A Sense of Purpose On Sunday’s (IO Myers Theatre at UNSW, Aust), Par amnesia (Seymour Centre with One Extra Dance, Aust), The Magic Flute (Talent Unlimited), Oklahoma and Mame (Stagedoor Manor) and Assistant Director to Shaun Rennie for Suddenly Last Summer (Ensemble Theatre, Sydney).
Emma is co-writer and director of 100 Years of the History of Dance The show had its first Australian tour in 2019, was a Western Australian Critics Choice winner at Fringe World Festival 2020 in Perth, WA and has had runs in Brisbane at The Powerhouse (2019) and La Boite Theatre Company (2021).
She co-wrote and co-directed the short film 13 (Awarded Best Screenplay and nominated for Best Direction in Sparrow Film Project). She directed and produced the web series Kate Plus Date in collaboration with Martian New Media, was associate producer for the short film Blink: The Observer (Backslash Bomb Productions), producer on HIV and AIDS: Let’s keep talking PSA (GLAAD), First AD on short film Corn Bread and Bad Luck (Rocky from Da Bronx Productions) and for feature film Lighthouse Unmanned (LU Productions). She is co-creator of the micro series Historgrams. In 2020 she directed Holiday’s From The Heart, a virtual performance and fundraising program produced by Bravehearts For Broadway, streamed on Playbill.com for The Actors Fund.
As a teaching artist Emma has produced, directed and performed in The Collective NY’s C:10 To Go, a touring production of short plays and workshops for schools and colleges, taken to Coastal Carolina University in 2017. In 2020 she was choreographer of Pride and Prejudice for KidzAct at The Naples Players (Best Virtual Performance, Broadway World Regional Awards). She was a director, choreographer and teacher for The Papermill Playhouse Conservatory and Intensive Summer Programs and a guest choreographer for The Papermill Playhouse Show Choir. She taught dance for Rutgers-RSAC, directed for Ponoma College, CA, was guest director/choreographer for UNSW Dance and Drama Dept. , StageDoor Manor, and NIDA Open among other engagements.
Up coming projects:
Life is Fabulous Stonewall Inn, NYC Director
Uncle Vanya Ensemble Theatre, Sydney. New adaptation by Joanna Murray-Smith. Assistant Director
Maggie, A New Musical Goodspeed Musicals, East Haddam, CT. Associate Director
Sound of Siren by Maximilian Gill, an audio podcast produced by The Artist Experiment, NYC (planned release late 2024)
The Joneses, short film written and directed by Emma
The Henry Sessions, short film written by Emma and Christian Hurtado Pierson, directed by Emma (in post production)
Chicken, short film written and directed by Emma (in post production)