Artist | Organizer

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About

AbouT

Making art that is equal parts theatrical and human

Emily Jackson Headshot

Emily is an artist and organizer who gathers groups of humans and shares well-made stories. Her directing work focuses on collaboration, fundamental theatricality, and character-driven narratives. 

Emily is committed to the complete life cycle of developing and producing new work. Nothing encapsulates this more than her experience with They Promised Her the Moon by Laurel Ollstein: she was an actor in the original workshop production at The University of Oklahoma, produced a reading of a new draft at Kitchen Theatre Company in Ithaca, NY, and, in her last project before the COVID-19 pandemic, Emily served as the Assistant Director under Giovanna Sardelli, director, for the regional professional premiere at TheatreWorks Palo Alto.

A trusted thought partner in development settings, Emily has been in residency with playwrights Darrel Alejandro Holnes and Kyle Bass at Saltonstall Foundation for the Arts in Ithaca, NY, served as a member of the Lark’s Literary Wing, and has adapted the work of Italian playwright Dacia Maraini. 

Recently, Emily worked with Walking on Water Productions in Ithaca, NY, helping to launch their inaugural WoW’s Now new musicals festival. She consulted on the submission process and directed a staged reading of Extended Stay by Jenny Stafford and Scotty Arnold this fall. Extended Stay was selected as the festival winner. Emily will lead a continued development process with the creative team and then direct the first full production in the summer of 2024.

In addition to directing, Emily is a bold arts administrator with a proven record of producing theatre and championing new work in New York City and the regions. Most recently, Emily served as the artistic director of Sanguine Theatre Company, a 501(c)(3) organization that produces world premiere plays. She organized Sanguine’s cornerstone program, Project Playwright, a festival that receives more than 430 submissions annually. Under her tenure, Sanguine had a successful off-Broadway run at 59E59 Theaters with theatre provocateur Brian Dykstra’s world premiere, Education.

Before that, Emily served as the Artistic Associate and Director of Audience Services for Kitchen Theatre Company in Ithaca, NY. There, she helmed the new play development series curating the slate of artists, establishing partnerships with community organizations to support the program, and meeting budgetary and funding requirements. Throughout the season, Emily orchestrated play-specific audience engagement events, hosted talkbacks, led classes at community learning centers, and mentored artistic and administrative fellows.

Emily continues to grow her theatrical practice. Recently, she has taken Nicole Brewer’s Foundational Course in Anti-Racist Theatre, The Drama League’s The Other Side of the Table: Audition Techniques for Directors and The Direction Forward: Anti-Racism for Directors & Creatives, and Roundabout Theatre Company’s Directing Socioplitical Theatre with Jess McLeod. These courses have given her a practical set of tools and a greater, humbler understanding of how to better center equity in her work.

Emily lives in New York City with her husband, Tyler M. Perry, a lighting designer and theatre educator, two dogs, Frankie and Stella, and her young daughter, Luma, with whom Emily hopes to share her love of great stories.