ArtsEmerson


ArtsEmerson is a non-profit, professional theater and film presenting and producing organization in Boston, Massachusetts. Based on an idea from Emerson College President Jackie Liebergott and founded in 2010 by theatrical producer Robert Orchard, ArtsEmerson is part of the Office for the Arts at Emerson College's Boston campus. The organization presents and produces theatrical performances, films, and public dialogues across several Emerson College venues and in other locations in Greater Boston.

History

ArtsEmerson’s first season in 2010–11 presented 17 theater productions, 92 films, and four concerts.

Leadership

Robert Orchard founded ArtsEmerson and was its first executive director. In 2012, David Dower joined the organization as Director of Artistic Programs. P. Carl joined ArtsEmerson as Creative Director in 2013, after joinging the Office of the Arts as Director of HowlRound. In 2015, Robert Orchard shifted to the role of Founder and Creative Consultant and David C. Howse joined as executive director. Also in 2015, David Dower, P. Carl, and David Howse began a "three-legged" leadership period, sharing leadership as two co-Artistic Directors and an executive director. This partnership which continued until P. Carl's departure in 2017. David Dower departed in 2021. ArtsEmerson is currently under interim leadership of Interim Executive Director of the Office of the Arts & ArtsEmerson Director of Artistic Programming, Ronee Penoi. Penoi joined ArtsEmerson in 2021. Penoi currently co-leads Office of the Arts with Jamie Gahlon, the Associate Vice President of Office of the Arts and Director of HowlRound.

Recognition

ArtsEmerson was named "Boston's Best Theater" by Boston magazine in 2013 and again in 2015. In 2019, WBUR recognized ArtsEmerson as a "A Model For Equity In The Arts", stating, "From its inception, ArtsEmerson has instituted programs at the intersection of civic dialogue and artistic exploration that have expanded its audience and engaged communities that arts organizations have historically ignored."

Theatrical Presentations and Productions

2024–25 Season

  • Rough Magic
  • Fight Night
  • In the Same Tongue
  • On the Eve of Abolition
  • Life & Times of Michael K
  • The Seasons
  • It's a Motherf**king Pleasure
  • ''Utopian Hotline''

    2023–24 Season

  • Little Amal
  • We Are the Land
  • The Book of Life, Hope and Harmony from Rwandan Voices
  • The Real James Bond... Was Dominican
  • Moby Dick
  • Duel Reality
  • Mrs. Krishnan's Party
  • ''Book of Mountains and Seas''

    2022–23 Season

  • Drumfolk
  • On Beckett
  • Theatre for One: We Are Here
  • Made in China 2.0
  • Frankenstein
  • Cointelshow: A Patriot Act
  • Shadows Cast
  • And So We Walked
  • ''Nehanda''

    2021–22 Season

  • Out of Order
  • …
  • Zoo Motel
  • White Rabbit Red Rabbit
  • Dreaming Zenzile
  • Everyday Life and Other Odds and Ends
  • Burgerz
  • Octavia E. Butler's Parable of the Sower
  • ''Sea Sick''

    2020–21 Season

  • State vs. Natasha Banina
  • Stono
  • Julia
  • En Masse
  • chekhovOS /an experimental game/
  • ''A Brimful of Asha''

    2019–20 Season

  • Passengers
  • Triptych
  • The Magic Flute
  • An Iliad
  • The Shadow Whose Prey The Hunter Becomes
  • Detroit Red
  • ''Plata Quemada''

    2018–19 Season

  • Hamnet
  • The Peculiar Patriot
  • Measure For Measure
  • WET: DACAmented Journey
  • The End of TV
  • When Angels Fall
  • An Inspector Calls
  • American Moor
  • /peh-LO-tah/
  • See You Yesterday
  • To the Source
  • ''Born for This: A New Musical''

    2017–18 Season

  • Reversible
  • HOME
  • Kiss
  • Gardens Speak
  • The State of Siege
  • Bangsokol: A Requiem for Cambodia
  • Ada/Ava
  • In the Eruptive Mode
  • Torrey Pines
  • The White Card
  • Hamlet / Saint Joan
  • The Migration: Reflections on Jacob Lawrence
  • ''Cold Blood''

    2016–17 Season

  • Cuisine & Confessions
  • Ouroboros Trilogy
  • Machine De Cirque
  • Here All Night
  • Mala
  • Our Secrets
  • The Beauty Queen of Leenane
  • Octavia E. Butler's Parable of the Sower
  • 17 Border Crossings
  • How to be a Rock Critic
  • ''Citizen: An American Lyric''

    2015–16 Season

  • Ernest Shackleton Loves Me
  • Mr. Joy
  • An Audience with Meow Meow
  • uCarmen / A Midsummer Night's Dream
  • Chopin Without Piano
  • Twelfth Night
  • An Octoroon
  • The Wong Kids in the Secret of the Space Chupacabra Go!
  • Three Sisters
  • Historia de Amor
  • Daughter of a Cuban Revolutionary
  • Premeditation
  • ''Not I / Footfalls / Rockaby''

    2014–15 Season

  • Traces
  • King Lear
  • The Magic Flute
  • The Old Man and The Old Moon
  • The Trip to Bountiful
  • Breath & Imagination
  • Green Porno, Live on Stage
  • Tristan & Yseult
  • Culture Clash 30th Anniversary Tour: Muse & Morros
  • Needles and Opium
  • Ulysses on Bottles
  • ''The Grand Parade ''

    2013–14 Season

  • Columbinus
  • Baritones Unbound
  • Kiss & Cry
  • Waiting for Godot
  • Mies Julie
  • Step Afrika!
  • Sleeping Beauty
  • We Are Proud to Present a Presentation …
  • House/Divided
  • Red-Eye to Havre de Grace
  • No Place To Go
  • Man in a Case
  • A Midsummer Night's Dream
  • Not By Bread Alone
  • Lebensraum
  • The Wholehearted
  • ''Sontag Reborn''

    2012–13 Season

  • Paris Commune
  • Sequence 8
  • Hamlet
  • Ted Hughes' Tales From Ovid
  • The Pianist of Willesden Lane
  • La Belle et la Bete
  • Family Happiness
  • The Servant of Two Masters
  • Metamorphosis
  • Emergency
  • Neva Guillermo Calderón
  • Trojan Women
  • An Iliad
  • An Evening with Maurice Hines
  • The Next Thing Festival
  • American Utopias
  • Vision Disturbance
  • Blood Play
  • A Supposedly Fun Thing I’ll Never Do Again
  • Birth Breath Bride Elizabeth
  • ''Spring Training''

    2011–12 Season

  • PSY
  • How Much Is Enough: Our Values in Question, World Premiere
  • Delusion
  • The Infernal Comedy: Confessions of a Serial Killer, American Premiere
  • The Speakers Progress
  • You Better Sit Down: Tales From My Parents' Divorce
  • Mabou Mines Dollhouse, Boston premiere
  • Moby Dick
  • Angel Reapers
  • Sugar, World Premiere
  • 69 Degrees S. , World premiere
  • CIRCA, Co-presented with Celebrity Series of Boston
  • Ameriville, Boston Premiere
  • The Anderson Project
  • Tomas Kubinek: Certified Lunatic and Master of the Impossible, Boston premiere
  • ''Cafe Variations''

    2010–11 Season

  • Fraulein Maria, Boston premiere
  • The Laramie Project: Ten Years Later, World premiere
  • Aftermath, Boston premiere
  • The Method Gun, Boston premiere
  • Petrushka, Boston premiere, co-presented with Celebrity Series of Boston
  • One Small Step, U.S. premiere
  • In the Footprint: The Battle for Atlantic Yards, Boston premiere
  • PSY
  • The Color of Rose, World premiere
  • The Cripple of Inishmaan
  • Terminus, Boston premiere
  • The Sun Also Rises, Boston premiere
  • Fragments
  • The Grand Inquisitor
  • The Merchant of Venice
  • The Andersen Project
  • Farfalle , Boston premiere, co-presented with Celebrity Series of Boston
  • Susurrus, Boston premiere

    Community engagement

Play Reading Book Club

With the guidance of a teaching artist, Play Reading Book Club participants read and discuss selected plays from each ArtsEmerson season, over a four-week period. PRBC participants attend the play they have studied, attend a reception and private question and answer session with a creative member of the production, and receive resources to enhance the experience of a live theater performance.

Public Dialogues

After selected performances, audience members, artists, and members of the ArtsEmerson staff hold discussions related to performance content.

Community Curators

The Community Curators program allows Boston artists and organizers to produce events in ArtsEmerson's downtown spaces. Two consistent Community Curators programs are the film-based series' Shared Stories and Projecting Connections.
Shared Stories is a monthly film series presented by ArtsEmerson in collaboration with the Boston Asian American Film Festival, CineFest Latino Boston, and the Roxbury Film Festival. ArtsEmerson also presents Projecting Connections: Chinese American Experiences, a film series highlighting the lives of the Chinese in the Greater Boston Area.
Films presented as part of Projecting Connections include:
  • A Chinese American Giant: The Y.C. Hong Story, Rick Quan
  • Vanishing Chinatown: The World of the May's Photo Studio, Emiko Omori
  • Meditations on the Power of Community, Lenora Lee
  • Far East Deep South, Larissa Lam and Baldwin Chiu
  • Within These Walls, Tatsu Aoki
  • Curtain Up! Hui Tong and Kelly Ng
  • Suk Suk, Raymond Yeung
  • Snakehead, Evan Jackson Leong
  • The Six, Arthur Jones
  • Blurring the Color Line, Crystal Kwok
  • American Girl, Feng-I Fiona Roan and Clifford Miu