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.
WWW artsemerson.org

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 CalderónTrojan 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 PremiereDelusion The Infernal Comedy: Confessions of a Serial Killer, American PremiereThe Speakers Progress You Better Sit Down: Tales From My Parents' Divorce Mabou Mines Dollhouse, Boston premiereMoby Dick Angel Reapers Sugar, World Premiere69 Degrees S. , World premiereCIRCA, Co-presented with Celebrity Series of BostonAmeriville, Boston PremiereThe Anderson Project Tomas Kubinek: Certified Lunatic and Master of the Impossible, Boston premiere
  • ''Cafe Variations''

2010–11 Season

Fraulein Maria, Boston premiereThe Laramie Project: Ten Years Later, World premiereAftermath, Boston premiereThe Method Gun, Boston premierePetrushka, Boston premiere, co-presented with Celebrity Series of BostonOne Small Step, U.S. premiereIn the Footprint: The Battle for Atlantic Yards, Boston premierePSY The Color of Rose, World premiereThe Cripple of Inishmaan Terminus, Boston premiereThe Sun Also Rises, Boston premiereFragments The Grand Inquisitor The Merchant of Venice The Andersen Project Farfalle , Boston premiere, co-presented with Celebrity Series of BostonSusurrus, 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 QuanVanishing Chinatown: The World of the May's Photo Studio, Emiko OmoriMeditations on the Power of Community, Lenora LeeFar East Deep South, Larissa Lam and Baldwin ChiuWithin These Walls, Tatsu AokiCurtain Up! Hui Tong and Kelly NgSuk Suk, Raymond YeungSnakehead, Evan Jackson LeongThe Six, Arthur JonesBlurring the Color Line, Crystal KwokAmerican Girl, Feng-I Fiona Roan and Clifford Miu

Artist Residencies

Each season features an artist in residence, showcasing their work and introducing them to Boston-based artists.
ArtsEmerson artists in residence:

Fresh Sound Master Artists in Residence

Venues

ArtsEmerson's public facing offerings, as opposed to events produced by students and faculty, are spread across four main spaces: the Emerson Cutler Majestic Theatre and the Emerson Paramount Center, which encompasses the Robert J. Orchard Stage, the Jackie Liebergott Black Box, and the Bright Family Screening Room.
ArtsEmerson also uses the Semel Theatre and The Kermit and Elinore Greene Theater, both part of the Tufte Performance Production Center at Emerson College, for student activities, artistic residency work and housing. Other activities take place in a variety of public spaces throughout Greater Boston.