The Artistic Director of Shadow Road Productions, a small but experienced independent theatre company, and Festival Director of mixed arts mental health awareness festival and Short Film Prize UNBROKEN, Emma is also a traditionally published children’s author (Uncle Alonzo’s Beard, Meadowside Children’s Books), former trustee of the OSO Arts Centre in London, and a professional member of Stage Directors UK and The Society of Authors.

With Shadow Road, Emma specialises in bringing thrilling pieces of theatre for all ages and occasions to unusual venues and spaces in creative new ways. The company has performed everywhere from churches, cancer centres and firelit drawing rooms, to back gardens, bell tents and traditional theatre spaces, and has partnered with such organisations as the National Trust, Armed Forces charity Combat Stress, Barnes Children’s Literature Festival, WWT London Wetland Centre, Strawberry Hill House, the Society of Authors, and many more.  

Shadow Road provides a wide range of entertainment options, from full-scale theatre productions to their four-person Fireside Folktales shows, in which Emma retells various myths, legends, and classic tales for all ages and occasions; from hilarious murder mystery dinners or cabaret events to interactive quizzes, workshops, and teambuilding events; and, finally, bespoke productions, created from scratch in accordance with whatever brief they are given. 

Emma has directed casts ranging in size from fifty-one down to one and in age from seven up to eighty-plus, both for Shadow Road, and for other companies, working freelance.  She has also run a number of writing and theatre workshops for both adults and children, and consulted on various live events and productions.

Her work has been performed in a wide range of venues, from the West End to the Fringe. Credits include Dreams From The Pit (Palace Theatre), Robin Hood (London Wetland Centre), Californian Lives (King’s Head Theatre & OSO Arts Centre) and all the plays in the ‘Fireside Folktales’ collection (National Trust; Southside House; Teenage Cancer Trust, and others).

Emma’s training and experience onstage have contributed to her excellent understanding of and empathy with the various actors whom she directs, writes for, and sometimes performs alongside.  Part of the ‘Fireside Folktales’ acting company, her recent roles have included Lady Macbeth, the Second Witch and Ross in Macbeth: Sleep No More; Jacob Marley, Belle and The Ghost of Christmas Present in A Christmas Carol; Will Scarlet, Sergeant Weaver and Rose in A Tale of Robin Hood; and Persephone and Zeus in Persephone & the Pomegranate Seeds.  She has also become a true master of the astonishingly quick change, occasionally playing up to eleven characters in a single production!