Emma Rosa Went is a Brooklyn-based director who makes new and classic-text plays. Her work is heartfelt, intimate, collaborative, and sexy. She is currently on staff at The Public as the inaugural Directing Fellow, where she will premiere Else Went’s play INITIATIVE in the fall of 2025.

In New York, Emma has also developed & presented work with MTC, Ars Nova, NYTW, Red Bull & TFANA, Playwrights Realm, The Tank, The Brick, and many other venues. Regional work includes Hudson Valley Shakespeare (Romeo and Juliet, Tour ‘23;) Opera House Arts (Much Ado About Nothing;) Pacific Playwrights Festival at South Coast Rep (An Oxford Man;) and others. Recent projects include the Judith Champion Series presentation of Else’s play Degenerates at The Public, a pop-up production of Twelfth Night in a Brooklyn loft, and workshop of Else’s play I Am the Most Beautiful Bird with BTB at Playwrights Horizons.

Emma is an alum of the Drama League Directors Project, has been under commission from Hudson Valley Shakespeare (Two Noble Kinsmen;) and in residence with Mercury Store, Drama League, Public Shakespeare Initiative, Barn Arts, & Coffey St. Studio. She was a 2023 Finalist for the SDCF Barbara Whitman Award. Emma is currently teaching Shakespeare at Marymount Manhattan College. She is a member of SDC, and she is represented by WME.