2024
Degenerates
by Else Went
Directed by Emma Rosa Went
As part of the Judith Champion New Work Series at the Public Theater
Monday Oct 28th at 1 PM
Tuesday Oct 29th at 7:30 PM
BroadwayWorld
The boys are not doing so hot. In an obscure corner of the internet, they form a community on the bedrock of their shared and infinite miseries, offering each other proof that the game is rigged against men; it was over before it began, they will never be loved, better just to lay down and rot. When an unexpected relationship begins to unravel their dismal fraternity, the consequences of their fatalism are revealed—some may get out, and some may not. How much would it hurt to come alive again?
Featuring: Juan Arturo, Zachary Desmond, Tyler Nowell Felix, Christopher Dylan White, & Olivia Rose Barresi
Initiative — Public Theater, Fall 2025
by Else Went
Directed by Emma Rosa Went
A world premiere
BroadwayWorld
Playbill
Playwright Else Went, alumnus of our acclaimed Emerging Writers Group, brings her transformative new play INITIATIVE to The Public in Fall 2025. A bittersweet reflection on adolescence at the dawn of the new millennium, INITIATIVE charts the intertwined lives of seven teens from 2000-2004, as they become friends and more than friends, wrestle with their potential, face incalculable loss, and struggle to find their way in (and get out of) “Coastal Podunk, California.” Emma Rosa Went directs this epic world premiere guaranteed to make you remember the most difficult and beautiful things about growing up.
An Oxford Man — Pacific Playwrights Festival
Else Went’s play An Oxford Man (directed by Emma) will be presented as part of the Pacific Playwrights Festival at South Coast Rep, May 5th 2024
Featuring: Bill Brochtrup, Shelley Fort, Theo Germaine, Alexia Jasmene, Ram Kanneganti, Ames O’Connor, Puppett, Else Went, and Zoe Yale
Twelfth Night
Project week at Mercury Store; March 25-29
Workshop exploration of Twelfth Night, featuring: Zoë Geltman, Che Kabia, Frankie Placidi, Austin Purnell, and Amy Webb
I Am The Most Beautiful Bird
Matthew Rosen Studio, Playwrights Horizons
by Else Went
Directed by Emma Rosa Went
Workshop with Breaking the Binary Theatre, at Playwrights Horizons
Feb 5-7, presented on Feb 7th
Featuring: Esco Jouléy, Felix Teich, Juan Arturo, Layla Koshnoudi, Liat Graf, & T Mitsock — dramaturgy by Harrison Densmore
2023
Two Noble Kinsmen
Public Shakespeare Initiative Workshop
July 24-28
Emma’s work on Two Noble Kinsmen is supported by a Tent Pole Commission from Hudson Valley Shakespeare Festival
Featuring: Amara James Aja, Barzin Akhavan, Raquel Chavez, Zoë Goslin, Tyrone Mitchell Henderson, Danny Holme, & Merritt Janson
Music by Ray Duncan
Dramaturgy by Isabel Smith-Bernstein & Julie Crawford
Coach Coach
by Bailey Williams
Directed by Emma Rosa Went
A reading in the “Do More” series at BEDLAM
May 25th, 4 PM
Featuring: Jackie Abbott, Merritt Janson, Layla Khoshnoudi, Denise Manning, Constance Schulman, & Esther Williamson
Initiative
by Else Went
Directed by Emma Rosa Went
A reading of ‘Initiative’ in the Spotlight Series; the culmination of Else’s time in the Public Theater’s Emerging Writers Group
May 8th at 6 PM, & May 9th at 2 PM
Featuring: Olivia Rose Barresi, Gregory Cuellar, Harrison Densmore, Carson Scott Higgins, Andrea Lopez, Jamie Sanders, Christopher Dylan White, & Tallie Medel
Between first loves and first betrayals, the SAT and D&D, house parties and homecomings, it's a wonder any of us survive high school. Initiative is an epic microcosm, charting the fatefully intertwined lives of seven teens as they struggle to grow up in and get out of Coastal Podunk, California, at the dawn of the new millennium.
Degenerates
by Else Went
Directed by Emma Rosa Went
An ‘Out Loud’ reading at Ars Nova
Friday April 21st, at 3 PM
Featuring: Zachary Desmond, Christopher Dylan White, Tyler Nowell Felix, Juan Arturo, & Olivia Rose Barresi
The boys are not doing so hot. In an obscure corner of the internet, they form a community on the bedrock of their shared and infinite miseries, offering each other proofs that the game is rigged against men, it was over before it began, there is no love in the world for them, better just to lay down and rot. When an unexpected relationship shakes the foundations of their miserable fraternity, the consequences of their fatalism are revealed.
Kit Marlowe
by David Grimm
Directed by Emma Rosa Went
A Red Bull 'Revelation Reading,’ at TFANA
April 3rd; 7:30 PM
Featuring: b, Tina Benko, Helen Cespedes, Mo Gooding-Silverwood, Amy Jo Jackson, Merritt Janson, Rami Margron, Yasmin Pascall, Sushma Saha, Han Van Sciver, & Ching Valdes-Aran
Set in the seedy underworld of Elizabethan England, the story of the meteoric rise and fall of Christopher Marlowe – playwright, poet, spy, and sexual outlaw – charts the ambitions of youth in a cold and unforgiving world. Performed by an all women and non-binary company, director Emma Rosa Went seeks to reinvigorate the play's radical and provocative landscape, by giving a new generation of queer artists access to its explosive and urgent questions about art, love, depravity, redemption, and the cost of genius.
An Oxford Man
MTC’s Ted Snowden Reading Series — 4 PM, Monday March 27th
By Else Went, directed by Emma Rosa Went
Featuring: Han Van Sciver, Hari Nef, Zoë Goslin, Amy Jo Jackson, Rami Margron, Erin Noll, Sam Gonzales, Tyrone Mitchell Henderson, & Olivia Rose Barresi
Emma & Else Went, photo courtesy of Manhattan Theatre Club
Join us, dear audience, for a buoyant and raucous mythologization of the life and times of the first "modern" transgender man, Laurence Michael Dillon. Commissioned by MTC through the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation, An Oxford Man is a witty, surprising, and tender theatrical rollick.
Romeo & Juliet
HVSF Spring Touring Production
Directed by Emma Rosa Went
Featuring: Nettie Chickering, Liam Gerard, Tania Kass, Ty Lane, Naiya McCalla, Sophia Metcalf, Reagan Tankersley
With: Music by Ray Duncan, Set by Ant Ma, Costumes by Charlotte Palmer Lane, Movement by Kelsey Burns, Fights by Dan Renkin
2022
Degenerates
An internal reading on Nov 21st of Degenerates by Else Went, through ‘Mondays @3’ at NYTW — featuring Zachary Desmond, Christopher Dylan White, Tyler Nowell Felix, Joshua de Jesus, and Olivia Rose Barresi
The Changeling
Studio B
Emma opened Mercury Store’s third season with a project focused on exploding The Changeling and creating a radical adaptation in three dimensions with Else Went and the Mercury company (September 26-30)
An Oxford Man
An internal workshop of An Oxford Man by Else Went at MTC, commissioned through the Sloan Initiative and presented on August 16th
All’s Well That Ends Well
A three-day workshop at Scranton Shakespeare, performed July 21st
Emma returned to SSF to examine All’s Well and present a ‘staged-reading’ for one night only, lighting designed by Jon Biller, choreography by Kristen Brooks Sandler
Much Ado About Nothing
At Opera House Arts, in Stonington ME— June 29th-July 17th
“Wonderfully vital, energetic, and beautifully produced” — BOSTON ARTS DIARY
‘The boys are back from fighting, and now the 'merry war' begins. When Don Pedro and his soldiers return to Leonato's house, old sparring-partners Beatrice and Benedick are reunited and the party can finally start. While friends and family scheme to bring them closer to the altar, another plot is being laid that will test the community, and rewrite what old friends think they know about each other. This outdoor performance includes live music by folk composer Ray Duncan.’
Hunter MFA Playwrights Festival
HARD PLACES, by Garrett Zuercher
A Staged-Reading, May 10th
Featuring: Jackson Torii Bart, Stewart Caswell, James Caverly, Kimberley Hale, Jory Murphy, and Chris Ogren
Stage Managed by Miriam Rochford
2021
HVSF Community Bake-Off
Nov 13th — 7 PM, Nov 14th— 5 PM
INFO & TICKETS
Created by the Pulitzer Prize-winning playwright Paula Vogel, the Bake-Off is a community playwriting event in which participants are given a list of “ingredients” surrounding a theme to incorporate into their play to inspire creativity. The theme for HVSF’s 2021 Online Bake-Off is Sustainability.
A Midsummer Night’s Dream
Midsummer ensemble, photo by Nina Elgo
The Inaugural Season of the Connecticut Shakespeare Festival
Midsummer: July 7-17
‘Magic blows into town as a Duke and a Duchess prepare for their wedding day, some amateur actors rehearse a play for the party, and four young lovers run into the woods – where a kingdom of fairies emerges to enchant, transform, and entangle us in their dreams. Shakespeare's A MIDSUMMER NIGHT’S DREAM – one of the most enduringly popular plays of all time – is a wild and whimsical celebration of love, nature, and the magic of theatre itself.’
Broadway World
Gallathea
A digital reading of Gallathea, written by John Lyly and directed by Emma, at Red Bull Theater (co-produced by the Drama League) on March 15th, 2021 — Get info HERE
First performed in 1588, John Lyly's Gallathea is a queer love story set inside the landscape of classical myth. In order to avoid becoming dinner for a sea monster, Gallathea and Phillida are sent into the forest dressed as boys. Meanwhile, three shipwrecked brothers set out to seek their fortunes, Cupid stirs up his usual trouble, nymphs fall for mortals, and Neptune–God of the Sea–waits to make his move. This playful pastoral of love, desire, and finding yourself is an affirmation of identity–joyfully reclaimed for 2021.
Featuring: Olivia Rose Barresi, Helen Cespedes, Nathaniel P. Claridad, Yonatan Gebeyehu, Amy Jo Jackson, Layla Khoshnoudi, Rami Margron, Christopher Michael McFarland, Jason O’Connell, Aneesh Sheth, David Ryan Smith, and Zo Tipp.
"… a stunning transformation of Lyly’s Gallathea, a love story that was, in this production, queer even to the end” -Shakespeare Bulletin Vol. 39 (John Hopkins’ University Press)
Talking Direction: Podcast
Emma is in conversation here with Gabriel Stelian-Shanks (Artistic Director of the Drama League) on making classical theatre now, and many other topics! LISTEN HERE
Tabling: The Podcast
Emma had the honor of facilitating table-work for Hamlet, to be released in five podcast episodes (one per act) through February with Tabling: The Podcast along with a full radio-play recording of the text through the ISC’s Radio Shakespeare Lab
Featuring: Julia Larsen, Zoë Goslin, Patrick Harvey, Olivia Rose Barresi, Ariana Karp, Joe McGurl, Colin Holmes, Else C Went, Finn Kilgore, Will Cary, Erin Noll, Andrea Lopez, and Tim Palmer
Assisted by Harrison Densmore, Dramaturgy by Isabel Smith-Bernstein
Mirror Game
by Else C Went
Directed by Emma Rosa Went
Starring Juliana Canfield
Edited by Tim Joy
Produced by Weston Playhouse
Part of “One Room,” in Weston’s 2020 Season (NY Times Critics’ Pick!)
Premiered August 7th
Drama League: Classical Directing Fellowship
Emma is the Drama League Classical Directing Fellow for 2020, in a cohort alongside some amazing Directors Project Fellows and Residents, and will be the first Classical Directing Fellow to present work in DirectorFest (a Revelation Reading at Red Bull Theater) early in ‘21.
Announcement in Broadway World, Playbill
Henry IV
HENRY IV is OUT NOW! LISTEN FOR FREE
Scranton Shakespeare, Summer 2020
by William Shakespeare
Adapted & Directed by Emma Rosa Went
Scranton Shakespeare Festival’s 2020 Season
Sound Design by Else C. Went
Musical Orchestration by Ray Duncan
Project Manager Michele Corregio
Assistant Directed by Lizzie Gumula
Featuring: Hailey Bachrach, Conor McGuigan, Tim Palmer, Olivia Rose Barresi, Will Ormsby Cary, Zoë Goslin, Daniel Holme, Colin Holmes, Ty Lane, Julia Larsen, Joe McGurl, Luke Antony Neville, Erin Noll, and Tamara Sevunts
Female Nude Seated
A new play by Carolyn Gage
Presented as an online-staged-reading by Counterclaim Productions
May 16th at 7:30 PM
WATCH THE READING & TALKBACK
Directed by Emma Rosa Went
Assistant Director: Harrison Densmore
Dramaturg: Abbey Joan Burgess
Featuring: Olivia Rose Barresi and Morgaine Gooding-Silverwood
Featured in: Broadway World
Read a Review: Gay City News, GO Magazine, Bi-Coastal Babble
“emotionally rich…organic and natural…under the direction of Emma Rosa Went, their interactions feel intimate and real. Though this was billed as a “reading,” Went and her cast have clearly explored the text and the relationship in great detail, which is what makes this so engaging.”-Gay City News
“In their faces, I could see the catalytic moment when the two receptacles —character and actor, canvas and frame, language and motion, past and future — merge and become one light.” -GOMag
2019
The Same Shirt Show Part 2:
Beckett Without Beckett
A work-in-progress showing at The Drama League, as part of the First Stage Residency Festival, August 9th at 8 PM.
If it’s not funny, it’s illegal…
Devised & performed by Julia Larsen and Olivia Rose Barresi.
Devised and Directed by Emma Rosa Went.
Courage! To The Field!
A (mostly) New Play in Verse
by Else C. Went (after Shakespeare)
April 25-28th and May 2-4, 7 PM
At The Tank
Courage! To The Field! is an alternate-history-play, a good old-fashioned party, and a story told with music. With disguises, swordplay, romance, fiddles, hijinks, and more – history is theatre, and it belongs to everyone.
This workshop production of Courage! To The Field! is made possible through a Tim Bond Production Grant from the Oregon Shakespeare Festival.
Initiative: Ink’d Festival
Ensemble and crew of Initiative, Photo Courtesy of the Playwrights Realm
Thursday, April 18th
at 3pm (Part I) & 7pm (Part II)
For the INK’d Festival at The Playwrights Realm, we present Else C. Went’s new play Initiative.
Gregory Cuellar* and Carson Scott Higgins* (*AEA, Photo Courtesy of the Playwrights Realm)
The Shirt Show Part 2: Beckett Without Beckett
An Exploration of Masculinity and Existentialism Inspired by the Themes and Works of Beckett, but Containing No Actual Beckett, We Swear
That’s right— The Shirt is back in 2019, with a First Stage Residency at The Drama League, read all about it.
All things Shirt are devised by Olivia Rose Barresi, Julia Larsen, and Emma Rosa Went. Just three humble lady-clowns in a game of chicken with the Beckett Estate.
What \\ Washed Ashore // Astray
A new play by Benjamin Benne
A Staged-Reading Series at the CAMPFIRE THEATRE FESTIVAL, in Boise ID.
September 7-9, at the Boise Contemporary Theater, Campfire is "a three day festival created by theatre makers, for theatre makers," and brings guest artists from around the country together for three days of workshops, community, and new work.
As You Like It
by William Shakespeare
At the Scranton Shakespeare Festival
Camille Upshaw, Garrett Lyons
July 13, 14, 15, & 29.
A banished Duke and his followers seek refuge and peace in the Forest of Arden, where two young women on the run from court find freedom in disguise and love in the forest... As You Like It is the universal invitation; Shakespeare's anarchic, musical comedy of love-at-first-sight and the power of nature, where discord finds harmony, where evil is converted, where all identity is possible.
Featuring: Olivia Rose Barresi, Will Ormsby Cary, Daniel Holme, Irina Kaplan, Julia Larsen, Garrett K. Lyons, Conor McGuigan, Joe McGurl, Ben McNamara, Tamara Sevunts, Logan T. Sutton and Camille Upshaw
Old Names for Wildflowers
Jackie Abbott & Zoë Goslin
A New Play, by Else C. Went
Co-Produced by The Renovationists, The Tank, and Parity Productions
MAY 11th-25th, 2018:
Click HERE to read the full review from Stage Biz:
"The play is a powerful statement on survival and the qualities of those individuals who are able to overcome extreme odds to triumphantly stand in their light."
"Director Emma Rosa Went stokes the fires in the bellies of the characters to set the old paradigms aflame. She lets no moment go unexplored... Her work is marvelously detailed and completely absorbing."
Moth&Flame
Sara Fellini, as Artemisia Gentileschi. Photo by AnthonyCollins.nyc
Written by Sara Fellini
Starring Adam Belvo, and Sara Fellini
Produced by spit&vigor
Presented at the Center at West Park
April 5th-21st, 2018.
The great Baroque painters Caravaggio and Artemisia Gentileschi confess their sins to a heavenly priest in purgatory. Gentileschi recounts her notorious rape and torture in order to reclaim her legacy and fully illuminate her brilliant life and art. Caravaggio, confused after his own brutal and untimely death, is searching for forgiveness — or possibly something deeper.
The Same Shirt Show
An Exploration of Masculinity in the Western Canon, as Performed by Two Women Wearing the Same Shirt, A Theatrical Revue OR: [THE SAME SHIRT SHOW]
Co-Created by and Starring Julia Larsen and Olivia Rose Barresi
Directed by Emma Rosa Went
ONE NIGHT ONLY. DIXON PLACE. FEB 23. 7 PM.
A "post-feminist" comedic exploration of literature, co-dependency, and the importance of costume. Or something.
Julia Larsen and Olivia Rose Barresi tackle some of the most iconic scenes for men in western dramatic literature, from Shakespeare to Mamet… all while occupying a single XXXXL polo shirt. Bound together on a journey, both by serious feminism and by the actual polo shirt, they will attempt to answer the following question: Are two women better than one… man? Featuring sword-fights, hat-gags, possible songs, and the true meaning of (male) friendship. Is this a vanity project? NO ONE WITH VANITY WOULD DO THIS.
The Same Shirt Show, Dixon Place February 2018
2017
Three Seconds: Barn Arts Collective
The Renovationists spent a thrilling week in Maine at the Barn Arts Collective workshopping Else C. Went's play Three Seconds.
Featuring: Harrison Densmore, Julia Larsen, Olivia Barresi, Patrick Harvey, Zoë Goslin, and Finn Kilgore.
"Is loneliness something in the blood? Or is it something in the air? As life at White Rock Lighthouse shifts tidally back and forth across a century, Emory meets the only person who could inspire him to change his fate. Two distinct timelines weave into one family story of loneliness, thwarted hope, and the ocean."
(Residency October 8th-15th, Performance Saturday October 14th 7 PM)
Chemistry
by Jacob Marx Rice, in DarkFest at The Tank.
July 29th & 30th, 2017
"Scars blend better in the dark."
Featuring Juliana Bearse & Jovan Davis
Cello composed/performed by Ariana Karp
Produced by Daniella Benavides
Stage Managed by Rafaella Rossi
Old Names for Wildflowers: A Staged Reading
Presented by The Renovationists, Old Names for Wildflowers is a brand new play by Else C. Went, about witchcraft, queer family-making, and survival on the edge of the woods that "ring with the devil's whistle."
May 7th at 7 PM, Penthouse 2 Shetler Studios.
Featuring: Laura Baranik*, Adam Belvo, Sara Fellini, Zoë Goslin, Patrick Harvey, Sarah Keyes, Finn Kilgore, Jason O'Connell*, and Samantha Steinmetz* (*AEA)
Easy Leap Theatre Company 2016
TDF's ARTICLE on the Brick's 'Shakespeare in the Theater'
Boxcar, a play by Else C. Went
The Tank, 2016
