Emily N. Wells

Emily is an award-winning theatre director, creative producer and educator with over 25 years experience including a significant emphasis on new plays and musicals. In January of 2022, Emily was named the 4th Artistic Director of Human Race Theatre Company in Dayton, Ohio where she will lead the artistic, community and engagement endeavors into the next act.  For the Human Race, she has directed George Brant's Grounded and the world premiere of This is Tom Jones! with book, music and lyrics by Mark Brown and music by Paul Mirkovich. Emily sits on the advisory board for Sinclair Community College Performing and Visual Arts, and has been a guest director at Wright State University.

 

Prior to moving to Dayton, she curated new works at Houston Grand Opera including Some Light Emerges (Kaminsky, Campbell & Reed), Marian’s Song (Sneed, Mouton), the Telly Award-winning Star-cross’d web series, site-specific works Das Barbecü and Glory Denied, and community programs of import to neighbors in Houston.  Emily directed the HGO world premiere of Another City, composed by Jeremy Howard Beck to a libretto by Stephanie Fleischmann, centering the stories of un-housed Houstonians and those who serve them.

 

Within her own work, she explores the idea of home and community. Emily's directing credits include Rice University, Gulfshore Playhouse, Circuit Playhouse, Theatreworks/USA among others. Emily holds an MFA in Directing from the University of Memphis, a BA in Theatre from Washington University in St. Louis, and is an AEA and SDC Member. In her early career, Emily stage managed on and off Broadway, regionally and on tour. She is proud mom to an active 5 year old, and a fierce advocate for adults living with congenital heart disease. She is a co-founder of industry tech start-up ForeStage Labs, Inc.