Biography
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Emily C. A. Snyder is a published and internationally produced playwright and novelist, whose work has been performed from Christchurch, New Zealand to Dublin, Ireland. A NYC-based verse coach and director, she is the premiere international scholar on writing and performing new verse drama.
She is the Artistic Director and Founder of TURN TO FLESH PRODUCTIONS (TTF) which develops new works in heightened text with vibrant roles for womxn and artists traditionally underrepresented in classical art. In 2020, Snyder founded the Hamlet to Hamilton: Exploring Verse Drama podcast, which gives the tools of writing and performing verse drama into the hands of the artists. Emily holds her Masters in Theatre Education from Emerson College, and a double-major with her BA in English: Literature and Drama from Franciscan University of Steubenville. She studied John Barton's Shakespearean technique with members of the Royal Shakespeare Company in London and Stratford-upon-Avon, where her Rosalind (As You Like It) was compared to a young Maggie Smith. For the past twenty years, Emily has directed the major works of Shakespeare's canon, and performed in the remainder. Favorite New York directing credits include Richard II with Hamlet Isn't Dead, King Lear with What Dreams May Co., as well as the Shakespeare adjacent material, such as Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are Dead, and May Violets Spring: A New Story for a New Ophelia. An avid Shakespearean, she has performed the roles of Juliet in her Juliet and Her Romeo, and Alice Ford in her Merry Widows of Windsor, as well as the traditional roles of Brutus in Julius Caesar, Prospero in The Tempest, and Feste in Twelfth Night. Lately, Emily has lent her voice to Olivia in Twelfth Night and Cordelia in King Lear for the Chop Bard podcast. 
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Her new verse plays, Cupid and Psyche and The Other, Other Woman performed to sold-out audiences in New York City. Both plays were also singled out by the Princess Grace Foundation. Her Shakespearean homage, A Comedy of Heirors was named one of the Top 15 NYC Shows of 2017 by A Work Unfinishing, and was a finalist along with Cupid And Psyche with the American Shakespeare Center's (ASC) "Shakespeare's New Contemporaries." Her feminist sequel to Shakespeare's Merry Wives, her Merry Widows of Windsor was selected for development and a fully staged reading with The Sheen Center for Thought and Culture. Her verse plays have also received commendation from the Eugene O'Neill and Thornton Wilder Foundation.
Emily is also the author of popular Regency novels, including the Jane Austen parody, Nachtstürm Castle. She debuted with original fantasy novels in her Twelve Kingdoms series, which were compared to Lord Dunsany and J. R. R. Tolkein. Emily is a much sought-after educator, specializing in Shakespeare and new verse, including her recent work with The Shakespeare Forum, and her ground-breaking work on the intersection of psychology and performance in her thesis On Character. She is currently working on the definitive work on writing new verse, and breaking down complex act structure. To round out her apparent endeavor to satisfy Mr. Darcy's request for an accomplished lady, Emily is also a composer, pianist, opera singer, art critic, graphic designer and fine artist. She is also capable of reading a book and crossing the road in safety. Despite her biography, she is not overly fond of cats.
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