B!RTH
Royal Exchange Theatre, Manchester
Emma was Creative Director of the B!RTH festival, tasked with creating an international festival of playwriting that explored the practice of childbirth across the world. She commissioned 7 playwrights from 7 countries and directed presentations of their plays at the Royal Exchange Manchester. The playwrights were Liwaa Yazji (Syria) Xu Nuo (China) Marcia Zanelatto (Brazil), Mumbi Kaigwa (Kenya) Swati Simha (India) and Stacey Gregg (UK).
The festival included responsive work by Clean Break, Mighty Heart Theatre, Aboo Theatre and RET Young Company and filled the building with charities who work directly with the issues that the plays raised.
Emma went on to deliver workshops on the plays with at a number of UK universities and to direct a selection of the plays at the Traverse Theatre during the Edinburgh Festival. She directed Choices by Stacey Gregg at the Bush Theatre during Fertility Fest and the Southbank Centre during the Women of the World festival.
The B!RTH project was also invited to the World Health Organisation in Geneva to present the plays by Mumbi Kaigwa and Liwaa Yazji to an audience of global health experts.
