Emma Juliet Rice (born August 1967) is a British actor, director and writer. Hailed as a fearless director, Rice's work includes theatrical adaptations of ''

Brief Encounter ''Brief Encounter'' is a 1945 British romantic drama film directed by David Lean from a screenplay by Noël Coward, based on his 1936 one-act play ''Still Life''. Starring Celia Johnson, Trevor Howard, Stanley Holloway, and Joyce Carey, ...

'', '' The Red Shoes'' and ''

Wise Children ::''This article refers to the novel by Angela Carter. For the album by Tom Harrell see Wise Children (album)'' ''Wise Children'' (1991) was the last novel written by Angela Carter. The novel follows the fortunes of twin chorus girls, Dora and ...

.'' In 2022, Rice was named in the Sky Arts Top 50 most influential British artists. Rice worked with

Kneehigh Theatre Kneehigh Theatre was an international touring theatre company founded in 1980 by Mike Shepherd and based in Cornwall, England. The company was based in barns on the southern Cornish coast, at Gorran Haven, but the administration was in Truro. ...

in Cornwall for twenty years as an actor, director, then artistic director with co-artistic director, Mike Shepherd. She was the Artistic Director of

Shakespeare's Globe Shakespeare's Globe is a reconstruction of the Globe Theatre, an Elizabethan playhouse for which William Shakespeare wrote his plays, in the London Borough of Southwark, on the south bank of the River Thames. The original theatre was built in ...

from 2016-2018, before founding her own touring theatre company Wise Children.

Early life

Rice was born in Oxfordshire and grew up in

Nottingham Nottingham ( , locally ) is a city and unitary authority area in Nottinghamshire, East Midlands, England. It is located north-west of London, south-east of Sheffield and north-east of Birmingham. Nottingham has links to the legend of Robi ...

where her mother was a social worker and her father was a lecturer in personnel management. After studying English and Stage Design at Harrington College Rice went on to study acting at the

Guildhall School of Music and Drama The Guildhall School of Music and Drama is a conservatoire and drama school located in the City of London, United Kingdom. Established in 1880, the school offers undergraduate and postgraduate training in all aspects of classical music and jazz ...

Career

After graduating from Guildhall, Rice spent eight years working with Alibi Theatre, performing theatre that emphasised storytelling . Alongside touring the UK and performing to children and communities with Alibi, Rice developed her craft, training in Poland, with Gardzienice, a company founded by Włodzimierz Staniewski. In 1994 Rice joined the Cornish theatre company, Kneehigh, as a performer. After taking on increasing creative responsibilities, Kneehigh Artistic directors Bill Mitchell and Mike Shepherd encouraged her to directLaura Barnett
Portrait of the artist: Emma Rice, artistic director
''The Guardian'', 29 May 2012. and her first production, ''The Itch,'' was staged in 1999. As a director, Rice says that her long-running production of '' The Red Shoes'' represented the point in her career when she came into her own. Rice went on to become the Artistic Director of Kneehigh, alongside Mike Shepherd, and under their stewardship Kneehigh produced a plethora of adaptations and original work, including ''Tristan and Yseult,'' ''The Bacchae'' and a 'seedy, dreamy' take on Angela Carter's ''Nights at the Circus.'' Whilst Rice's work did not always appease critics, Kneehigh's 'visually stunning, inventive, often subversive and unashamedly populist' shows toured in the UK and internationally. In 2015 it was announced that Rice would take over from

Dominic Dromgoole Dominic Dromgoole (born 25 October 1963)DROMGOOLE, Dominic Charles Flemi ...

as artistic director of

. After a summer season that saw Rice's A Midsummer Night's Dream and 'exceptionally strong' box office returns, it was announced in October 2016 that Rice would leave the Globe in April 2018. The announcement followed a decision by the theatre's board, which cited concerns over authenticity and her use of lighting technology. In 2017 Rice announced her new touring theatre company, Wise Children. ''Standard Issue Magazine'' made her their woman of the year in 2016 for “her fearlessness, leadership, innovation and bravery”. During the COVID-19 pandemic Rice's Wise Children live streamed a fully staged production to a global audience with their production of Romantics Anonymous which had been due to tour the US prior to the pandemic. Alongside the live streams Rice also presents a podcast series looking behind the scenes of her work and process In 2021, Rice directed an adaptation of Emily Brontë’s

Wuthering Heights ''Wuthering Heights'' is an 1847 novel by Emily Brontë, initially published under her pen name Ellis Bell. It concerns two families of the landed gentry living on the West Yorkshire moors, the Earnshaws and the Lintons, and their turbulent re ...

which toured at

Bristol Old Vic Bristol Old Vic is a British theatre company based at the Theatre Royal, Bristol. The present company was established in 1946 as an offshoot of the Old Vic in London. It is associated with the Bristol Old Vic Theatre School, which became a f ...

and Theare Royal Brighton to strong reviews from critics. In 2022 Rice was named in the Sky Arts Top 50 most influential British artists

External links

Wise Children Official Website

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Rice, Emma Date of birth missing (living people) Living people Cornish culture English theatre directors 1967 births Alumni of the Guildhall School of Music and Drama Women theatre directors