Today we’d like to introduce you to Emily McClain.
Hi Emily, it’s an honor to have you on the platform. Thanks for taking the time to share your story with us – to start maybe you can share some of your backstory with our readers?
I’m originally from Tupelo, Mississippi, but I’ve lived in Georgia since 1992. I’ve been involved in theatre since high school and attended Berry College in Rome, GA to continue studying theatre, primarily focusing on performance at first. While I’ve always done creative writing, college was where I really started to develop a taste for writing specifically for the stage. I also became more interested in directing and producing theatre and was able to hone my skills in those areas as well. When I graduated, I got a job teaching theatre in Gwinnett County. Theatre education has always been a huge passion of mine and I was grateful for the opportunity to do what I loved, but being a full-time theatre teacher is a very demanding and time-consuming job. It took a long time for me to be able to achieve a sense of balance between my creative life in my work with students and my creative life in my work for myself. After having kids (my son was born in 2012 and my daughter in 2014) it became clear to me that I needed to do something artistic that was fulfilling for me personally and that wouldn’t require me to be out of the home as much as directing or acting. So I got back into writing. I finished my first one-act play, 180 DAYS, in the fall of 2016. It was a dark comedy about teachers (write what you know, am I right?) and then I felt motivated to start working on a play that had been in the back of my mind since college about Artemisia Gentileschi. I was scared to write this play because it was such a heavy topic and one that was really important to me. It took me most of 2017 to really get going on it- while taking frequent breaks to write 10 minute plays or other unrelated projects. When I finished the play, which was titled CHIAROSCURO at the time, in 2018, I submitted it to the Ethel Woolson Lab through Working Title Playwrights and to Essential Theatre’s New Play Competition. It was selected for both and I was fortunate enough to work with some truly incredible artists in the lab to develop the play before the world premiere at Essential in 2019. In the workshop process, the title changed to SLAYING HOLOFERNES, which is what the play is called now.
When the pandemic hit, I didn’t go back to the classroom for the 2020-2021 school year to stay at home with my children. Like so many people, I felt a huge loss of my identity when I didn’t have my job to go to every day. I did a lot of freelance work, mainly with Essential Theatre as their education associate. I developed the curriculum for their online playwriting classes with Elisabeth Cooper and we were able to offer these classes for folks up to the present time. I wrote prolifically during 2020 and 2021, finishing 13 plays (6 full-lengths and 7 one acts) and around a dozen 10-Min or shorter plays. I started working with an online playwriting group called Playwrights Thriving and found so much joy and community from these artists. We still participate in writing challenges together and support each others’ work. I also joined the Some Bodies Theatre Collective (founded by Jennifer Boutell, among others) and have been fortunate enough to get to work with those theatre makers in a huge variety of projects. I returned to the classroom in the fall of 2021 at School of the Arts @ Central Gwinnett and while I don’t have as much time for writing new stuff now that I’m teaching full time again, I have a body of work that I can continue to submit and hope to see produced in the future.
Would you say it’s been a smooth road, and if not what are some of the biggest challenges you’ve faced along the way?
There have been many disappointments and setbacks along the way. I don’t know of any artistic person that doesn’t recognize how their creative journey is shaped both by their triumphs and by their failures. It has taken me a long time to find a group of artists that I trust and can help in my growth (both personally and professionally).
Writing is a deeply intimate practice and we need to be selective about who we open ourselves up to – there are certain personalities that enjoy tearing people down rather than building up and creating together. Even people that I care about on a personal level can be draining to collaborate with creatively, so I would say learning the hard lessons about who I need to have in my creative circle were some of my biggest struggles as a playwright and theatre maker.
Thanks for sharing that. So, maybe next you can tell us a bit more about your work?
I identify as a playwright, theatre educator, director, producer, and performer– or putting it more succinctly, a theatre maker. I’m best known for plays that focus on untold stories from history, often focusing on the contributions of women: SLAYING HOLOFERNES (Artemisia Gentileschi), COPPER ANGEL (about sculptor Anna Coleman Ladd), THE POET, THE SPY, AND THE DARK LADY (about poet and playwright Emilia Bassano), and WHAT THE WATER GAVE ME (about artist Frida Kahlo). I love historical drama as a genre because it allows us to connect with the past in a new way and hopefully illuminate something unexpected in how we view contemporary life.
I’m also involved in the Risk Theatre community. Based on the framework created by scholar Edwin Wong, Risk Theatre reimagines the structure of classical tragedy and brings it into the modern age. I’ve had two plays advanced to the finals for the Risk Theatre competition and I have become something of a resource about the theory of Risk Theatre for my fellow playwrights. CHILDREN OF COMBS AND WATCH CHAINS was a Risk Theatre finalist in 2020 and THE ROCK & THE HARD PLACE was a semi-finalist in 2021.
My work ethic and my productivity set me apart from most other artists. I almost always have several plays at various stages in development. I’m inspired by my friend Amina McIntyre who has a beautiful box of play ideas she has collected just waiting to be written! Mine is in a crummy little notebook or on the notes app on my phone though. I need to step up my “ideas for plays” game.
What’s next?
I’m really looking forward to traveling and seeing more live theatre. While I am grateful for digital theatre, for me there is no substitute for being in the same physical space as the performers and sharing the experience with other people in that same space. I have a play (THE POET, THE SPY, AND THE DARK LADY) that will have a reading at the Last Frontier Theatre Festival in Valdez, Alaska in June so I’m going to hopefully be able to attend.
There are BIG things coming for Some Bodies Theatre Collective in the upcoming months and I’m so excited to get to be involved with this incredible group of artists who are committed to doing thought-provoking work. I’m grateful to be a part of the vibrant artistic ecosystem of Atlanta through my work as a playwright and a teacher.
Contact Info:
- Email: emilymcclain234@gmail.com
- Website: https://newplayexchange.org/users/27781/emily-mcclain, https://somebodiestheatreco.wixsite.com/somebodies
- Instagram: @emilymcclain234
- Twitter: @emmaline234
Image Credits:
Un/Seen promo pic: Jennifer Boutell What The Water Gave Me promo pic: Jeff James
