Emma Schillage

Emma Schillage

Emma Catherine Schillage (they/she) is an NYC and New Orleans-based playwright, actor, director, theatre educator, and dramaturg from New Orleans, Louisiana.

Emma has been working on various writing projects in playwriting, short story writing, and screenwriting. Their short play, THE PURGATORY FOR WOMEN WHO COMMIT SUICIDE (Winner - Spectral Sisters 2022 Short Play Festival), received...
Emma Catherine Schillage (they/she) is an NYC and New Orleans-based playwright, actor, director, theatre educator, and dramaturg from New Orleans, Louisiana.

Emma has been working on various writing projects in playwriting, short story writing, and screenwriting. Their short play, THE PURGATORY FOR WOMEN WHO COMMIT SUICIDE (Winner - Spectral Sisters 2022 Short Play Festival), received productions at Southern Rep Theatre in New Orleans (November 2020) and Columbia University (October 2021). Their plays, "god AND GIRL" (Finalist - Dramatists Guild Fellowship) and "Cockroaches", also received a production at Columbia University.

Emma graduated from Loyola University New Orleans, where they received their Bachelor of Arts in Theatre. There she studied Acting, Directing, Dramaturgy, and Playwriting. Emma recently received their MFA in Playwriting from Columbia University this past May. When not writing, Emma can be found acting, reading, cooking, communing with nature, or playing Dungeons and Dragons.

Plays

  • Cockroaches
    Cockroaches is a Southern Gothic dark comedy about three sisters trapped in their childhood home grappling with their mother's most recent suicide attempt. Momma has been acting strange since coming home from the hospital, causing eldest daughter, Jenny, to come home from college, middle child, Charlie, to act out, and youngest child, Sissy, to follow in her mother’s footsteps. Meanwhile, monsters are...
    Cockroaches is a Southern Gothic dark comedy about three sisters trapped in their childhood home grappling with their mother's most recent suicide attempt. Momma has been acting strange since coming home from the hospital, causing eldest daughter, Jenny, to come home from college, middle child, Charlie, to act out, and youngest child, Sissy, to follow in her mother’s footsteps. Meanwhile, monsters are lurking, ready to consume every bit of innocence in their path. As their mother's humanity fades, the sisters must learn to care for themselves and each other before it is too late. Cockroaches explores how we create monsters, survive them, punish them, and learn from them in the wake of disaster. Inspired by Southern Gothic tales and loosely based on Franz Kafka's Metamorphosis, the play features three young female characters filled with rage, joy, and fierce humor as they navigate a dark and treacherous world.
  • Rotten is the Flesh
    When three best friends try to summon their friend from the dead, they are instead met with the god of dead girls. She wants to make a trade. Except it isn't the kind of trade they were expecting.
  • god and GIRL
    High school student Eva is excited (and a little terrified) for her first-ever March For Life Trip to Washington, D.C. It is her first time on an overnight trip away from home, away from her family, and surrounded by the people they only go to school with. But the March isn't the only thing on her mind. Her crush, Mason, is also on the trip, and Eva is determined to make a connection with him before the...
    High school student Eva is excited (and a little terrified) for her first-ever March For Life Trip to Washington, D.C. It is her first time on an overnight trip away from home, away from her family, and surrounded by the people they only go to school with. But the March isn't the only thing on her mind. Her crush, Mason, is also on the trip, and Eva is determined to make a connection with him before the trip is over. But as soon as they get to Washington, D.C., a lot seems to go wrong. Not only is Eva rooming with high school "it girls" Keri and Maddie, but the March itself seems to take a turn for the worse, making the students question and grapple with everything they thought they knew. To help her navigate it all is Eva's confidant, God, herself. GOD AND GIRL is a story about young adulthood and how we navigate complex topics when no one seems to have the answers. It is a story about sex, motherhood, girlhood, and self-actualization. It's a love letter to my adolescent self, to you, and maybe to God, too. We'll see.
  • The Purgatory for Women Who Commit Suicide [A 10-Minute Play]
    Ophelia has lost someone. Everyone has in The Purgatory for Women Who Commit Suicide. But before they can move on to whatever is next, the women must find closure. And how do they do this? By casting spells of course! The Purgatory for Women Who Commit Suicide forces you to rethink what it means to be a hysterical woman.
  • Dreams Take Place in Outer Space [A 10-Minute Play]
    After the loss of her Big Dipper, Little Dipper finds an unlikely friend in the Astronaut who crashed outside her bedroom window. Maybe it's fate or maybe he was sent to her. Together they navigate the aftermath of grief and love lost.
  • THE BUG COLLECTOR
    When 16-year-old, precocious, fantasy-lover Jules starts having strangely realistic dreams surrounding the events of her mother’s death, she receives a mysterious note in her locker that seems to have all the answers. Sending her through a strange sequence of events that transports her to another world via the broken-down fridge in her backyard. Except this world seems much more familiar than her own. Fantasy...
    When 16-year-old, precocious, fantasy-lover Jules starts having strangely realistic dreams surrounding the events of her mother’s death, she receives a mysterious note in her locker that seems to have all the answers. Sending her through a strange sequence of events that transports her to another world via the broken-down fridge in her backyard. Except this world seems much more familiar than her own. Fantasy and reality begin to blur as the fantastical stories of her youth begin to take shape before her very eyes.
    With the help of her brother Hugh and her best friend Vincent, Jules may finally be able to save her mother and defeat the evil Bug Collector from her dreams once and for all.
  • LA FAMIGLIA È TUTTO
    ***FULL PLAY AVAILABLE UPON REQUEST***
    A small and unsuspecting town called Independence is dying. At least, it is for Antonina. After the death of her great grandmother, Antonina can't seem to find home anymore.
    Josephine hates her sister.
    Mary is just like her mother.
    Beatrice is trying.
    Carlogero is probably off with some other woman.
    And Nonna is gone....
    ***FULL PLAY AVAILABLE UPON REQUEST***
    A small and unsuspecting town called Independence is dying. At least, it is for Antonina. After the death of her great grandmother, Antonina can't seem to find home anymore.
    Josephine hates her sister.
    Mary is just like her mother.
    Beatrice is trying.
    Carlogero is probably off with some other woman.
    And Nonna is gone.

    Following four generations of women in an Italian-American family, LA FAMIGLIA È TUTTO is part cultural love story, part biography, and part memory play. Mostly, it is an examination on the different ways in which a family grieves after the death of the most important person in that family.
  • I'm Going To Hell, Aren't I? [A 10-MINUTE PLAY]
    Thirteen year old Jeannie goes to Catholic girls school. After an unfortunate run in with a snake in the forrest leaves her vulnerable, she must seek spiritual guidance before she is tempted again.