Emily Elyse Everett

Emily Elyse Everett

Emily is a writer and actor living in New York. In her work, you will find: her fascination with psychological unraveling; the marrying of unassuming everyday experiences with the mythic; her obsession with women who are misguided or wronged; and a raw intensity that courses through the stories she writes. Though often dark, mysterious, and neurotic, Emily's plays also carry a deep tenderness and sharp wit...
Emily is a writer and actor living in New York. In her work, you will find: her fascination with psychological unraveling; the marrying of unassuming everyday experiences with the mythic; her obsession with women who are misguided or wronged; and a raw intensity that courses through the stories she writes. Though often dark, mysterious, and neurotic, Emily's plays also carry a deep tenderness and sharp wit, exploring the complexity of human morality, questioning why we make the choices we do, and searching, relentlessly, for the strange pieces of human togetherness that are worth fighting for.

Emily was awarded Synecdoche Works' 2022 Frank Moffett Mosier Fellowship for Works in Heightened Language and the $3000 winning prize for her play "Strange and Splendid". She was a Semifinalist for the Lanford Wilson New American Play Festival and a Winner of the Players Club of Swarthmore New Play Festival for her play "Serenity", selected for the 2023 Valdez Theater Conference for her play "sorry sorry okay sorry", and a finalist for the Emerson Stages NewFest New Play Workshop and the Circle in the Square Theatre School Emerging Writer's Residency for her play "New England Summer Storms".

Emily also wrote the 5-episode serialized mystery podcast, "Process", which will be released in spring 2024.

As an actor, Emily most recently played Becca in Nightdrive's tour of The Grown-ups, reprising the role from the sold-out NYC run, which extended three times. Time Out New York called it “the coolest new play you probably can’t see” and included it on their list of the top 10 shows of 2021.

Emily has also worked with The Public Theater, Ars Nova, Taylor Mac, Sweet Tea Shakespeare, and on self-produced projects. In a previous life, Emily was almost a medical student.

Originally from Portland, Oregon, Emily has a BA from Brown University and is a Playwriting MFA candidate at Columbia University.

Plays

  • New England Summer Storms
    2 hrs with intermission. Hazel Green, now Hazel Tarlow, marries her rich classmate from college—and all of their friends think they know why she did it. A story of obsession, ambition, addiction, and greed, of choosing between what you want and what you need, and of what it takes to have power in America. Loose retelling of Ibsen's "Hedda Gabler". ​
  • sorry sorry okay sorry
    90 minutes. Clementine is desperately trying to do the right thing. Clancy is desperately trying to make it through another day as her life falls apart. David is desperately trying to win the Phoenix Division of the World Mind of a Warrior Conference, a celebration of Skill, Artistry, Dedication, and Grit for all those who practice The Way.

    A play about the funny things that happen in our...
    90 minutes. Clementine is desperately trying to do the right thing. Clancy is desperately trying to make it through another day as her life falls apart. David is desperately trying to win the Phoenix Division of the World Mind of a Warrior Conference, a celebration of Skill, Artistry, Dedication, and Grit for all those who practice The Way.

    A play about the funny things that happen in our saddest moments, the sad things that happen in our happiest moments, and also, about competitive meditation.. (Previously titled: "Tryhard" for the Valdez Theatre Conference).
  • Serenity
    90 minutes. Four students at Sacred Heart Academy for Girls tangle themselves in their fears, obsessions, identities, and faiths as they battle for a place on the coveted Sacred Heart Church Counsel. 
  • Strange and Splendid
    75-90 minutes. A girl falls in love. The gods get jealous and steal the lover away. The girl journeys to get her lover back. Largely in verse.

    WINNER: 2022 Frank Moffett Mosier Fellowship for Works in Heightened Language ($3000 prize + workshop)
  • -1, 0, 1
    10 minutes. How different is the version of you just one reality over from this one? A perfectly normal teenage boy is visited by a slightly different perfectly normal teenage boy, from one reality over. They're both visited by a slightly different slightly different perfectly normal teenage boy from one reality over in the other direction.
  • We're In Prison
    10 minutes. A prisoner knows that he's performing in front of an audience, but can't figure out why he can only say what's been written down in the script. A guard knows that there's a script, but doesn't see the audience in front of him. Huh??
  • War Story
    15 minutes. A series of short vignettes weave together a complex criticism of war and war culture, bringing in the perspective of children, parents, soldiers, and dictators. Features interludes of interpretive movement.
  • Sappington! [or] The Lamentations and Tribulations of Butlerhood
    45-60 minutes. Barnabus Sappington used to be a butler, and Barnabus Sappington is in therapy. His therapist, Dr. Robinson, isn't very good at his job, but is very good at interrupting his client's stories. We piece together Sappington's past and meet the many previous families he worked for, including a murderous 8 year old, a group of retired Broadway actresses, and an expat from Spain escaping the law.
  • Midnight
    75-90 minutes. Part folk musical, part ritual performed by actor-musicians. A baby in a struggling rural community has just died, and the parishioners of the church gather to celebrate, judge, and unravel her life.