Writer

Plays

CASSANDRA Cassandra, princess of Troy, was blessed by the god Apollo with the gift of foresight, but he cursed her in turn never to be believed. As Troy falls to the Greeks King Agamemnon claims Cassandra as his war prize, and she finds herself aboard his ship, sailing for his home in Argos—a home he hasn’t seen in ten long years. As the journey wears on, Cassandra and Agamemnon bristle against the ways in which they unwillingly depend upon one another, and Cassandra glimpses hope that maybe this time–maybe once–she’ll be taken at her word.

SILVER PAPER At the close of WWII, 100% of the women who worked in manufacturing during the war effort were fired. Silver Paper is a play in six scenes set in California in the early post-war days of 1945-46. Frances and her daughter-in-law Bea—both wartime employees at an aircraft manufacturing plant—are let go just as Tom (Frances’s son and Bea’s husband) returns home from years of frontline service in Europe. Struggling to adjust to Tom’s homecoming, Frances and Bea decide to fight for their factory jobs, and in doing so come face to face with the manipulative reality of patriotism, the toxicity of false hope, and the tragedy of stolen purpose.

SENZA MAMMA New York City. 1976. Opera star Beverly Sills distracts herself from the slow decline of her monumental career by working on her autobiography. Her ghost writer Miriam—eager to satisfy the publishers—pushes Sills to recall stories about her family. To finish the book Sills must contend with the painful parts of her private life she’s long tried to push past.

solo shows

OFTENTIMES BETTER

A solo show by Emma Grimsley | Created with Benedict Braxton-Smith

“In November of 2023 I found a bunch of oil paintings in the trash and launched myself into a passionate search for the artist who'd painted them. Oftentimes Better was born out of that process. A curious unraveling of the phrase "Jack of all trades; master of none," the show is an investigation into the place that “Jacks” hold in our collective consciousness and a look at the ways I've tangled with the label in my own life. Story. Song. A rich mix of genre and style. And the tale of tracking down mysterious painter Joe Easter, creator of the canvases I discovered in the garbage.”

-EG

Musicals

HELIANTHUS

Music by Kaitlyn Davis | Book & Lyrics by Emma Grimsley

When Alice was little, her grandmother Lois taught her to draw. Alice—now a struggling artist in the city and deep in her loneliest moment—picks up the phone when Lois calls her by mistake from her nursing home. Despite the distance between them they rediscover the relationship they’ve let lie dormant for years but can’t escape confronting the usefulness and uselessness of art, the pain of unaddressed ambition, and what can get lost in generational translation.

libretti

THE SCHEMES & SCANDALS OF FAT LEONARD

OPERA IN PROGRESS | Composed by Tommy Dougherty | Libretto by Emma Grimsley

Based on the very true story of the US Navy's massive and currently unfolding military contracting scandal—during which the Navy has been swindled out of hundreds of millions of dollars by defense contractor Leonard Glenn Francis (or "Fat Leonard") and the many high-ranking US Navy officers he corrupted—The Schemes and Scandals of Fat Leonard looks at what has been left in the scandal’s wretched wake and at the key players in its unraveling, refocusing a chaotically masculine narrative on the collateral damage heaped upon women and military spouses each step of the way. What is left when “honor,” patriotism, and the men who cling to them crumble?