Emma Palzere-Rae is a playwright, actor, director, producer and non-profit manager. Emma spent 15 years as part of the NYC theater community, where she began producing one-woman plays and founded the Womenkind Festival. Over its ten-year run, Womenkind presented nearly 75 different performers, mainly original works. She is the Associate Director at Artreach, Inc. (Norwich, CT), and has also held the position of Artistic Director for Plays for Living (NYC), a touring company dedicated to social change, where she also wrote and developed plays for the repertoire. Emma’s plays include Aunt Hattie’s House: Reconstructed, about what compelled Harriet Beecher Stowe to pen Uncle Tom’s Cabin; Live from the Milky Way… It’s Gilda Radner!; The Woodhull Project about 1872 Presidential candidate, Victoria Woodhull; and Breaking Glass, inspired by the life of Victorian photographer Julia Margaret Cameron. Her one-woman plays tour throughout the country under the banner of Be Well Productions. She is currently developing two multi-character Finders Weepers and Carole’s Christmas.

Emma is passionate about nurturing theater artists and co-founded The Way of the Labyrinth Playwright’s Retreat held in southeastern Connecticut (2015-2019). Emma has also been an adjunct professor in the Arts Administration program in the Dramatic Arts Department at the University of Connecticut. Emma serves on the steering committee of the League of Professional Theatre Women (CT Chapter), the board of Mystic Film Institute, and co-chairs the New London (CT) Arts Council. She is a member of Actors Equity Association and the Dramatists Guild, where she serves as the regional representative for New England. Emma holds a B.F.A in Acting with minors in Creative Writing and Speech from Emerson College, Boston. In 2021, Emma was awarded an Artist Fellowship from the CT Office of the Arts.