Emily Mann (born April 12, 1952) is a multi-award-winning director and playwright. She is in her 25th season as Artistic Director of McCarter Theatre where she has overseen over 125 productions. Under Mann’s leadership, McCarter was honored with the Tony Award for Outstanding Regional Theater in 1994 and celebrated the 2013 Best Play Tony Award win for Vanya and Sonia and Masha and Spike by Christopher Durang – a play commissioned, developed and premiered at McCarter.
A winner of the Dramatists Guild Hull-Warriner Award, Obie and Peabody awards, and a Guggenheim fellowship. Ms. Mann has received Tony nominations as both a director and a playwright. In 2002 she received an Honorary Doctorate of Arts from Princeton University. In 2011 Ms. Mann was named the National Theatre Conference's Person of the Year. She completed her BA in English literature at Harvard University (Radcliffe College) in 1974 and her MFA in Directing from the University of Minnesota in 1976.
The world premiere of Phaedra Backwards by Marina Carr
The world premiere of The Convert by Danai Gurira (also at the Goodman Theatre in Chicago and Center Theatre Group in Los Angeles; six Ovation Awards, including Best Director of a Play and nominated for thirteen; also nominated for three Joseph Jefferson Awards including Best Production.)
Still Life (6 Obie Awards including playwriting, direction and production of the season) most recently produced by Retro Productions in New York City at the 78th Street Lab, directed by Ric Sechrest during February 2007, for which star Heather E. Cunningham, as Cheryl, was chosen as Marc Miller's "Performance to Remember, 2007" for Backstage East
Annulla, An Autobiography
Wrote and directed Having Our Say, adapted from the book by Sarah Louise Delany and A. Elizabeth Delany with Amy Hill Hearth at McCarter and on Broadway (3 Tony nominations including Best Play and Best Direction, and a Drama Desk nomination; a Joseph Jefferson Award and for the screenplay Peabody, a Christopher Award and an NAACP award nomination).
Mrs. Packard had its world premiere at McCarter Theatre in May 2007 before transferring to The Kennedy Center in June. Acting edition published by Broadway Play Publishing Inc.
Wrote and directed A Seagull in the Hamptons, adapted and modernized from Anton Chekhov's The Seagull. The play premiered at the McCarter Theatre May 2008. Published by Broadway Play Publishing Inc.
Ms. Mann has also adapted versions of Uncle Vanya, The Cherry Orchard, and House of Bernarda Alba (recently staged in London)