We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful Emma Tadmor. We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with Emma below.

Emma, looking forward to hearing all of your stories today. Can you talk to us about a project that’s meant a lot to you?

In November of 2022 I directed and produced my second original play ‘Charlie’ at TheaterLab. This was my first Off-Broadway production, as well as my directing debut in New York.

‘Charlie’ is an intimate family drama, touching on choice, loss and moving on. Exploring multiple relationships and family dynamics, Charlie chooses to live in the fractures. The play is set in modern day America, and our story is therefore heavily colored by recent changes in women’s rights laws. I write plays because I have questions about the world and about the people in it. I write in an attempt to figure out matters that I quite frankly cannot understand. I don’t understand how, for example, Roe v. Wade was overturned. I don’t understand how or why people stop loving each other. I don’t understand the concept of a point of no return. Charlie touches on all of these subjects, exploring our ideas of family, romantic relationships, the different choices we can make, and our fundamental right to choose.

This play was and is very personal for me, and I am incredibly blessed to have worked with an amazing group of actors (Netflix’s Casimere Jollette in her theater debut, veteran stage actors Marcel Simoneau and Lauren Currie Lewis, and very promising newcomer Adam Bartoshesky) who brought this story to life. This was by far the best cast I ever worked with, and it’s one who’s talent, drive and commitment I would be incredibly lucky to match in any of my future projects.

Emma, before we move on to more of these sorts of questions, can you take some time to bring our readers up to speed on you and what you do?

I was born and raised in Tel Aviv Israel, and, frankly, I didn’t have any intention of pursuing a career in the arts. However, after serving in the IDF, I decided to take an acting course in order to get the notion of studying acting out of my system, in favor of a more practical career like law or business. Unfortunately, I did not get it out of my system… but rather fell in love with it. I took two Shakespeare intensives at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Arts in London, which has influenced me greatly, and continues to color and inspire my work today. I then started my two year conservatory program at the Lee Strasberg Theater and Film Institute in York, where, during Covid, I also began writing. I have since written and produced two original plays. My first play, Plasters, debuted at the Edinburgh festival Fringe in 2021. My second play, Charlie, which went up at TheaterLab, was my first off-Broadway production.

The last project I worked on was an adaptation of Hamlet in under an hour, ‘Hamlet Split Apart’. The script was adapted by Gary Lagden RADA professor and director, with whom I had the pleasure to work in 2018. This script stuck with me for years, and last year I began to edit and reimagine it with Gary’s permission. Together with my co-Director, Roni Ishay, and clinical psychologist, Noa Yaron, I put up a 55 minute long production, which examines the core of the play and its characters through a psychoanalytical lens.

I believe that what sets me apart as an artist is that I approach writing, directing and producing as an actress. I am first and foremost an Actor, and I believe that it is my acting training that gave me the tools to put up original work. I’m also very curious by nature, I ask questions all the time, and the more I think about it the more I hope to never stop asking. I believe this is what great theater does, it asks us questions, and makes us question in return.

My theater company, RJ Theatre, is currently working on our next Off-Broadway production. We are extremely committed to working with people from all around the world, from different backgrounds and of different ages. Talented and passionate individuals who can bring themselves to our projects and enrich them even further.

Ultimately, I want to make work, whether it be theater, television or film, that makes a difference, that inspires and moves people to feel, to act and to think. Be it on a grander political scale, or touching on the little things that make us human, to me theater at its core is connection. Art is connection, and that is what I endeavor to create.

What do you find most rewarding about being a creative?

Constantly having to think about what it means to be alive. It’s the best and worst part of being an artist. I don’t mean this in the “tortured artist” kind of way, but rather that I feel that to make meaningful art that resonates with audiences, the creator has to be very deeply rooted in both the current and the timeless aspects that make up our experience of being human and of being alive.

We often hear about learning lessons – but just as important is unlearning lessons. Have you ever had to unlearn a lesson?

I have a twin brother (who coincidentally is my favorite person on this planet), and while growing up alongside him had many wonderful aspects, it was also a guarantee that I always felt like I was being compared to someone else. Everything I did or didn’t do was in relation to my brother. I’m pretty sure that this experience is common among twins and even among siblings who are close to each other in age, but in my case, fortunately or unfortunately, the ‘someone’ to whom I was being compared is and has always been outstanding, extraordinary and remarkable human being. It took me many years and moving across several continents to really understand that I can and that I have to exist not only in relation to other people.

I still catch myself comparing myself not only to my brother, but to the people around me, my colleagues and friends. I try to avoid this -not to the extent of walking around the world pretending I’m the only one in it- but mainly trying to honor what I do while being inspired by other people and their work, rather than triggered and intimidated by it.     

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.rjtheatrecompany.com/
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/omer.emma/?hl=en

Image Credits
Headshot by Sector Blue Photography Production Photos by David Tadmor