emily lyon
director & story editor
Productions
These photos are from several of my full productions. For more information or a full resume, contact: emasuntalyon@gmail.com
Men On Boats
Men On Boats is a play about men making history by going down a river - performed by women on dry land. The story of John Wesley Powell, who lead the US expedition to map the Grand Canyon, is a part of history... but, why do we tell his story? And whose stories are we leaving out? Join 10 non-cis-white-men as they embody these brave explorers – and continue to question the legacies we honor, the legacies we should honor, and the complexities of identity of the past, present, and future of our storytelling.
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Photos by Elizabeth Vice
#yourmemorial
#yourmemorial is a play about what we choose to remember, what we refuse to see, and what it means to be real in the Facebook age. Fresh out of college, Lottie is determined to change the world and make a difference. But when she's killed at her internship in Afghanistan, the Internet threatens to tear her memory apart. As fangirls, rubberneckers, pseudo-friends, trolls and her own social media fuel the digital storm, Lottie's friends will struggle over how and who gets to tell her story, and what her legacy should be.
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Review: "Resourcefully working on a minimalist level, director Emily Lyon achieves fluidity, some lovely stage pictures and the fine performances with her inspired staging."
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Photos by Gabe Frye-Behar
Mary Stuart
Review: "Under deft direction by Emily Lyon, the play gallops through back-room-betrayals, secrets, and professions... Lyon’s direction weaves these
long-examined characters through an unavoidable, modern lens of partisanship – where one decision, whether it be to sign an execution, marry a king, or beg for forgiveness, can be seen as an act of manipulative power-grabbing, or well-intentioned concern for image in an ever-watching world for a woman in power.
In the first few moments of the play... the men of the royal court raid Mary’s private trunks for remnants of letters she has written that may or may not contain salacious treason, and one can’t help but to ask,
'But her emails?'”
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Photos by Allison Stock
All's Well That Ends Well
Review: "I find it hard to understand why William Shakespeare’s All’s Well That Ends Well is so seldom performed. When done as elegantly as Hedgepig Ensemble’s recent, very brief, run at the Gene Frankel Theatre it’s as inviting as any of Shakespeare’s major comedies. Though considered a “problem play”—one characterized by ambiguity and flecked with tragic notes, making it not quite a pure comedy—it’s full of snappy dialog and a complex enough story that creates genuine anticipation. My only regret, and it’s a significant one, is that this production only played for two weekends."
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Photos by Allison Stock
A Taste of Shakespeare
Edited by Emily Lyon
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The Brick's Summer Shakespeare Festival
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Come cruise through some of Shakespeare's island-themed love stories in these 20-ish minute takes on the Bard's plays! Featuring "1/12th Night," "The Tiny Tempest," and "Midsummer: Tedious and Brief," our 5 actors played 10 roles each to tell each truncated story.
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Photos by Allison Stock
How We Hear
Created by Emily Lyon
LPAC's Rough Draft Festival
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Review: "What Lyon did with the next hour and half of our time was an interesting journey through selected excerpts of our national debate. But even more importantly, Lyon took us on an exploratory journey including some real time processing of how new forms of mass media, with the incredible proliferation of information venues and access, impacts our ability to have a honest dialogue about important issues facing our society in a way that everyday Americans are able to process." - QueensBuzz
From Abraham Lincoln to Trump's Twitter feed, How We Hear is an experimental piece about how our political discourse has changed in response to technology. The piece asks, particularly when debating such weighty issues as civil rights, how we can value and protect nuance in a world of 140 (or 280) characters?
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Photos by Mehboob Ahmedabadi
The Secret in the Wings
by Mary Zimmerman
Hedgepig Ensemble, Access Theatre
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Crawl into a blanket fort for this compilation of dark fairytales. Childlike imagination meets a probing exploration of what frightens us most in this ensemble-driven, unusual play. With neighborly ogres, sullen princesses, and fraternal swans, dive into the mysterious world of tales that feel familiar.... and examine the roles and assumptions that have been handed down to children for centuries.
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Photos by Will O'Hare
The Summoning (sheNYC)
by Charlotte Ahlin
The Connelly Theatre, sheNYC Festival
WINNER: Best Production, Best Director, Best Actress
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Circe and Morgan are college roommates, and tonight they're planning something strange. All they need to set their dangerous plan in motion is that final touch: a virgin vessel. Enter Lily, the last virgin on campus...
A story of female friendship, contemporary feminism, and that "circle of hell for women that don't help other women."
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Photos by Lloyd Mulvey
The Summoning (WinterFest)
by Charlotte Ahlin
New York Theatre Festival
Circe and Morgan are college roommates, and tonight they're planning something strange. All they need to set their dangerous plan in motion is that final touch: a virgin vessel. Enter Lily, the last virgin on campus...
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Photos by Lauren Sowa
Sword & the Stone/The Tempest
by Mona Smith
Hudson Valley Shakespeare Festival Fall Tour
Touring area elementary schools, this pair of plays asks our three actors to play numerous characters to tell the story that "might doesn't make right."
Women of Williams County
by Karly Thomas
Midtown International Theatre Festival
This new play throws Tennessee Williams' most iconic female characters all into a room together – where they find out they're all having the same troubles.
A mediation on why women feel the need to be in competition with each other, and why that cycle continues to repeat.
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Photos by Allison Stock and Somie Pak
The Arsonists
by Max Frisch (translated by Alistair Beaton)
DCTV Firehouse, NYC
Why do we read the news... and assume it's all happening to other people? Playing on the architecture of the firehouse, The Arsonists envelops the audience in a blazing satire of politics, class, and the news, pointing out all the ways we let in exactly what we don't want.
Photos by Allison Stock
Breaking 100
by Michael Bonventre
Gene Frankel Theatre
Based on a true story, Breaking 100 follows one teacher as he tries to inspire his students by coaching the bowling team – and ends up being transformed himself. A story of embracing diversity and living authentically.
Photos by Allison Stock
As You Like It
by William Shakespeare
SUNY Brockport
With Arden set as a 1930's Hooverville, our current economic problems echoed through the text. The BA students investigated how economics, gender, and social class can affect what we think we want -- and discover that how we expect things to be isn't always how we like them.
Some of the Side Effects
by David Shaw
United Solo Fest, Theatre Row; Yale Medical Conference; 13th St Rep
*Won Best Premiere at United Solo
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A teenage trip through a mental hospital; a comedy... mostly. Unpacking the stigma of diagnosis, drugs, and what it means to lack open conversation, this solo-show runs the emotional gamut of experiences within our mental health system.
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Photos from Yale Conference
The Hothouse
by Harold Pinter
Studio One
Set in an enigmatic, bureaucratic facility, The Hothouse explores the questionable humanity of the healthcare system.
Hamlet
by William Shakespeare
Mendelssohn Theatre
Hamlet is the story of one man trying to process his thoughts and emotions around trauma in a restrictive, insensitive world. To justify the play's misogyny and resistence to emotional conversations, I set Hamlet in the Mad-Men-esque 1960s. Luckily, that fun idea tripled the Rude Mechanicals' usual audience.
Bright Ideas
by Eric Coble
Studio One
Two parents find themselves on a humorous Macbeth-esque journey to get their son into the right college – by getting him into the right pre-school. A send up of the priorities of our education system, and the cut-throat culture it creates. Literally.
Measure for Measure
by William Shakespeare
Mendelssohn Theatre
Produced just before the presidential election, Measure for Measure played upon the unfortunately-apt political discourse of "legitimate rape" to make Isabella's story of corruption and disbelief remain a timely issue.