Emit Theatre

Emit Theatre was founded by Gianna Cioffi, Amy Frey, Jo’Lisa Jones, and Amanda Urban. It formed from a desire to create immersive theater that held education at its core and could be easily shared in order to impact as many people as possible. The collaboration began with a production of Romeo and Juliet at BrooklynONE, a theatre company based in Bay Ridge as part of the Brooklyn Shakespeare Festival. These rehearsals, set in the beautiful, now closed, St. John’s church served as a catalyst for the two immersive productions of Romeo and Juliet that followed. The show closed after an extended run and uniformly positive reviews. Drawing from their diverse experiences in both interactive theatre and education, the team saw the potential for the immersive format to be used to educate students struggling with literacy comprehension. Their theory was put to the test as part of Gianna and Amanda's master's thesis project. The production was again remounted. Using previous productions as a template, this version of Romeo and Juliet was specifically crafted to appeal to the average high school student. The experience was scaffolded into a three part approach that included watching a standard production of the play, and culminated in the students participating in an immersive production. The project sought to create greater connection between the students and the characters in order to maximize comprehension. During the immersive production, students were directed to “choose your own adventure” and encouraged to follow characters to whom they felt the deepest connection. Data was recorded at every stage of the project. Propelled by the data findings and the audience response of the first phases of the project, Emit Theatre was officially formed. The company seeks to make educational immersive theatre as accessible as possible by creating a mobile, flexible format, including elements of site-specific theatre which allow us to adapt to whatever space that we are given. No matter where our productions take place, we believe in creating ADA accessible, sensory-friendly environments. We believe that theatre should be for everyone, regardless of age or ability.