Emma King-Farlow is the Artistic Director of Shadow Road Productions, an independent theatre company specialising in intimate, story-led, site-specific work and the founder and Festival Director of the Fireside Folktales Fringe Festival. She is also a traditionally published children’s author (Uncle Alonzo’s Beard, Meadowside Children’s Books), a former trustee of the OSO Arts Centre in London and a professional member of Stage Directors UK and the Society of Authors.

Through Shadow Road, Emma creates theatre that meets audiences where they are - emotionally, physically and geographically - often in aid of charities and community organisations. The company’s work has been staged everywhere from churches, cancer centres and care homes to gardens, historic houses and traditional theatres and they have partnered with organisations including the National Trust, Combat Stress, Barnes Children’s Literature Festival, WWT London Wetland Centre, Strawberry Hill House and Imperial Health Charity, among many others.

Shadow Road’s work ranges from full-scale theatre productions to its four-person Fireside Folktales adaptations of myths, legends and classic literature, alongside workshops, interactive events and bespoke commissions. Most recently, the company delivered an Arts Council England-funded tour of hospitals, cancer centres and care homes with Emma’s adaptation of A Christmas Carol, bringing professional theatre directly into healthcare settings.

Alongside her directing and writing, Emma runs writers’ retreats, acting workshops and professional development sessions for performers and educators, works freelance as an actor and voiceover artist and regularly consults on live events and new productions. She has been invited to speak on character development and rehearsal-room practice at the Music & Drama Education Expo in London, and her work sits at the intersection of storytelling, access and care.

Emma has directed casts ranging in size from one up to fifty+ actors and in age from small children to performers in their eighties, both through Shadow Road and as a freelance director. Her work has been staged in venues from the West End to the Edinburgh Fringe, with credits including Dreams From The Pit (Palace Theatre, Shaftesbury Avenue), Robin Hood (London Wetland Centre), Californian Lives (King’s Head Theatre and OSO Arts Centre), Treasure Island (Roman Theatre of St Albans) and the Fireside Folktales repertoire across heritage and community venues nationwide.

As a performer, Emma remains part of the Fireside Folktales acting company, with recent roles including Lady Macbeth, Jacob Marley, Belle, Captain Smollett, Will Scarlet, Persephone and Zeus - sometimes juggling up to eleven characters in a single production! Her onstage experience informs her rehearsal-room practice and she is particularly known for her character-led approach and her ability to create warm, rigorous and collaborative spaces for actors.

Emma’s work and philosophy were recently featured in Neun Magazine: Emma King-Farlow: The Light We Carry.

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