From a very young age, Courtney Emerson knew she wanted to lead a life immersed in “The Arts”.

When her family expressed concern that the career of “Artist” might not provide the stability they envisioned for their 7-year old’s future, she knew exactly what she would do. “I’ll be an actress, too!” and soon landed her first role as The Wicked Witch of the West in her elementary school’s production of The Wizard of Oz. Problem solved!

Fast forward to today, Courtney’s interest in the arts has widely expanded. Once referred to as “the Swiss Army knife of community theater” Courtney strives to learn everything she can in order to be of as much use to a production as she can be.

Aside from performing and directing, Courtney has had the opportunity to work in various fields within theater — set design, costuming, set dressing — and most notably, prop design and puppet making for both children’s theater and feature stage productions.

In 2022, Courtney joined The Women’s Playwright Collective as a first time playwright and her piece, “Flexible Fate”, which she also directed, was selected as the Jury Pick in the 5th Annual Not Forgotten Play Festival.

Since then, Courtney’s original plays have been produced in multiple festivals and series. Her full length play, Lights Over Kansas, was recently produced by Staten Island Shakespearean Theatre company as a staged reading, kicking off their 50th Anniversary season, in which she played the role of Jeanette.

Courtney’s love of storytelling doesn’t stop with theater - using any free time she has studying the art of screenplay writing and filmmaking. She has three self written shorts in pre-production, to premiere in the Fall of 2025.