Hello there! My name is Emily Rose Simons and I love writing musicals, composing music and creating sound design. 

I’ve been composing music and writing songs since childhood and have always loved the weaving of emotive storytelling. My funny bones didn’t make themselves known until straight after university, when my cabaret show was given a slot at the Edinburgh Fringe on the basis that I had stand up comedy experience. I don’t like lying so I made sure I had some comedy experience by the time I got to Edinburgh, by which point I had thoroughly caught the stand up bug and spent the following couple years travelling round the country performing musical comedy. 

Though at 14 I had firmly decided I was meant to be a musical theatre writer, I believe the regular stand up gigs finally gave me the push to write (and perform) my first musical, Confessions of A Rabbi’s Daughter, which formed part of my application to the Graduate Musical Theatre Writing Program at Tisch, NYU. At Tisch I tried to take every class I was allowed to take alongside volunteering and internships at various theatre organisations, including NYMF, Playwrights Horizons and The Tank NYC, and I took on a bunch of leadership roles and performed with the house band at International House. I survived on 4 nights of sleep a week for the first year and potentially decreased my overall lifespan. Oh, and I also spent a season doing improv with Bad People, a house team of The Tank’s improv company, The Armory. I accidentally managed this without any improv training so the first few times I stepped off the backline felt like truly horrifying near-death experiences. I loved it.

Upon the wishes of American immigration, I crash landed back in London and into a job at Everyman Hampstead, where I swept up nightmarish amounts of popcorn along many brilliant and inspiring creatives including the astonishing Tanya Truman, who I have loved working with lots throughout the years, including in my first BEAM pitch in 2018, the 2021 workshop and concert of Confessions of A Rabbi’s Daughter and our flagship project, Becoming Nigella.

Sound Design entered my orbit when mounting the Confessions[..] in 2021. Our director, the wonderful Grace Taylor, taught me the basics of sound design out of a shoe-string budget necessity and I took to it with fun and enthusiasm. A few years later, my skills and experience have continued to grow. I am a member of the Association of Sound Designers and Producers, as well as the Association of British Theatre Technicians and I am continuously gaining qualifications and training in the technical sides of sound and theatre alongside enjoying a hugely varied and interesting range of roles and projects.