Emma Heron
Course Leader - Acting for Stage, Screen and Digital Media
Emma is a professional actor and director who has worked in theatre, television and film. She trained as an actor at Royal Welsh College of Music and Drama, and studied Text and Performance at Masters level at RADA and Kings College London. Emma has worked in further and higher education for over twenty years.
An active member of Equity since graduation, Emma served on Liverpool's local branch committee for two years and is currently a member of Equity's Class Network. Throughout her career, she has developed her acting and directing work alongside her role as an educator. She maintains a strong commitment to using theatre skills and techniques as tools of empowerment for education and training. Emma has also contributed widely to academic governance and quality assurance, working nationally as an External Examiner and Educational Consultant.
Emma was a member of the Pankhurst Centre's Heritage Committee from 2018 until the pandemic. She was also Artistic Director of Mrs Pankhurst's Players, Edge Hill University's feminist theatre collective for female, male and gender non-binary students and recent graduates. This work culminated in a two-week run at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival, earning 4 star reviews from British Theatre Guide and the Edinburgh Guide. In 2019, Emma's work with Mrs Pankhurst's Players was presented to Her Royal Highness Princess Anne by the university as an example of excellence. She was also one of the delivery leads for the #WECAN Project, a research partnership between Edge Hill University and Leeds Beckett University's Business School, created to support women working freelance and leading SMEs in developing leadership skills.
As an academic, Emma's primary focus has been the use of acting techniques and feminist theatre practices as a means of reconstructing women's hidden histories, particularly those of the women in the Liverpool Welsh Community. In 2010, she co-founded Theatr Gadair Ddu, a Welsh-English bilingual theatre company based in Liverpool and Rhuthun. The company focuses on creating theatre that explores the narratives and experiences of traditionally underrepresented communities in the Welsh diaspora.
