Emily Duncan

Emily Duncan

She/Her

Ōtepoti-Dunedin

Arts practice:

• Playwrighting
• dramaturgy/story advisor
• director

Links:

• Website: emilytessduncan.com
• Instagram: @emilytessduncan
• X: @emilytessduncan

Emily Duncan (she/her) is a writer, dramaturg, and director of theatre and podcasts, specialising in monologues and historical research and dramatization. Raised and based in Ōtepoti-Dunedin, Aotearoa New Zealand, Emily is Pākeha of Scottish and English ancestry. 

Emily won the 2020 Bruce Mason Award, the 2021 Adam NZ Play Award, as well as the Best Play by a Woman, and the McNaughton South Island Play Award categories for & Sons, a work Judges described as ‘beautifully written’, ‘thrilling in the best sense of the word’, and ‘shocking… lacerating and wicked…’. She also won the 2022 McNaughton South Island Play Award for her adaptation of Katherine Mansfield’s The Woman at the Store. 

Emily holds a PhD in Theatre from the University of Otago and was the university’s 2019 Robert Burns Fellow. She received both the Friends of the Hocken Collections Award 2023 and the Whakahoa Kaitoi Te Puna Toi Arts For All Fellowship in 2023. For the latter she researched and wrote the resource Between the Lines, to help address gaps in accessibility for both neurodivergent (ND) playwrights, and in turn dramaturgs.

Working with me

‘As a dramaturg, my objective is for the playwright to feel confident in “owning their idea” and how to articulate the intent of the work, so they are best placed to be open to constructive feedback. It’s your story. My job is to equip you to tell it as best you can.’

To learn more about her work as a playwright and dramaturg, and to connect with Emily, visit emilytessduncan.com

Examples of work

Between the Lines: A Guide for Neurodivergent Playwrights
The Between the Lines resource can be read and downloaded from Arts Access Aotearoa.

Dark Dunedin Podcast

Written and Directed by Emily Duncan.

“This is a story about my Dunedin. Ōtepoti, the place of the steep points at the bottom of the world.”
Dark Dunedin is a thriller podcast with a Gothic Dunedin at its beating heart. As you accompany the protagonist, you’ll discover – or re-discover – nostalgic, historic, and supernatural features of and in the city.

All three seasons available on OAR FM, iTunes, Spotify, and YouTube.

Play: Notes

Ever wondered what’s the big deal with Chekhov? What exactly was Oedipus’ complex? Was Romeo really worth it? And how do playwrights actually work?
Dramaturgs Emily Duncan and Allison Horsley give you the need-to-know notes on plays that have influenced how many of us watch and think about theatre. 
Seasons 1 and 2 of Play:Notes are available on all major podcast platforms and YouTube.
 
Both Podcasts were produced by Prospect Park Productions NZ (2016-24), which was established by Emily and producer H-J Kilkelly. 

Writing about health and medical treatments for Corpus 

“’In the Night Kitchen’: An Allegory for the Patient Experience?”. Corpus, 2 Sept. 2019.

 “Sounding a Sanatorium: The Waipiata Playscript”. Corpus, 7 Nov. 2016.