Emily Ranii '07 is the Artistic Director of Wheelock Family Theatre at Boston University (WFT@BU), where she recently directed James and the Giant Peach. The musical is an adaptation of Roald Dahl’s tale about an orphaned British boy, mistreated by a pair of cruel aunts, who takes an adventurous voyage inside an enormous peach in the company of the human-sized insects who befriend him. Ranii describes James and the Giant Peach as "a story that desperately needs to be told, time and again: There are worlds out there that are different from ours. We’ve got to be able to see each other for our hearts.’’
Read the full article in the Boston Globe.
Photo gallery from James and the Giant Peach.
Ranii has also directed Blood Wedding (co-director with E.D. Intemann) and The Body Project for Cornell University; Tongue of a Bird for New Repertory Theatre; 9 Parts of Desire for Playmakers Repertory Company; Mrs. Packard for Bridge Repertory Theatre Company/Playhouse Creatures Theatre Company; After Life, Sweets By Kate, The Cradle Will Rock and Hydrogen Jukebox for Boston University; as well as The Normal Heart, Heisenberg, Romeo and Juliet, Brigadoon, Much Ado About Nothing, and The Love Song of J. Robert Oppenheimer for Burning Coal Theatre Company (Company Member 2002-Present). Emily served as Artistic Director of ArtsCenter Stage in Carrboro, North Carolina (2008-2010), where she directed Eurydice, A Child’s Christmas in Wales, and a series of 10-minute plays for the annual 10 By 10 festival.
Emily is Academic Program Head of Boston University's Summer Theatre Institute (BUSTI) and Lecturer for Boston University's Opera Institute. She has previously served as Assistant Professor of Performing Arts at Wheelock College (2015–2018) and Visiting Lecturer for Cornell University (2014–2015). She holds a BA from Cornell University (2007) and an MFA from Boston University (2013).
