EP 6: Emteaz Hussain

Lights Up!

Emteaz is a playwright and performance poet.

She is currently writing on Ackley Bridge and is under commission by the Royal Court Theatre for a play about the child sexual exploitation scandals in the North and Midlands, titled TRACE.

She recently contributed to Nottingham Playhouse’s STILL LIFE digital theatre project and the Royal Court’s ‘Living Newspaper’: Edition 2; her powerfully moving piece STRAWBERRIES, garnered a special mention in reviews.

Her adaptation of Alex Wheatle’s CRONGTON KNIGHTS, produced by Pilot Theatre, toured UK in 2020 and her monologue SOCIAL DISTANCING was one of Kali Theatre’s online season of ‘Kali Shorts’.

She was listed on the BBC New Talent Hotlist in 2017. In 2016 she wrote monologue ETCHING, for BBC Writersroom scheme ‘The Break’ which was broadcast on BBC3 Online and she also contributed to Snapchat content for ACKLEY BRIDGE, online. BLOOD for Tamasha Theatre Company, toured nationally in March 2015; OUTSIDERS her play for Pilot Theatre was commissioned as part of an EC Culture project, Boomerang; the production went on national tour.

In 2014, she was commissioned by Clean Break under their Writers On Attachment scheme. Emteaz’s acclaimed first play, SWEET CIDER, was produced by Tamasha Theatre Company at the Arcola Theatre in 2008 and was published in 2013 in the anthology ‘Plays for Today by Women’ by Aurora Metro Books.

As a performance poet she has performed nationally and internationally and has toured with Transglobal Underground, Fundamental, Hustlers HC and as a backing poet with the Benjamin Zephaniah band. Emteaz works extensively as a workshop practitioner in both statutory and community settings, specialising in pupil referral units.