If we want a mix of different people represented on stage, we need to tell stories that are not just about ourselves. We need to stop looking in the mirror and start to look outwards. We need to be curious, brave and generous and let the work, and the choice of projects we make be influenced by the changing landscape of communities and artists. We need to use our power to change the world, and change it fast. - Emma Rice
Emma Rice Company (formerly Wise Children) is an international touring theatre company based at our creative home, The Lucky Chance, in Frome, Somerset. We make ground-breaking work with exceptional artists founded on the belief that a diverse collective imagination is more dynamic and powerful than a single perspective.
Our Artistic Director, Emma Rice, is among the UK’s best-known directors. Her 30-year career has included leading Cornish theatre company Kneehigh and Shakespeare’s Globe, London. In 2019, she received the UK Theatre Award for Contribution to British Theatre, in 2022, she was named one of Sky Arts ‘50 most influential British artists of the last 50 years’ and in 2025 she won the WhatsOnStage award for Best Director for The Buddha of Suburbia. Since our launch in 2018 we have:
produced 11 critically acclaimed productions seen live by c.350,000 people around the world, and c.300,000 digitally via Sky Arts and BBC commissions
supported over 5,000 aspiring theatre-makers, many of whom now work with us and in the wider sector
collaborated with and employed 625 professional artists and technicians
supported 161 educators through our Educators' Residencies (launched in 2025)
collaborated with 26 Training Programme partners
"Emma Rice, and her Company, are making some of the best work in British theatre today. Moreover, they make it to tour the country, bringing the best to audiences everywhere. This commitment to UK touring is one of the reasons we at the RSC wanted to partner with them, along with their approach to diversity, skills-sharing and, above all, to ambitious, emotional, genre-defying stortelling." Daniel Evans, RSC Co-Artistic Director