Emily Ritger

Emily Ritger (she/her) is a theatre artist, teacher, and arts administrator based in Chicago. She has worked for American Theatre Company, Redmoon, Cleveland Public Theatre, Northlight Theatre, ChiArts, The National High School Institute, Carthage College, Loyola University, and DePaul University.

Ritger’s training includes ensemble based work, Viola Spolin Theatre Games, Viewpoints, Puppetry, Contact Improv, experimental writing, and various forms of music. She is the founder of The Midwives, an artistic development company serving makers of different disciplines.

Her current creative projects include: Crud, part docudrama, part fantastical music and shadow puppetry, examining a day her family never talks about; Dear Aliza, a memoir of recorded stories following her seven year journey to having a child; and The WI Collection, a work of poetry celebrating rural America, its voice, land, dialect, and sense of community.

Emily received her MFA from Sarah Lawrence College, a BS in Theatre and Philosophy from the University of Evansville, and has trained at La MaMa Umbria in Italy and Paul Sills’ Wisconsin Theatre Game Center.