DEMAN WEEKEND: Lecture with Sarah Ellis: Without music, life would be a blank to me": Adapting Jane Austen's Emma for the Musical Stage

Sarah Taylor Ellis is a composer, dramaturg, and teaching artist based in Kew Gardens, Queens.

Sarah is currently composing a chamber musical adaptation of Ellen McLaughlin's The Trojan Women, which was originally written in response to the Bosnian War in 1995 and resonates with today's refugee crisis. Sarah's timeless contemporary adaptation of Jane Austen's Emma, written with Ovation Award-winning playwright Meghan Brown, was developed with Apples and Oranges Studios (An American in Paris, Memphis, and Hair) in August 2016 and with Brooklyn's Gallery Players in November 2015; Emma was featured in NYMF's 2016 Women of Note concert.

Sarah holds a Ph.D. in Theater & Performance Studies from UCLA and a B.A. in Theater Studies/Music and English from Duke University, where she graduated Summa Cum Laude.