This week, Ira Sternberg spoke with Naomi Emmerson.
Naomi Emmerson will be performing an intimate one woman musical theatre drama, “PIAF: LOVE CONQUERS ALL” at the Winchester Cultural Center in Las Vegas, March 4th at 7pm & March 5th at 1:30pm. This performance is a celebration of Edith Piaf's 100th birthday and The Little Sparrow’s life, loves and music.
As an actor,Emmerson has been working steadily in theater and television for the past 19 years. Born in Montreal and an art/music graduate of Concordia University (BFA), she began her singing career performing simultaneously with punk/pop band “Sons of the Desert” and studying bel canto style voice with Carmen Mehta and Barbara Lewis. She also sang in the Montreal Symphony Orchestra under Ewan Edwards and Charles Dutoit.
In theater, she has played lead roles in both drama, comedy, musicals and straight plays.
While living in Toronto for 10 years, she took part in performance workshops for both The Mirvishes (Peggy Sue Got Married) and CanStage (Moll by Leslie Arden). She appeared with Matthew Broderick in Walt Disney's TV movie The Music Man where she also sang on the cast recording. Other film and TV credits include: The Tuxedo, Blizzard, The Man Who Saved Christmas, Monk and St. Ralph. She has appeared in many commercials, and has added her voice to Sailor Moon and other animation and commercial projects. Ms. Emmerson’s directorial debut (outside of Piaf) was for Smile Theater for Leslie Arden’s The Happy Prince.
Emmerson lived in Brooklyn, New York where she and her husband headed Tone Poet Productions, the company responsible for producing over 200 performances of the one woman show Piaf: Love Conquers All. The show won "Outstanding Musical" at the Fringe NYC then went on to a 10 week off-Broadway commercial run. It has toured in over 16 venues in the USA and Canada and abroad including San Francisco and Manilla Philippines (see show history here)
After living in Austin, Texas for 4 1/2 years and singing in a western swing band, The Bordertown Bootleggers, she moved to Las Vegas in January 2015.