EMMA LOUISE PURSEY
Suzuki Technique
“Emma is a powerful, nuanced performer with a finely attuned sense of the body on stage—at once precise, expressive, and deeply physical. In the rehearsal room, her disciplined approach and dry wit reflect her upbringing as the daughter of a soldier and a teacher. While it’s often said that genius does not make a good teacher, she is a rare exception.”
– Okubo Noriaki, Former Suzuki Company of Toga (SCOT) Principal Actor
BACKGROUND
Emma Louise Pursey is a critically acclaimed actor and Suzuki Method of Actor Training teacher whose career spans nearly three decades across stage and screen. She is a core faculty member at 16th Street Actors Studio and was previously faculty at The National Theatre. She has also served as an industry guest at Howard Fine Acting Studio Australia, Film & Television Studio International, and the National Institute of Circus Arts.
Emma’s foundation in Suzuki began with a decade-long commitment as a core member of Frank Theatre, a repertory ensemble that trained exclusively in the method in both Australia and Japan. She performed principal roles in major festivals across Japan, Europe, and the UK. Her Dell’Arte Award winning portrayal of the Medium in Rashomon was presented before Tadashi Suzuki himself during his historic second and last visit to Australia.
Her independent and mainstage Australian work includes roles for Queensland Theatre Company, La Boite Theatre Company, Queensland Performing Arts Centre, Metro Arts, and Brisbane Powerhouse. Screen work includes appearances on Neighbours, Winners and Losers, Underbelly Squizzy, and a suite of award-winning short films. As a producer, she cast and co-produced The Last Time I Saw You, a multi-award-winning short that placed Third at Tropfest, won five of their craft awards, and won the Peninsula Film Festival. She has also toured the world as an electronic music DJ.
Emma is writer, actor and producer of her new solo work, Where Is Joy? inspired by Melbourne modernist artist, Joy Hester, to be directed by Susie Dee and premiering at fortyfivedownstairs in late 2025. As an artist living with invisible disability, Emma actively engages in the ongoing practice of disability pride.
PHILOSPOHY
The Suzuki Method of Actor Training instilled in me a reverence for discipline, specificity, and the performer’s responsibility to awaken the “invisible body” — this includes breath, voice, energy, focus, presence, and will. My approach continues this legacy while embracing adaptability, accessibility, and longevity of practice.
Each exercise is a performance. Not a warm-up, not a routine, but a high-stakes opportunity to explore and reveal the self through embodied rigor. When approached with curiosity, clarity of intention and commitment, the training strengthens the actor’s ability to stay grounded, connected, and specific under the extreme pressures of performance. It builds the mental, physical, and emotional resilience required not just for performance, but for a sustained creative life. My goal is to help actors develop an embodied self-sufficiency they can rely on in any performative context — one that connects breath to voice, body to impulse, and action to meaning. This work invites radical self-awareness. It reveals habits, exposes avoidance, and demands presence. And in doing so, it empowers and unifies the mind, body and spirit, sharpening the artist’s instrument and deepening their relationship to craft.
