When Emanuela Boisbouvier moved to Los Angeles in 2014, she knew that she was most likely going to focus more on film and television acting rather than theater, as there is not much opportunity for the latter in this part of the country. However, as most actors know, a lot of her training was in fact based in theater. While she was at UCLA (2014-2018) she studied theater from a practical and theoretical point of view – read dozens of plays and fell in love with many playwrights, including Caryl Churchill, Theresa Rebeck and Rajiv Joseph. She got to act in two theater productions at UCLA, “I Am the Wind” by Jon Fosse directed by Charles Jin and “Nine” by Jane Shepard and directed by Aya Saleh. Her passion for the stage was growing. While film acting was still extremely appealing and stimulating, she says that being on stage and feeling an audience receive your work in the present moment is a feeling that is quite unique and unmatchable.
Post-graduation, Emanuela got to star in a number of films which accumulated a lot of success particularly in the festival circuits. She starred in two Coca Cola commercials that aired internationally for over two years. Her career was going amazing. When she got the opportunity to audition to be a part of an immersive play last year, she was not sure of what this meant. She hadn’t performed theater for over two years and she had never done immersive work. She nevertheless auditioned and was offered a role to be a part of an ensemble production called “Finding Avi” that would be a part of the La Jolla Playhouse’s WOW Festival. She immediately accepted. It felt like an incredible opportunity, not only to be able to perform for a live audience again but also to try a new format of theater that she had never done before.
Finding Avi premiered at the La Jolla Playhouse’s WOW Festival in the Spring of 2022. It was directed by Katherine Wilkinson and had an ensemble of about twenty queer actors from all over the country. This immersive play sends the audience searching for a single child inside a map made from scraps of a community’s own queer history and fragments of re-imagined fairy tales. Finding Avi embraces young, queer people and their ability to make their own choices (and mistakes) while learning who they are – and where they find joy.
This play – created from real accounts and interviews of the local San Diego queer community, groups together these stories and sends the audience on a choose your own adventure type experience. Emanuela was part of the ensemble – and her role was actually as the first person to interact with the audience as they begin the experience. She was the portal, in a way, that led them from the real world into the world of Finding Avi. This was a big responsibility – but she was encouraged to have fun with it. To really play with the audience, pick a few out specifically and interact with them, make them feel really seen. The director and producers were so supportive of this fun and creative play according to Emanuela and she said it was such a joy an honor to work with them.
So as this introductory character, she brings the audience into this weird and beautiful world. She improvises every show. Has new folks to work with and new reactions to her jokes and bits. It wonderfully combines the spontaneity of theater and deep connection with other humans. Working on immersive theater was an incredibly exciting adventure for Emanuela which she hopes to do more of. It was reignited her passion for live performance, which comes with a few higher stakes than being on set sometimes. There are more mistakes that can happen that cannot be erased, but that unpredictability also adds thrill.
Emanuela is now continuing to work both on stage and on film in Los Angeles. Keep an eye out for “Jaunt” a feature film she stars in alongside Blake Worrel that will be coming out in the next year.