Emily Mattison
MFA in Theatre with a concentration in Performance/Pedagogy, 2021
mattisone@vcu.edu
Emily grew up in the small town of Eldersburg, Maryland, where she was an avid soccer player. When she didn’t make the varsity soccer team her senior year of high school, she was looking for an extracurricular to replace it, and her chorus teacher mentioned the upcoming auditions for Into the Woods. Emily landed a spot in the ensemble. She laughs, “My first ever role was a tree…making it big!” Looking back, she says, “I loved the community experience of it…that’s what I latched onto. I was so used to being on a team and this was us working towards a goal.”
Emily graduated from Susquehanna University in Pennsylvania in 2011 and worked in Philadelphia teaching theater classes and workshops for kids from 2 to 18. She eventually found a full time position at the Walnut Street Theatre. “We would integrate theater into what students were learning in the classroom.” After nine years, Emily “wanted to dig deeper in what I was teaching.”
That led her to the graduate program at VCU, where one of the highlights was being a TA for our previous alum spotlight Wes Seals (MFA ‘17) in classes including Fundamentals of Performance and Acting I. “It was interesting to see how you handle a classroom at that age.” Working with younger actors, Emily was “used to high energy and having every moment specifically planned out.” It was really amazing to see education more “based on what the student brings to the space…what they need.”
Working as Associate Director on Spring Awakening presented another memorable experience. The department was in full swing on the production in Spring of 2020, when everything came to a halt with COVID. A year later they department pivoted to a filmed version, “we essentially re-did everything.” Emily enjoyed working with director Kikau Alvaro (former head of Musical Theatre). He gave her a confidence boost by letting her handle scenes on her own. Emily remembers, “He trusted that I know what I’m doing, so I must!” This was also Emily’s introduction to intimacy work. Jenny Male (MFA ’02, read her previous spotlight here) was a Guest Intimacy consultant with Emily as the point of contact here in town.
Emily started teaching for the department right after graduation, teaching undergraduate acting full time. When asked about changes in the department, Emily notices, “students have been given more of an opportunity to have a voice in the department…through committees like the student advisory council and having students on the season planning committee. I see students having more of a say in their education.”
Compiled by Liz Hopper (professor emeritus), Jerry Williams (BFA ’71), and VCUarts Theatre for the November 2023 Theatre Alumni newsletter