WHO AM I?
Hero (2023)
Photo by Embee Photography
Jeffrey Mathews is a graduate of The American Musical and Dramatic Academy in New York City with a certificate in Musical Theater Performance. He has studied voice and piano for more than twenty-five years and specializes in theater skills and musical theater repertoire.
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During the day, Jeffrey works as a Senior Library Clerk and supervisor of the West Elmira Library, leading story times and creating programs and activities for the community. In the evening, Jeffrey can be found collaborating with a number of local high school drama programs directing, music directing, choreographing, and playing in pit orchestras. From 2009 to 2015, he co-directed a youth drama program called the Young Actors' Workshop, which taught theatrical fundamentals in acting, singing, dancing, and audition preparation. Jeffrey previously ran the drama program at Notre Dame High School in Elmira, he is currently the co-director of the drama club at Elmira High School, The Footlighters, and he is a staff member at Bristol Hills Music Camp.
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Outside of his day job and teaching endeavors, Jeffrey writes and composes original musicals with collaborators. He wrote his first musical, Hero, with Katie Starling and they premiered it with the Young Actors' Workshop in 2011. Jeffrey and Katie reworked Hero in 2023 and premiered the new production at the Jerome O'Dell Theatre at Elmira High School.
Jeffrey has also collaborated with Jordan Louis Fischer in writing original musicals. Their first show, Dirty Laundry, was published by Pioneer Drama and is currently available for licensing through the Pioneer Drama website. Fischer and Mathews have had the pleasure of premiering a number of their full-length musicals in Elmira, including Natalie: A New Musical and The Mysterious Murder of Angston Levi III. Most recently, they had the great privilege of being accepted into the New York Theater Festival's "Winterfest", where they were able to premier a short musical in New York City.
Photo by Embee Photography
The cast of Elmira Little Theatre's premier of The Mysterious Murder of Angston Levi III (2018) Photo by Chris Walters