Cool Cat: Emilie Rollie

Lights, Camera, Rollie

story by Lexie Barker, design by Zoey Ryan

In a basement, light filters through the windows. Two little girls perform a play for their audience. They sing, dance and act on a makeshift stage for family members who happily watch.

One of the young girls is Emily Rollie. Today, Rollie is an assistant professor in the Department of Theatre and Film at CWU, as well as a freelance director and intimacy choreographer.

Rollie has always had a love and passion for theatre. She grew up in an area of northern Minnesota that hugged the border of Canada, just a quick boat ride away. It was a small town, but it provided a lot of sources for creative outlets. “I could do music and I could do theatre and I could do speech and I could do yearbook and I could do all the things, which was awesome,” Rollie says.

Throughout Rollie’s childhood, theatre was a constant in her life, from elementary school to middle school, high school and eventually college. “It [has] always been a part of what I do,” Rollie says, adding that the theatre gene has always been “baked into” her.

After getting her Bachelors degree in English and Education at St. Olaf’s College, Rollie found herself living in Washington where she got her masters in theatre production at Central Washington University. Rollie eventually went on to graduate school to get her PhD in Philosophy and Theatre at the University of Missouri.

Rollie studied directors for her dissertation, to delve into how fellow directors hold space for all creatives in a room. In a class setting, Rollie frequently quotes Anne Bogart and the importance of having a space for others to create art together. “Everyone having a voice in the room is important,” she says.

Rollie went on to direct numerous successful plays across the country, working in as many as 11 different states. One of the plays, “Everybody” by Branden Jacobs Jenkins, that was directed at CWU, went to National KCA and CTF, and won national awards of a brave rehearsal space.

That award-winning play is “one of the things I’m most proud of,” Rollie says. “There’s a whole bunch of things, but the rehearsal space and this idea of being citizen artists whose work has power in the world.”

From a little Minnesotan dancing with stars in her eyes to today, Rollie now lectures in acting, directing and women’s studies at CWU. One of her main focuses while teaching is how important community and consent-based tools are when it comes to collaboration.