In high school, she traded the soccer field for the stage …
“I played soccer my entire life, but in high school, I attended a small private school where a lot of athletes also did theatre. I found the theatre environment to be way less competitive with everyone supporting each other. I was kind of growing out of [soccer]. I wasn’t loving it as much, and I found theatre as a different interest that I became passionate about very quickly. I just thought it was so much fun. I knew immediately coming into [Muhlenberg] that I wanted to study theatre, and getting to audition for things since freshman year just reinforced my interests.”
… and at Muhlenberg, she discovered a surprising interest in economics.
“Initially I was looking at a public policy major, and a part of the prereqs for that are the introductory economics courses. I don’t know if it was just the way [Associate Professor of Economics Lindsey] Nagy taught it, but these classes just seemed connected to everything that you do day-to-day. Economics is about your cost-benefit analysis — for example, if I’m going to go to the gym, that takes time I could be spending on homework and I’m going to be more tired, but I’m going to go because the benefits outweigh the costs. I decided to double major because it was so different from theatre. Theatre was definitely piquing the creative parts of my brain, but econ was more grounded. There was a right and wrong answer you could get to. I like working that part of my brain as well.”
She chose to study abroad in France during the fall of her junior year …
“Most theatre majors go to Arezzo, Italy, but I didn’t want to feel like I was tied to any specific [discipline] there — I just wanted to travel a lot. I had taken French in high school and college, and my parents lived in the south of France in their 20s for a year. I’ve heard my whole life about traveling and how fun it was. I lived in a homestay in Aix-en-Provence — I was the only Muhlenberg student there that semester — and my host mom had been a chef. Every night I got a four-course meal. The whole bread-and-cheese moment was happening every night. I think I traveled to a total of 10 different countries [during my four months abroad]. You learn a lot about yourself meeting all these new people and doing all these new things alone.”
“I think I traveled to a total of 10 different countries [during my four months abroad]. You learn a lot about yourself meeting all these new people and doing all these new things alone.”
… and the next spring, she got an internship with a local nonprofit, the Fine Feather Foundation, through the Office of Community Engagement.
“I applied for the internship while I was abroad — I was looking at ways to get back into theatre right away. During the internship, I would go to two Allentown School District schools that had [Fine Feather Foundation] afterschool programs. For one, I was with middle schoolers who were putting on a production of ‘Winnie the Pooh.’ I would lead them through theatre games and help distribute snacks or help with costumes. It was nice to be a support system for them. I’m really interested in the health care and early childhood development parts of economics. If we’re giving these kids from low-income households more opportunity to grow their brains and gain more skills, then we’re setting them up for more success in the future. That’s how I think it connects to economics.”
Mattson (left) with Isaac Levin-Delson ’26 in “The Play That Goes Wrong” in fall 2025
After appearing in student-produced theatre and short films, she had a mainstage role as Max Bennett in “The Play That Goes Wrong” last fall.
“It was probably the most fun theatre experience I’ve ever had, because it was a comedy and I had never acted in a role like that in my life. Every day I got to go to rehearsal for four hours and we were just laughing the entire time, playing around with the crazy characters. I had a mustache — it was a whole thing. [In a mainstage show], you really get to use what you’ve learned over the past couple of years. It was definitely hard to balance everything, though. I found myself exhausted a lot of days. I had never bought coffee every single day for that amount of time in my life. Prioritizing sleep was my main thing, especially as we got closer to the performances, because if you’re tired and trying to play a character, you’re not going to do your best work. I definitely had to work on my time management, but it was very rewarding at the end. Because of ‘The Play That Goes Wrong,’ I’m way more interested in doing theatre professionally.”
