Meet ArtsEmerson’s Cutler Fellows

Lemar Archer, a second-year student in Emerson’s MA/MFA Theatre Education program, and Theatre Education and Performance major Rocío Pérez ’22 are this year’s ArtsEmerson Cutler Fellows, a year-long program designed to nurture emerging theatre producers.

Named in honor of Emerson alumnus, Trustee Emeritus, and arts patron Ted Cutler ’51, LHD ’07, the fellowship provides students with industry mentorship with ArtsEmerson staff and community partners, project-based learning, and seminars with guest speakers.

Cutler Fellows work with ArtsEmerson staff to produce performances, engagement activities, and develop community partnerships. They learn ArtsEmerson’s unique approach to community-driven creative producing, and gain an understanding of how the team functions within the structure of Emerson’s Office of the Arts. Through guided inquiry, Fellows investigate the space between community and the arts, an understanding they can then apply in their work as American theatre professionals, and study with guest artists from around the world.

Archer is an educator, actor, dancer, director, and principal member of the QUILT Performing Arts Company, a dynamic group of young artists from Jamaica who use theatre to tackle social issues.

In Jamaica, he taught theatre arts, drama, and dance, and served as head of the Visual and Performing Arts Department at Edith Dalton James High School in Kingston. He also is the founder of a community youth ensemble that develops drama productions in order to confront issues such as violence against children, child neglect, and poverty. One of these productions, A Child’s Cry (Call to Rescue Our Youths), went on to win an Actor Boy Award for Best Children’s Theatre Production in 2020.

Archer hopes to establish an intervention program within Jamaica’s secondary school curriculum, focused on low-performing schools, that positions drama as a method of teaching and learning for all subject areas.

He is a graduate of the Edna Manley College of the Visual and Performing Arts in Kingston, where he holds a BA in Drama in Education, and a Certificate in the Principles and Practices of Project Management.

Pérez is chair of Flawless Brown Stage, an Emerson artist collective for women and non-binary people of color, and a Performing Arts Senator for POWER (Protesting Oppression with Educational Reform).