Emily Carragher ’06 Loves Playing the Villian

Emily Carragher ’06 is a script supervisor and physical comedienne who became enchanted with Cirque du Soleil at age 13. She’s living her dream.

Carragher plays the role of Miss Hesitation in the Walt Disney World / Cirque du Soleil collaboration Drawn to Life that just celebrated its third anniversary playing at Florida’s Disney Springs.

While Carragher studied in the Dramatic Writing BFA program (now Playwriting and Screenwriting), she also attended clown workshops and school. She graduated and joined the circus, literally, including Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey a month after earning her degree. She also worked for Fossett’s Circus, Varekai by Cirque du Soleil and the Big Apple Circus.

In a recent story on orangeobserver.com, Carragher explains why she loves playing the villain.

“‘For any performer, it just changes everything about how you see yourself when you play the villain,’ Carragher said.” 

“‘It changes the way you look at other villains. You watch how a lot of them really are the hero, but they’re just misunderstood, or they’re the hero with a mask on. I’m lucky, because my villain character gets redemption at the end of the story, and not all villains have that opportunity. I get to come full circle with the character. It’s awesome.’”