Assistant Professor, Department of Dramatic Arts

MFA (Film Design and Production), University of British Columbia
BA (Theatre), Cleveland State University

905 688 5550 x3222
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Emily Dotson is a theatre artist specializing in set design, scenic painting, and costume design. She has previously taught at the University of British Columbia in theatrical and film design, technical theatre and scenic painting.

Emily holds a Bachelor of Arts in Theatre from Cleveland State University and a Master of Fine Arts in Theatre and Film Design and Production from the University of British Columbia. She is a Jesse Award-winning designer, recognized for her Outstanding Achievement in Incorporation of Coast Salish Artwork – Keepers of the Salish Sea – with Holy Crow Arts, and a two-time Ovation Award nominee for Outstanding Set Design. She was a Howard R. Webster Fellow at Green College and a selected exhibitor for Violencia: Violence Against Bodies, art symposium at UBC. She was also selected as an Emerging Artist Exhibitor for the 2022 Prague Quadrennial and is a member of the Associated Designers of Canada (ADC) and IATSE Local 891 and 118.

Emily has worked professionally across Canada at the Stratford Festival, Shaw Festival, and Bard on the Beach Shakespeare Festival, as well as with numerous theatre companies and film companies throughout Vancouver as both a designer and scenic painter. She has also served as Production Manager for Theatre Terrific, Canada’s longest-running ability inclusive theatre company.

Her research interests include script analysis, semiotics, and world-building, with a focus on disability in theatre and feminist themes. Her practice-based research explores how designers translate textual and thematic information into visual and spatial environments, and how scenography can engage with questions of identity, politics, psychology and culture.