Rebecca Liu ’29
Sep 18, 2026
This year, faculty emerita Laurie Mufson will return to campus to direct Stony Batter’s winter musical The Lightning Thief: The Percy Jackson Musical. Prior to her retirement, Mufson served as Arts Department Chair, Director of the Burgin Center for the Arts, Director of Theatre, and Director of the Arts for 23 years. In that time, she was fully dedicated to Stony Batter, the Academy’s longest-running organization.
Before her 2021 retirement, Mufson directed more than 60 productions, including the first Stony Batter performance staged in the newly built Burgin Center for the Arts. English and arts teacher Matt Maurer, who started collaborating with Mufson in 2001, said, “With the huge number of classes she taught, projects she oversaw, and many of the years leading up to and following the construction of the Burgin Center for the Arts, Mufson’s experience at Mercersburg allowed her to interact with students and inspire their enthusiasm in the world of acting.” With direction from not only a director but also a teacher, Stony Batter students will learn about the history of the Mercersburg theatre program and reap the benefits of instruction from a long-time professional.
Despite her retirement, Mufson has maintained a close relationship with Mercersburg’s theatre program. Last spring, she contributed to Stony Batter’s production of A Midsummer Night’s Dream by leading the makeup and hair design for the actors. She returned to Mercersburg for that production with a focus on character-building. “I personally do research and help the actors do research,” Mufson said. “Everything I did [for that show] was character-based, but I did not want to impose my impression of different characters on the actors.”
As an artist and a secondary school teacher who believes in lifelong learning, Mufson continues to be inspired by Stony Batter students’ commitment, curiosity, and joyfulness, the unique elements that enabled her to “learn from students and evolve as an artist” in her experience at Mercersburg. She also praised the student actors, emphasizing their talent: “They are willing to work on stories in other worlds and connect to their characters.”
Mufson’s return to Mercersburg will spark new creativity among Stony Batter members. Maurer noted, “A whole new generation of Stony Batter theatre students continue to be able to benefit from her talent, experience, and kind approach to all things theatre.”