A Legacy of Hope

Matt

Matt Corrado created a piece of artwork for GC, featured on our back cover.

CORRADO

Visual Artist

Inspired by comic books, cartoons, hip hop, skateboarding and graffiti, Matt Corrado ’01 has spun his passion for graphic art into a widely acclaimed business with clients that include the Washington Capitals, Baltimore Ravens, Angry Orchard and private art collectors.

Corrado’s work was recently featured on the national stage when he designed a golf bag for PGA player Jordan Spieth and appeared in a television commercial for the Pebble Beach Pro-Am Tournament. The project was part of a promotion for AT&T, Spieth’s sponsor. “It was unique for golf. The bags are usually pretty straightforward, and this one really stood out,” says Corrado, whose art is colorful and eye-catching.

Corrado always loved art and wanted to be an artist. “I knew from the time when I could first hold a crayon, when I was about five years old. I didn’t really know how to do it, but I figured I’d keep making things and see where it went,” he says.

At Our Lady of Good Counsel High School, he enjoyed art classes and illustrated posters and flyers for the school newspaper. “Teachers would ask me to do things like that because they knew I had that ability,” Corrado says. “I even did a commissioned illustration of the school – a pen and ink drawing – that the school used for marketing. That was when I knew I could turn this into a career.”

After studying illustration in college, Corrado returned to the D.C. area and took on design jobs doing illustration and graphic design for various clients. Eventually, he reconnected with Good Counsel classmate Freddie Carlini ’01, who had a background in digital media and web development.

“We were in a band together and kept in touch,” Corrado says. The two started working together and eventually formed Bright Light Media, a graphic design and digital media company in Kensington, Md. The two are cocreative directors. Many clients have been GC alumni or referrals from alumni, especially when the studio first opened, he says.

“That network has been a strong base for building the business with Freddie,” Corrado says. Today, he is living his dream, putting his creativity into projects related to sports, another of his passions. He painted murals around D.C. for the Washington Capitals’ “All Caps” campaign ahead of the 2019 Stanley Cup Playoffs and for the Ravens. His mural is on a moveable wall at the NFL stadium and has become a popular selfie spot for fans.

In the fall of 2020, Corrado painted a mural at Angry Orchard’s cider house in Walden, N.Y.

“It’s on their iconic barn. It brings some Brooklyn flavor and city vibes up to the orchard. You don’t expect a graffiti art popup mural to be on the side of an old barn,” Corrado says. He loves putting his art anywhere – on objects like basketballs and chairs, or on walls and canvas. “I always loved drawing and painting, especially pop art,” Corrado says. He splits his time between creating fine art, commissions and murals, and sometimes digital media, photography and illustrations.

This year, Corrado also visited GC to speak to students in art classes and share his work, at the request of fine arts teacher Nick Clulow. “With the arts, there are so many kids who are interested in it – any kind of art, visual, theater, music – but it’s not always easy to see how there’s a career path. Any time I can share my story and help them understand how they can turn that into a career, it’s really worthwhile,” he says.

Corrado always had an entrepreneurial mentality. “Six or seven years ago, I started to draw and paint more to consciously develop the style I work in now. It’s a very pop art, graphic style with repeated elements like colors, drips and patterns,” he says. “I made more of a conscious effort to develop my own style that people could recognize. I wanted people to see my work and know it was me.”

“People will see me on TV very soon,” Phylicia Pearl Mpasi ’11 predicts. She oozes confidence, which isn’t surprising, considering she was cast in “The Lion King” on Broadway during her first major audition while she was still in college.

The years leading up to that victory, however, required hard work and resilience. Mpasi studied musical theatre at Elon University in a conservatory style program, which involved a rigorous schedule dividing students’ days in half. Fifty percent of students’ time was spent dancing, acting, singing and studying musical theater history, and the other half was dedicated to general education.

On top of that, Mpasi held a job to help pay her bills and constantly went to see shows in the area as assigned by her professors. The theater scene in North Carolina is robust, and alumni often returned to perform in shows. As if all of that wasn’t enough, she was constantly auditioning.

“I wasn’t getting cast in many shows at first,” she says. “The only time I was really immersed in theater was in class or going to practice with friends and preparing for auditions.” After being immersed in that world for three years, Mpasi lost steam.

“I reached a breaking point where I wasn’t fulfilled. I took a summer internship in L.A. at Oops Donuts Productions within Disney/ABC,” she says. There, she read many scripts and plays and even wrote her own script. “I declared I was going to leave musical theater,” she says. “But when I went back to school for senior year, I had a mental shift. During my first few years at Elon, I felt like I always had to be ‘on.’ I came back with the mindset that I just wanted to do my best and try to get as many A’s as possible, and finish school.”

Then came the transformative moment in Mpasi’s career. “For our senior thesis project, they flew down a casting director and an agent from New York to audition us,” she says. After her audition, she had secured an agent and the casting director said he wanted to cast her in “The Lion King” on Broadway.

“I thought he was kidding,” Mpasi laughs. “A few months later, I heard from my agent that they were serious,” she says. “It had been my dream, but I had let it go, which resulted in me having more fun with my craft.”

For five years, Mpasi acted as the “swing” in “The Lion King,” meaning she knew the entire show by heart and filled in as understudy as needed. “I really enjoy all of the roles,” she says. “Most people don’t get to see the stage from a different perspective every night, and I loved that,” The swing actor also gets to “save the day,” she laughs.

Mpasi has also played the roles of Shenzi, the hyena, and Sarabi, mother of Simba and queen of the Pride Lands.

“When I play Shenzi, I have a full puppet in front of my face, so I really rely on my acting training and workouts. The pinnacle of all training goes into ‘The Lion King,’” Mpasi says.

“The role of Sarabi fell into my lap because I knew the lines. I’m 5’2” so it’s kind of funny to be next to the king, who is 6’5” tall,” she says. “I get to stand on top of Pride Rock – the view is incredible!”

Touring the world has been amazing for Mpasi, daughter of immigrants from the Democratic Republic of Congo. She has discovered places she loves such as Albuquerque, N.M., where she says she probably wouldn’t have traveled if it hadn’t been for the show.

Most importantly, she was living her dream. “I had wanted to be an actor since I was young,” she says. Her family didn’t know anyone in their community who worked in the arts, but she received her start at Our Lady of Good Counsel High School.

She received help when she was awarded a scholarship to Good Counsel, where she ended up taking theater classes. “Shelly Diaz at GC invested in me,” Mpasi says of her theater teacher. (Continued » p. 32)