Professor Tom Slater presented "Connecting the Physical and the Spiritual: Understanding June Mathis's Stage Work as a Key to Her Screenwriting Success" as part of a silent film panel organized by the Society for Cinema and Media Studies' Silent Film Interest Group on Friday, July 10, 2020.
Slater's presentation argued that Mathis's 14 years on the vaudeville and theatrical touring circuits (1901-14) provided the physical knowledge of characters and emotions needed for her writing for silent film. He drew on examples from her statements of her stage career, reviews of her performances, and passages from her scripts to make the connection. Current theory emphasizes that connections to ideas, emotions, and spirituality come through the body, and Mathis's career provides a great example for that argument.