Connections That Last: How These Alums Found “Their People” at MMC

Margaret Montavon ’12 and Elizabeth Raia ’13 at the London premiere of King of Pangea Montavon, Raia, and Caitlin Mintz ’12 at MMC's Alumni Holiday Reception“I can’t imagine life without her.”

Ask Elizabeth Raia ’13 about her other half, and she’s as likely to mention her best friend and business partner, Margaret Montavon ’12, as she is her husband. Raia and Montavon are the cofounders of Pipe Dream, a three-year-old New York–based production company that, in its short life, has already drawn prominent collaborators such as Priyanka Chopra Jonas and will end 2025 with an impressive slate of film, TV, and theater projects.

The two built the company from the ground up, starting with little in the way of funding or powerful contacts; in fact, the company’s name is a play on how some in the industry might have viewed their scrappy beginnings. Still, what they initially lacked in capital, they made up for with mutual trust and connection that comes from having known each other since their early college days. “We’ve seen each other through back-to-back Hollywood strikes, back-to-back maternity leaves, and a global pandemic,” Raia said. “And it still remains not only very fulfilling, but really, really fun to work together.”

Raia and Montavon were introduced at MMC by a friend, Chelsea Pollack-DeRario ’13, who knew they were both looking for a roommate. Raia, a shy Communications major from upstate New York with a passion for dance, and Montavon, an outgoing Theatre student from Virginia, who had thrown herself into student organizations, seemed as different as they could be. But after meeting over coffee, they immediately clicked. “It was just one of those connections where you feel like you’ve known someone your entire life and you can’t imagine life without them,” Montavon said. They roomed together not only as students, but for five years after graduating. As the years passed, their bond would grow into a family affair: Raia met her husband, Mike, through Montavon’s husband, Matthew, and the two women served as maids of honor at each other’s weddings. Today, Montavon’s and Raia’s young sons are best friends.

Professionally, they pursued separate tracks: Montavon earned a Master of Education at Northeastern University and taught musical theatre to children, while Raia focused on dance. Then, while enrolled in an acting-for-dancers class, Raia met a film director who brought her onto a short film project, the first of many. Raia realized she had a knack for producing and an interest in writing for the big and small screen.

At a happy hour with Montavon, Raia laid out an idea she had for a limited TV series—one too big to tackle alone. “I knew that in order to pitch it to the right people who could really get the show made, I’d need help,” she said. “And with Margaret, nothing ever seems like a crazy idea. That’s one thing that I really value about our friendship.” Montavon jumped at the chance to work together.

That series, a dramedy with a predominantly indigenous creative team, is currently in development, and laid the foundation for Pipe Dream, with one project becoming two and two becoming four. Their first international film, Chicken, was a 2025 selection at the Exit 6, Reel to Reality, and Bushwick film festivals, and Montavon and Raia are in talks with major streaming companies about broadening its reach. This summer, Montavon and Raia also branched into theater, co-producing their first stage endeavor, the musical King of Pangea, with fellow alum, Jaime Bartolett ’17 (read her story below!), in London. Next up, Pipe Dream is working to co-produce the stage adaptation of Safety Not Guaranteed at Virginia’s Signature Theatre and The Lost Boys on Broadway at the Palace Theatre. “Not only has Pipe Dream been successful, but we have fallen even more in love with the process,” Montavon said. It’s even sweeter, they added, to experience that success together. “To have all of this with my best friend is amazing,” Raia said. “I’m so lucky.”

A shared network: Montavon and Raia trace their relationship back to a larger community of friends from MMC, where Montavon notes, “one connection has only led to more connections.” “The phrase that keeps coming up for us is chosen family,” she said. That includes Pollack-DeRario ’13, Caitlin Mintz ’12, Lorenza Brascia Ingram ’13, and Austin Nelson ’14, who’ve been on hand over the years for each other’s life milestones, from weddings and births to promotions and launches. Some of the group have even traveled abroad together, including to Italy in 2024 and Ireland last fall. There are smaller rituals, too—Mintz and Montavon have tried to see every Broadway show together since graduating.

“There’s a shared understanding of who we all are, and a love that now extends to each other’s kids,” Montavon said. “I always say that Marymount did two very important things for me, aside from giving me my education: it brought me to New York, and it brought me my people.”

Jaime Bartolett ’17 and Matthew Mucha '18 Bartolett, Kendall Edwards ’18, Mucha, and Mitchell Matyas ’18 at the Tony Awards“MMC gave us the same language and a shared history.”

When Theatre alums Jaime Bartolett ’17 and Matthew Mucha ’18 first met, neither paid much attention to the other. Though they often crossed paths at parties and had overlapping campus jobs—Bartolett in the Theatre recruitment office, Mucha helping to run auditions for prospective students—they were, as Mucha put it, “friendly-ish, but not really in each other’s orbits.” That changed in his junior year and her senior year when the two were cast as love interests in the mainstage play Our Country’s Good.

“After that, we were with each other, whether we liked it or not, day and night. If we saw each other in the Commons or library, we would stop and talk about rehearsals, and we were constantly texting to go over things,” Mucha said. “We became best friends and then, once the show closed, something more.” “We thought it was a showmance that would only last a few months, and now here we are over nine years later,” Bartolett joked.

Bartolett, an associate producer for Neil Gooding Productions and Shea Theatricals, and Mucha, an actor who made his Broadway debut in the musical Harmony, married last year. And if there was any doubt that theirs was an MMC love story, you’d need only scan the wedding party: three of Bartolett’s four bridesmaids and two of Mucha’s three groomsmen were classmates from 71st Street.

Still, they were hardly the only pairing in their MMC friend group, with pals Lucien Coppola ’18 and Olivia Whitehouse ’18 the first to tie the knot after college. “I remember turning to my best friend [Mitchell Matyas ’18], and saying, ‘Olivia Whitehouse is marrying Lucien Coppola from school, and it’s so weird to think about because we all did Daily Dance together,” Mucha said. “I couldn’t believe we were at that stage, but of course that sort of thing is happening all the time now.” Indeed, Matyas would marry fellow alum Kendall Edwards’18 in August 2025, with Mucha and Bartolett in their wedding party.

As students, Bartolett, Mucha, and their friends planned road trips and breaks together; now, they navigate major life steps side by side. “Kendall and I talk about having babies at the same time, raising them in the same town, and going to our kids’ soccer games together,” Bartolett said.

A constant support: Mucha and Bartolett’s circle of MMC friends has also been on hand for their most important career events. For example, Edwards, now director of external communications at the high-powered public relations agency DKC/O&M, served as a press agent for Harmony and walked Mucha down the red carpet on the show’s opening night. “I remember having this surreal moment of seeing Kendall at the end of the step-and-repeat,” he said. “I thought, ‘this is just the most fun thing in the world. I can’t believe that I’m getting to do this with one of my closest friends.’”

Taylor Brauer ’17, who roomed with Bartolett for several years and now lives across the street, flew to London last summer for the premiere of King of Pangea, a musical Bartolett produced, just days after her own wedding. “She showed up in our flat and surprised me,” Bartolett said. “The friends we made at MMC give us unwavering support, and we hope we do the same for them. We’ve matured together, and now we can cheer for each other as we thrive in our own ways.”

“That’s what’s special about our MMC circle,” Mucha added. “We speak the same language and have a shared history, but we’ve also grown into fully formed adults together. It’s a beautiful thing.”

Published: December 23, 2025