The email he'd been anxiously anticipating finally arrived.

Matthew Wray-Martinez ('21) was selected to stage one of his shows at The Tank -- an off-off Broadway theater for emerging creatives located in the heart of Manhattan.

Though there was a slight problem.

Wray-Martinez was only given two weeks' notice to cast, rehearse and produce Isolated: A Lockdown Song Cycle, a 45-minute, one-night-only production.

Immediately, Wray-Martinez rang his theater friends, quickly arranged a fierce team, and finished writing the score for his big night in the big city.

With support from his talented peers, Wray-Martinez was able to put together the show on time. Collaboratively, they worked around the clock for the premiere of a musical based on headlines and emails about the COVID-19 pandemic.

"I felt like I was definitely burning the candle at both ends," Wray-Martinez says. "But, it was a wonderful, hectic and super fulfilling learning experience."

This opportunity fueled Wray-Martinez creatively, and in the weeks following he began writing a new project with Jessica Kellie, a playwriting collaborator.

Last July, just a few months later, Wray-Martinez returned to The Tank with Cardboard: A Musical Fable, a sold-out show featuring costumes created by his wife Cassidy Wray ('21).

"It's a bit absurd. The main character is an Amazon box named Ama," Wray-Martinez says. "We created a family-friendly musical about cardboard boxes staging a revolution."

Beyond his work at The Tank, Wray-Martinez has dedicated the last four years since graduating from UNT and relocating to The Big Apple to taking on various opportunities in composing, performing and playwriting -- all while balancing a corporate career.

Making it in Manhattan

By day, Wray-Martinez works a 9-to-5 job as an office and social media coordinator at a top law firm and is a writer, singer, actor and composer by night.

"Find something that utilizes your skills while working on your dream," Wray-Martinez says. "It may mean writing on the weekends or on a 30-minute lunch, but it's much better than not at all."

Just before relocating to NYC, Wray-Martinez finished writing his first full-length play -- Sheol -- and placed as a finalist at the 2021 Scranton Shakespeare Festival Scratch Night.

"It's sci-fi inspired like Black Mirror," Wray-Martinez says. "Five people are tasked with watching a hole in the desert and uncover the mystery of what lies in the pit below."

Even in college -- on top of working, performing, recording music and his coursework -- Wray-Martinez wrote several pieces and received a reading at the 2019 Stage Writers Festival in Dallas for his 10-minute play, Waste, about a mobster's encounter with a recycling advocate.

Also, while attending UNT, Wray-Martinez began recording and releasing music as REDWARD. He later changed his pseudonym to Mateo Edward, a nod to a childhood nickname.

Despite no longer writing as Mateo Edward, Wray-Martinez still performs his songs across NYC at venues like Sanger Hall and the pinkFROG Cafe.

A Manhattan Marriage

Born and raised in Katy, Wray-Martinez originally applied for UNT's renowned College of Music. Growing up musically inclined, he knew UNT would be the perfect place to pursue the arts.

In his first year, Wray-Martinez switched his major to theatre after discovering his passion for the program. Little to his knowledge, his future wife was attending UNT at the same time.

In 2021, as graduation grew near, Wray-Martinez -- formerly Martinez -- set himself on moving to New York and reconnected with a fellow Eagle  he previously performed alongside seeking to make the same jump.

Before becoming New Yorkers, Erik Crowl ('21) introduced Martinez to his college roommate, Cassidy Wray, an economics and political science major who was considering a similar path and unknowingly ignited a spark.

"The three of us moved to New York together," Wray-Martinez says. "Six months later, Cassidy and I started dating. I definitely like to think fate likes to work in mysterious ways."

After a few years of building a life together in the city of their dreams, the couple tied the knot in the summer of 2024 -- joining Wray and Martinez into Wray-Martinez.

If there's anything Wray-Martinez has learned as a newlywed New Yorker, it's to live and thrive -- not just survive. His advice is to let fate play out and never stop following your dreams.

"Be the patron of your own art, because you might not be doing something at this moment, but that doesn't mean you have to give up on it," Wray-Martinez says. "Not everything looks like the movies, but it doesn't matter as long as you're doing what you love."