Hi there! 

So, I'm from greater Manchester, New Hampshire. That's where I was born and also where I spent the first 18 years of my life before later moving on to the big bad (bad only because I hate the Yankees) city of New York. Simply put, New Hampshire is a great place to live, visit, or vacation. It's a beautiful state. There are lots of things to do and see (even more if you're an outdoorsy type). It is a great place to shop because there is no sales tax (compared to NY and MA, that's a biggie). It's also a great place to raise kids, because, well, I'm from there and I turned out A-OK. By the way, my mom is a teacher and so I know first hand that these kids are getting a grade A (pun intended) first class education. Simply put, I'm proud to be from there.

I first got involved in the acting world when I was in the 8th grade. Our class was trying to raise money for our big field trip, and so we decided to put on a play. I was the best reader in the class and snagged the lead part of George in Sherwood Anderson's I'm A Fool . Little did I know what was in store for me in the near future (aside from a trip to DC and Busch Gardens). 

The next year in high school, a fellow frosh girl I was dating drafted me into performing with her in the school's one act festival. By the end of the run, I knew I was having a lot of fun performing (even with the girlfriend out of the picture by that point). Back for a sophomore go of it, a young English professor and recent graduate of the high school had returned to his alma mater with the brave idea of putting on a musical, not just any musical mind you, but a Stephen Sondheim musical entitled Merrily We Roll Along . He must not have had received the memo about budgets for arts program in 400 student count catholic preparatory high schools in New Hampshire (whatever you can pull out of your own pocket), but he forged ahead with the rehearsals and almost 5 months later (yes, FIVE MONTHS) I was opening the show playing the lead role of Franklin Shepard. So after many voice lessons, endless amounts of rehearsals, and two weeks of performances, the show finally closed.  The director pulled me aside after and told me that he thought I had a knack for performing and could make a career out of it if I so chose. He told me about a theatre school for young actors (where he did technical backstage work) that held a summer session intensive. I inquired, sent in the application with his personal letter of recommendation, and soon after began my first of two consecutive summers at Walnut Hill playing such roles as Vittorio Vidal in Sweet Charity , Magaldi in Evita , and my personal favorite which was Tom Joad in Steinbeck's The Grapes of Wrath .

Finishing my second stint at Walnut Hill, and after a beautiful trip to Hawaii and San Francisco late in that same summer with my parents, I became intently focused on choosing a college.  By this point, I knew I wanted to study theatre, and I knew it had to be at one of the more well known and reputed drama schools. I received a plethora of helpful input from my teachers and directors at Walnut Hill who worked with me to help me establish a list of schools. I soon had visited with BU and Tufts locally, but was turned off from both of their programs by the time I finished their guided tours (for the record, I was also accepted into BU's engineering school). Syracuse and Carnegie Mellon were possible candidates as well, but New York University and Brown University had the programs that I was most interested in and would be the ones that I would pursue the hardest. I knew Brown would be a little bit of a stretch because of my moderate SAT scores, so I was prepping to hit a homer with the NYU folks.  Now on the NYU application, you had to specify a studio of study (i.e. Meisner, Experimental Theatre Wing, Adler, CAP-21, etc.) and I chose CAP-21, the musical theatre studio. I guess I figured since I was on a recent musical theatre roll, why should I stop?  Besides, I knew I would be getting a huge diversity of training with acting classes, singing classes, and even dance classes (yes, I said dance classes).  Next up for me was the big audition.

Jump to early February, where my dad and I flew into a snowy LaGuardia one Saturday morning.  I had arrived at about 8am that morning and was having a McDonald's pancake breakfast across the street from 721 Broadway by 9am for a 9:30 audition. The streets were covered with probably 4 inches of the powdery, fluffy, cold, white stuff. I couldn't believe it. Was New York City this pretty? I didn't think big cities looked like that during the winter; I figured more of a darker shade of sand and salt slush grey. Maybe it was a sign of things to come. At this point, I also should mention that Gene Kelly had passed away the day before and that I, for reasons still unbeknownst to me, had opted to attend the audition with the optional dance component (yes, a dance audition said the slightly chubby kid with no real dance training outside of the handful of musicals he had been in). I could have just performed my two songs and monologue at the regular non-dance audition, but no, I think I rather liked the challenge. Maybe all that fast food had finally done some brain damage. I'm still not sure. Anyways, I gave it my all. I sang my songs. I spoke the speech. I danced the- well, that's being kind. Somehow I managed to move in a somewhat recognizable pattern and rhythm and not fall on my butt as a number from Singing in the Rain played in the background. That's an accomplishment. I think I knew I had made a good impression when Frank, the Artistic Director of CAP-21 and our audition choreographer looked down at me during our warm up. We were on our 10th minute of isolated abdominal exercises when he came over to where I was crunching and looked down at me. I looked right up at him in full crunch stride and smiled the happiest smile I could possibly muster. He responded with an eerie yet impressed "gooooood." In the end, I know I mangled the combo, but I never gave up. If I got lost, I kept moving until I found it again. I kept up my energy and I never lost my focus and purpose. By 12:30pm that afternoon, I was back in New Hampshire with very, VERY sore abdominals (I think it was about a week before I could sneeze and not collapse in pain).  Thus begins the waiting game.

A few short months later, I was in. I received my acceptance letter in the mail and began making mental preparations. Soon after, I graduated from high school and spent that summer working my first year of three consecutives summers at the American Stage Festival doing stock theatre. I was earning professional acting credits, working alongside established New York actors, performing in a slew of shows (both main stage and theatre for young audiences), learning more about the craft as a whole, establishing new friends, and even making a couple bucks in the process tending bar at performances. I lived at home, drove my grandmother's car, and spent most of the morning, day, afternoon, and evening at the theatre. What a life! This pattern continued for two more years until the beginning of senior year at NYU when I shipped off across the pond from New York to foggy London towne to study the craft of acting at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art. While I was there, I fell in love with the program, the city, and Shakespeare's work.  It was all we ate, slept, and breathed. Eventually, I had to return home to finish up school and begin life as a professional New York actor which is where I am now.

New York is a great city to be in as an actor, especially if you love the theatre as much as I do.  The film and television industry is much smaller here than in Los Angeles, but it can be broken into. Perhaps one day, I'll explore the LA market, but for now I've got my wheels-a'-turnin' here with fingers in dozens of different pies; from feature films to episodic television to commercial work to numerous theatre venues and even the operatic stage at Lincoln Center. Basically, the more work you do, the more known your work becomes throughout the various performing circles. By getting more well known, you beget more work and eventually more distinguished work in particular. I know that one of my goals in life is to be happy in my work and all else that I do. Looking back on the progress of my young career thus far, I have a lot to smile about and a lot more to look forward to in the future.

Thanks for reading, and enjoy the rest of my site!

-Matthew