Behind the Scenes at the Opera House: Matt Hurley

We're thrilled to have Matt Hurley back in Stonington this summer! You may have seen him in last summer's Romeo & Juliet and R & J & Z, and you still have two weekends worth of performances to catch him in The Seagull before he transforms himself from an aspiring Russian playwright to a gentleman of 1980's Stonington in this summer's production of The Merry Wives of Windsor. First, though, take some time to get to know Matt in all his cootie-purveying-cat/rabbit-hybrid-with-007-ambitions glory.....

Where did you grow up?

I grew up in Bangor, actually.

How would you elementary school classmates remember you?

My elementary school classmates would probably remember me as trying to make the teachers laugh by making animal noises in the back of the room and trying to kiss the girls during recess to give them cooties.....clearly I haven't grown up much since!

Name four fictional characters with whom you'd be okay being stuck in an elevator. Why them?

Holden Caufield - the world's first hipster. 

Hamlet - Just to meet the man of my favorite play and to ask did he actually see the ghost?

Indiana Jones - He'd find a crazy way for us to escape the elevator and then take me on a rafting trip down the Ganges. 

James Bond - teach me the ways sir...teach me the ways....

If you were a cartoon character, which cartoon character would you be?

This is a tough one but I think I would be a mix somewhere between Garfield and Bugs Bunny.  Not quite as lazy but also not quite as witty.

When did you fall in love with theatre?

A complicated question for me to answer but I'll try.  It took me some time to embrace theater.  I liked being on stage and getting laughs and all that but I never truly "loved" it and realized the power of it untill much later in my career.  Unpopular to say, but its true.  I was in a production of Richard II in Los Angeles playing a "banner holder" and during the deposition scene where the king loses his crown, the actor playing the king, David Melville, looked at me with such conviction and loss and defeat and humor in his playing of it, that I burst into tears and then realized I absolutely love what I do and now know what can be possible on stage.

Don't miss out on either of Matt's performances this summer... and be sure to say hi if you see him around town!