Spotlight On...Matthew Goodrich

Name: Matthew Goodrich (but you can call me Matt)

Hometown: Mansfield, PA


Education: CalArts (MFA), University of Notre Dame (BA)


Select Credits: The Nance (u/s, The Lyceum Theatre); Picnic (u/s, American Airlines Theatre); Camino Real (Kilroy, Boston Court); Brewsie and Willie (Henry, Center for New Performance + Poor Dog Group)

Why theater?: It was a hobby I developed in high school because I wasn't much good at anything else besides studying.  The drama teacher was kind enough to cast me as Ferdinand in "The Tempest" my freshman year and I've been doing it ever since.  By the end of college I accepted the inevitable that this would be my career, went to grad school, and am now working in New York.  I like it because it affords me to opportunity to explore many different ways of living and thinking.

Tell us about The Adventures of Boy and Girl: It's a play about love in your 20's and why we throw it away, even though it might have been the real deal.  A play about lacking the self-confidence to believe that you are inherently worthwhile and worthy of love, no matter your faults.  It also explores the importance of honesty and full-disclosure in relationships, especially when you're figuring yourself out.  It was written over Facebook chat by two Hunter College High students a couple years ago and it feels very current.

What is it like being a part of The Adventures of Boy and Girl?: It's a blast.  I worked with the director, Patrick Vassel, in some of my first shows in college and we developed a strong friendship and a good working relationship.  Margy Love, my co-star, fell right into our way of working/thinking/being and it's been seamless.  It never feels like work, though most of the time I don't think making theatre does.

What kind of theater speaks to you? What or who inspires you as an artist?: I like theatre that focuses on what I'll call "The Trauma of Living."  The NYTimes had a nice op-ed last week about life, that no matter how breezy and devoid of tragedy your life might be, just waking up in the morning and going through the motions of a regular day (especially in a city like this) is inherently traumatic.  Oftentimes we don't acknowledge that trauma which life exacts on us, and we internalize the aggression and violence and it eats us from the inside out.  So plays that investigate how we might cope with or rise above that trauma are important, and I think the answer is by seeking refuge in each other.

Any roles you’re dying to play?: All the big Shakespeare roles, no doubt: Hamlet, Macbeth, Iago, everyone in Julius Caesar.  I keep hearing about the "American Psycho" musical and a film-reimagining and I'm dying to play Patrick Bateman.  I think he's the perfect allegory to the violent competitiveness in the modern American male (and female, for that matter) to succeed, regardless of moral implications.  He's not a bad man, but a man driven to maiming and murder in order to feel something in a life devoid of all meaning.  He can't handle the vapidness that surrounds him.  Sometimes I feel the same way.  Thankfully I lack the blood-thirst.

What’s your favorite showtune?: Probably Macheath's lament at the end of The Threepenny Opera. "Oh brothers, who live on when we are dead, let not your noble hearts against us harden. Nor smile not when the noose shall claim our heads, a silly, secret smile to ease your burden.  Nor rail against us now you see us broken, nor take revenge upon us like the law.  Not all of us treat virtue with such awe.  Oh brothers, being light of heart, be shaken.  Oh brothers make our fate a lesson be, and beg of God that he will pardon me."  He goes on to indict every individual member and clan of the ruthless and immoral society in which he became the king, the same people who now turn on him before the Queen and country, and yet begs them all to forgive him.  "Ballad of Guiteau" from Assassins is another favorite.

If you could work with anyone you’ve yet to work with, who would it be?: Paul Newman, may he rest in peace.

Who would play you in a movie about yourself and what would it be called?: If they made a movie of my life up until now it would be an abject waste of time and effort.  Ask me in 30 years.  Still...save your money.

What show have you recommended to your friends?: I'm just finishing working on The Nance and I've tried to get everyone to come see it.  Nathan Lane is a living legend.


What’s your biggest guilty pleasure?: Fruity Pebbles

What’s up next?: The US Senate, 2034.

For more on The Adventures of Boy and Girl, visit boyandgirlfringe.com