Ep #12: Dakin Matthews on Acting the Classics and Your Artistic Family

Dakin Matthews is an actor, playwright, dramaturg, director, teacher, and scholar. He has 150+ credits on IMDb, has taught Shakespeare around the world, worked on Broadway and won awards, and was artistic director of several theatres—and he started out to be a priest! We talk about feeling confident and intimidated, why the classics are important, what being a professional means, and more. This episode is sponsored by Audible: get a free audiobook and a 30-day trial at workingactorsjourney.com/audible

 

Dakin Matthews around the web

IMDb | Wikipedia | IBDb | Actors Access | His former Andak theatre company

 

Highlights

• Dakin's father as an indentured servant
• How acting in a Shakespeare play gave him a more intimate knowledge of it
• The situations when he feels in awe of people
• How he approaches working with or teaching younger actors
• The production of Shakespeare he saw that really changed his view of what theatre could be
• How he ended up teaching at Juilliard and eventually performing in The Acting Company
• Why he feels acting is his primary skill, above being a teacher or scholar
• Why there aren't great Shakespeare acting classes online
• How he approaches playing real people, and the roles that he couldn't quite figure out
• The out-of-left-field offer to get involved with Rocky the Musical
• How Dakin has had time to be involved in so much
• Working on the "Come vial" speech from Romeo and Juliet
• Why many actors either shy away from or miss the mark with emotional moments
• Why it's so important to find a group of like-minded creative people
• Quotes that matter to him

 

Selected People and Items Mentioned

• Antaeus Theatre
• Portuguese immigration to Hawaii
• ACT, San Francisco
• The Juilliard School
• USD San Diego MFA (Old Globe Program)
• Cal State East Bay, Hayward, CA
• David Ogden Stiers, actor
• Kurtwood Smith, actor
• Liz Huddle, actress
• PCPA Theatre
• John Houseman, actor, director, and teacher
• Stephen McKinley Henderson, actor
• Group 1 at Julliard: Patti Lupone, Kevin Kline, David Ogden Stiers, Mary Jo Negro, Mary Lou Risotti, Sam Tsoutsouvas, David Schramm, Tony Azito, Jim Moody, Gerald Gutierrez, Norman Snow, Benjamin Hendrickson
• US bombing of Cambodia
• Jack O'Brien, director
• Sherlock's Last Case (play)
• Remington Steele, TV show
• Henderson Hogan Agency
• The History Boys (play)
• Frank Langella as Nixon
• .css-j9qmi7{display:-webkit-box;display:-webkit-flex;display:-ms-flexbox;display:flex;-webkit-flex-direction:row;-ms-flex-direction:row;flex-direction:row;font-weight:700;margin-bottom:1rem;margin-top:2.8rem;width:100%;-webkit-box-pack:start;-ms-flex-pack:start;-webkit-justify-content:start;justify-content:start;padding-left:5rem;}@media only screen and (max-width: 599px){.css-j9qmi7{padding-left:0;-webkit-box-pack:center;-ms-flex-pack:center;-webkit-justify-content:center;justify-content:center;}}.css-j9qmi7 svg{fill:#27292D;}.css-j9qmi7 .eagfbvw0{-webkit-align-items:center;-webkit-box-align:center;-ms-flex-align:center;align-items:center;color:#27292D;}