UP TO HEAR with Matthew McGee and Natalie Symons: June 2024

UP TO HEAR with Matthew McGee and Natalie Symons Episode 1 – Rob Lowe’s Mullet  In their debut podcast, these two besties Matthew and Natalie quip and quibble about theater, theater memories, plays they loved and actors/writers, living through the pandemic with theaters shut and their creative juices unrequited, the power of friendship and conversation, artistic inspiration, their favorite theater experience,  what’s next at freeFall https://freefalltheatre.com/, AI and its impact on actors and theater, why streaming is killing the moviehouses and best of all, their next projects including Matthew’s Rocky Horror Picture Show role this July at The Straz.
Matthew McGee has been a sought after and award-winning character actor for 25+ years. He has appeared in numerous regional venues including the Hippodrome Theatre, Asolo Repertory Theatre, freeFallTheatre Company, Stageworks Tampa, Mountain Theatre Company, Aurora Theatre and as a cast member at Walt Disney World. Matthew was named Staff and Readers’ Pick for Best Actor in Creative Loafing’s Best of the Bay 2022 issue for his work as celebrity chef James Beard in I Love to Eat and as Hercule Poirot in Murder on the Orient Express. His performance as Mother Superior in the Straz Center for the Performing Arts production of Nunsense A-men earned him a Theatre Tampa Bay Award for Outstanding Leading Actor in a Musical. Favorite roles include: Edna Turnblad in Hairspray, Max Bialystock in The Producers, Dr. Watson in Ken Ludwig’s Baskerville and Dennis Dupree in Rock of Ages. Tampa Bay audiences may remember Matthew as Frank N Furter in American Stage in the Park’s Rocky Horror Show in 2012 and will be the narrator in this July’s Straz RHS production. https://www.linkedin.com/in/matthew-mcgee-9a3632130/
Natalie Symons is an award-winning playwright and best-selling novelist. Her plays have been developed and produced at theatres across the county, including freeFall Theatre, ACT Theatre, Theatre22, Urbanite Theatre, American Stage, Aurora Theatre, Theater Schmeater, Florida Studio Theatre, Bridge Street Theatre, Amas Musical Theatre, Arts Garage, and Key City Public Theatre. Most recently her new comedy, NIGHTSWEAT world premiered at freeFall Theatre in St. Petersburg. THE PEOPLE DOWNSTAIRS premiered at American Stage and received the Broadway World Regional Award for Best Original Script of the Decade. Her play NAMING TRUE was included in Ashland New Play Festival’s inaugural Play4Keeps podcast and was a finalist for the Bridge Initiative Women in Theatre Playwright of the Year Award. In addition, her work has been featured in Smith & Kraus’ Best of 2019 and 30th Anniversary Edition Best of 2020. Her debut novel LIES IN BONE was released by Boyle & Dalton and earned The Eric Hoffer Literary Award, The NIEA Award, and was the recipient of the Chanticleer International Book Awards’ Somerset Grand Prize in Literary and Contemporary fiction.  Also an actress, Natalie’s Florida credits include, ONE FLEW OVER THE CUCKOO’S NEST, AN EMPTY PLATE IN THE CAFÉ DE GRANDE BOUEF, BECKY SHAW, THE COMEDY OF ERRORS, (freeFall Theatre), REBORNING (Urbanite Theatre), LAST OF THE RED HOT LOVERS (Stageworks), THE FOREIGNER (American Stage). Next season she will play Mabel in THE PEOPLE DOWNSTAIRS at Stageworks Theatre. Originally from Buffalo, New York, she now lives in St. Petersburg with her husband, Jim and their SPCA Tampa Bay-adopted dogs, Chloe and Ted Danson. https://www.nataliesymons.com/
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