This month for our Backstage interview we talked to actor Kevin Matthew Reyes, a recent acting school grad making his professional debut in three different roles in Frances Ya-Chu Cowhig’s workshop production of The World of Extreme Happiness, as part of our New Stages festival. Read on to hear this California-transplant’s perspective on the play, the future and the dynamic theater scene in his new hometown, Chicago.

Place of birth and/or hometown? 

I was born in Fremont, California—in the Bay Area—but I haven't really been back there for longer than a week since leaving for college five years ago. I went to school in San Diego and spent summers working in Los Angeles. I did a whole lot of my growing up there, and in Barcelona, Spain, where I studied abroad for four months. I feel equally at home in all four cities, actually less so in the city I was born in. Whenever people ask where in California I'm from, I can never say one city definitively. I feel like the first part of my life was in Fremont and ended when I left for university. The second part, which I'm currently in, has been in the next three cities, and now Chicago.

First professional role/production you were in and Favorite professional role/production you were in?

Well, this one, but not only by default of being the only professional role on my list so far. In one show I get to play a revolutionary, a rock star and a little brother, and they’re all fantastic characters in a fantastic story. Also, this has been the best possible first professional production to be a part of. Everyone at the Goodman and everyone involved—all these people with far more experience working in professional than I have—has been fantastic to be around. Only for about the first 10 seconds on day one did I feel like a rookie. And Jonathan Berry, our director, was one of my instructors just this past summer at The School at Steppenwolf. That familiarity and love I have for the way he works helped make this a really easy transition from learning from him as my instructor to working with him as my director. Man, I just hope he’s not getting sick of me already!

Dream role or production you hope to be in in the future?

I’m not sure how much I ever really think about that in terms of existing plays and productions. I hear these workshopped plays sometimes get the chance to have a world premiere here at the Goodman. If that happens with this play, I'd consider myself insanely lucky to have a shot at getting to explore these characters and this world some more. As for a dream production that doesn't exist yet? I've got two best friends back in California, Chris Cortez and Andres Ramacho, who are also Filipino-American actors. We all kind of look alike, but are each very different individuals. I'd get such a kick out of being in a show with them where we all played brothers or something. Paul Rudd would play our alcoholic, adoptive father. And it’d be directed by Christopher Nolan, in his stage debut. Oh, and we'd be performing on the moon. You know—as long as we’re dreaming.

 

Production or role you've experienced as an audience member that left you speechless?

I saw a production of In the Heights a few years ago that just about blew my socks and undies off. A great example of "never say never." Before that, I doubted that hip-hop and rap could ever successfully make its way into a musical. Never again, man...never again. I also saw a touring production of August: Osage County. Boy, that play just dropkicks you in the face and doesn't apologize.

Pre- or post-show ritual?

As a sort of bookend ritual, once I cross the threshold of the playing space I announce my name and the name(s) of my character(s) before each rehearsal and performance, and then I thank the space for serving as our vessel after each rehearsal and performance. There's a really magical thing that happens in theater where a group of people come together to transform a bare room or stage into a world where collective dreamers come together to love, lose, fly and even slay dragons. I mean, how many other professions let you walk into a room with a bunch of people and say, “Dudes. We're going to slay some freakin’ dragons in here. And it’s going to be awesome.” So, I was taught to always honor and acknowledge the space that let you come in and live out your dreams.  

Favorite thing about working in Chicago?

There's a real beautiful heart and soul in Chicago theater that's woven into the very fabric of this city. You feel its pulse from the improv joints to the intimate, 20-seat houses, all the way to the Albert stage at the Goodman. It's electric. And that heart and soul is cultivated by the people who work here. And not just the artists, but the administrators who help make it happen, too. They really are all tapped into this current that continually churns out an honest and imaginative brand of art that's incredibly fulfilling to witness. And maybe I'm just a naïve 23 year old, right out of college, in severe debt, and blinded by romantic dreams of grandeur. But right now in my life, I'm okay with that. My wallet might not be full, but my heart is literally overflowing. ...Okay, not literally. That was a bit extreme. But you know what I mean.

** This interview was conducted by Gabriela Jirasek
Gabriela Jirasek is currently the E-Communications Manager at the Goodman Theatre. Most recently, she held the position of marketing and new media associate at the Chicago Humanities Festival (CHF), where she promoted the November Humanities Festival, May children’s festival (Stages, Sights & Sounds), and year-round programming for Chicago-area teachers. Gabriela also served as art director of www.chicagohumanities.org, an online humanities journal. She graduated from Tufts University majoring in international relations and Spanish, with a minor in communications and media studies. She is bilingual and studied at the Universidad Autónoma de Madrid. At Tufts University, she was a founding member of Bare Bodkin Theatre Company, a group dedicated to producing original student-written works and alternative theater in non-traditional venues.