The Rural We: Matt Neely

Folks who regularly attend Barrington Stage Company’s 10x10 New Play Festival will recognize actor Matt Neely, who can also be considered a “regular” at the Festival. In fact, he’s missed just two years out of the 11, and is back again for this year’s run. A Williamstown native, he began his acting in the Berkshires as a childd. Neely received a BS in theater at Skidmore College and followed that with an MFA in acting from a joint program between Carnegie Mellon University and The Moscow Art Theater. When he’s not on stage, you’ll find him playing the part (for real) of financial advisor at Inspire Confidence Group in Williamstown. Barrington Stage’s 11th annual 10x10 New Play Festival will run Feb. 24-March 13 at the Boyd-Quinson Stage in Pittsfield.

I grew up in Williamstown and acted at the Starlight Stage Youth Theatre for nine years, and in high school productions. After I got my degrees, I spent 11 years in New York. I did about 25 off- or off-off-Broadway shows, and was a part of a couple theater companies started by friends, the majority of the work new plays, because my friends were playwrights. I also acted in commercials and short films and did a lot of TV production.

My father, who passed away two years ago, was a financial advisor in Pittsfield and had started his own business, Neely Investments. He invited me in, saying “why don’t you give this a whirl, we could work together, and I think you’d like it.” He and I were very similar, and it was interesting to me. Moving to the Berkshires would give me more income and more space. My wife is also an actor, and we figured there was a ton of theater here that we could get involved in.

When I first came back, I saw that Barrington Stage was having auditions for local talent for its production of “The Crucible.” One of the parts was a character I’d played in graduate school. I thought to myself, “This part will be mine.” When I auditioned, Julianne Boyd [artistic director of Barrington Stage] looked at me and said, “You played this part in Moscow?” It felt like it took forever for them to let me know, but I got the part. Not long after that, they created the 10x10 New Play Festival, and I’ve been in it every year, except for the two years after my father died and I took over his business. I wasn’t able to take the time off from work for acting, but I still stayed involved; I wrote the opening numbers for those two years.

I have two kids and the financial investments business and can’t really pursue acting full time at this point, so it’s great to do 10x10 every year. I get to recharge my batteries, meet playwrights and other actors from New York. I’ve also done some readings with local playwrights, and my wife is always generating content that I act in. Our kids are natural performers, too. They’re constantly singing and dancing, even doing accents at ages 3 and 6. They just do it naturally. I’ll be a stage dad, that’s fine.

We start rehearsals for 10x10 next week, but I’m working on the opening number now. There’s going to be two new actors this year. Peggy Pharr, Robert Zukerman, Doug Harris, and I are back. Last year, because of COVID, we recorded the show as a stage production and offered it virtually. There were stringent COVID rules: you couldn’t get closer than six feet from another actor, and you couldn’t handle another person’s props.. It was like acting in a void, without any audience laughter. There was no run of the plays, no party, not as much cast bonding. I’m excited to be back in the theater with a live audience this year.