Matthew Ray Torrez |
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Matthew Ray Torrez |
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Matthew began his life in theatre at the tender age of “pre-birth.” His mother, April D. and his father, Ray Torrez were at a rehearsal for JESUS CHRIST SUPERSTAR when Matthew first kicked. Many of the actors gathered around and shared the joy of the moment. The rock-opera director, john daniels, jr., was not impressed, “bah-humbug!” Matthew appeared “in utero” with mama and daddy in the King Herrod scene from SUPERSTAR in March of 1990. Matthew is born August 15, 1990. After a year and a half that resembled, “All My Children meets General Hospital versus Days of Our Lives with Mary Hartman, Mary Hartman,” Matthew’s pre-school was ten productions at THE PLACE. He attended every meeting, every rehearsal and every performance. At the age of three years Matthew could rock the house with a rendition of "LUCY IN THE SKY WITH DIAMONDS" using the background music from COME TOGETHER. . Matthew spent most of his days with “Daddy John” (bah-humbug... well). During the run of THE ROCKY HORROR SHOW one afternoon, “Daddy John” was working in the theatre shop outside. Matthew was nailing boards together too, without nails. Suddenly, Matthew got up walked out into the parking lot and picked up a handful of gravel. Running, toddling, he came up to me. “Daddy John! Daddy John!” I looked up and Matthew pelted me in the face with the gravel singing, “Rocks and Roll!” When I regained my sight, I saw joy on the face of a little boy who had just made some great connection with words and the world around him. He ran, toddled, back into to the parking lot for several command performances. During one of the performances of our last show at THE PLACE, COME TOGETHER, one of my students, Chris D. came up to the tech platform where I was working the lights, spotlight and tape machine. “ John, come listen to April sing in stereo.” I didn’t know what Chris meant, so I climbed down and walked halfway down the center aisle to listen. April was singing "MY LOVE" by Paul McCartney. Yes, it was in stereo, and I couldn’t figure it out until Chris pointed to the edge of the tech platform. There stood five year old Matthew matching his mother word for word and pitch for pitch. Slowly, audience members in the back and on the aisles turned and discovered Matthew singing as loud and as pretty as he could, word for word and pitch for pitch. The audience applauded and of course Matthew bowed. (I missed the next tech cue, too.)
The Beginning: PRESENTS
AREN’T ALWAYS WRAPPED
written and directed by: john daniels, jr. for THE EARTH & SKY ACTING CO. at The John Henry Faulk Theatre 1999.
Written, designed, and directed by john daniels, jr. and Engela Edwards. July 2000 at the Austin Children's Museum with EASY Theatre Just
in Time
A 70's musical, written, designed, and directed by john daniels, jr. August-September 2000, at the Dougherty Arts Center, 1110 Barton Springs, Austin, Texas. Swing Thing Choreography by Engela Edwards, scenes written by john daniels, jr.
Old Settlers' Music Festival Spring 2001 Matthew is into video games, the trampoline, video games, the cartoon network, video games, Weird Al Yankovic, video games, sleeping under a fan with at least three blankets, video games and his best friend, mom. (She likes video games too.) |
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| Afterthought:
With such a liberal arts background Matthew may turn out to be a real life Alex Keaton! jdj |
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