Act Out

Who are you?  What year are you?  What are your interests?
My name is Matthew Seiberlich. I am a junior. Outside of theater, I am the Historian for the Wisconsin Junior Classical League, involved with the Homestead Latin Club, Assistant Editor for Highlander Publications, an Eagle Scout and Junior Assistant Scoutmaster for Boy Scout Troop 865 Vice President of Homestead Drama Club, Vice President of Homestead Film Club, and I play lacrosse.

What exactly do you do for Peter and the Starcatcher?
I play the boy, or as he later comes to be known, Peter Pan. He is an orphan who is stubborn, and whiny, but can be heroic at times. 

What brought you to join the cast for Peter and the Starcatcher?
I have done theater since my freshman year, and when I heard we were doing Peter and the Starcatcher, I looked into the show, and I instantly fell in love with the show. It is so much fun, and it’s so well written, with witty humor and serious moments of emotion balanced so well.

Do you have any stories from rehearsals?
I have more stories than I could possibly write here. The show has been such a fun experience. Brian Franks as Stache alone makes me die laughing anytime he’s on stage. There was one time I had to roll across the stage on a trunk while “making a sail”, so I had Addison Drumm pull the trunk using a rope, while I stood on the trunk waving the Union Jack like I was in Les Mis.

Another favorite memory from rehearsal is blocking all the times I get lifted (which is a surprisingly high amount of time). Every time I do, the process is always a blast as I just get thrown into the air for an hour straight as we try to figure out what we’re doing.

Peter and the Starcatcher is a prequel to Peter Pan and a comedy about finding your own path and how you fit in the world.  How have you connected to the story?  
At the risk of sounding cliche, I think every high school student, and really every person in general can connect the idea of asking yourself “Where do I belong?” Finding friends, finding communities, finding what you want to do with your life, finding who you want to surround yourself with. Everyone to some degree has experienced this. Going into high school, I went through this a lot with deciding how I wanted to spend my time and who I wanted to be. I have changed my life path and goals to better fit who I am, I have tried new experiences and filled new roles that middle school me wouldn’t believe if he saw me now. 

What do you hope the audience will be thinking about in the car as they drive home after this show?
The main thing I hope they think is “Dang, that was pretty good”. I hope they find it as amazing and funny and charming as I think it is. I hope they can relate to some part of the show, or remember some character or scene that made their sides hurt from laughing and their hands hurt from clapping, and I hope they think about coming back for another show at Homestead Theater.

Anything else you want to talk about?
This show is truly one of the best I have ever been involved in. The cast is amazing, the show is so well written, and the whole show is directed perfectly., Thank you so much to my fellow castmates for making it such a good experience (and a special thank you to my main scene partners Greer Patten as Molly Aster and Brian Franks as Black Stache). Thank you to Andrea for helping make sure I don’t die on that rope. Thank you to Lauren for coming and helping out, and thank you to our AD Adam. Thank you to our costumes crew and our stage crew for all their amazing work. Last (and certainly least), thank you to our director supreme, Amelia Figg-Franzoi for all her amazing work and help. I hope you come to see and fall in love with Peter and the Starcatcher on October 27-29.