Tecumseh High School graduate gets shot at national Broadway tour

By CRISTINA TRAPANI-SCOTT

Recent THS graduate Matthew Felkey is resting after an unexpected, and tiring, one-day trip to New York City for a callback audition for the national tour of the Tony Award Winning Broadway musical Spring Awakening.

Matt was one of 15 finalists for an emergency fill part for a cast member who was recently let go from tour. Whether he gets the part this time or not, the call back means Matt is on the “A casting list” for the casting agency that casts many off-Broadway and Broadway shows. Only months after his high school graduation, he’s already making his mark on a career he was planning to pursue regardless of making this musical or not.

On a whim, Matt auditioned for the show earlier this spring. He had gone to New York to see Spring Awakening, which is based on the controversial 1891 German play by Frank Wedekind that takes a candid look at teenage self-discovery, with his parents during spring break. After the show, they waited for the cast to come out behind the theater and sign autographs, which is customary with Broadway shows. His mother, Michele, mentioned to one of the actors that Matt is an aspiring actor. “One of the guys said, ‘Well, why don’t you audition?’ I said, ‘What do you mean?’ He said that there was an open casting call coming up. I looked at my mom and dad and my dad said, ‘I’ll take you.’”

He did go, but without his father, carrying only his guitar. He sat in line for nearly five hours, playing his guitar and waiting for his moment. A moment was all he had. “It took so long that by the time they got to me, they only let me play eight bars of a song, which is nothing. I figured there was no way they were going to pick me on eight bars of a song,” Matt said.

He returned home thinking that was the end of it until two days ago when he received a call from casting for the show last weekend. “At first I thought it was joke. Then I looked at the caller ID and noticed the 212 area code,” said Matt.

He had less than a day to be in New York for the audition. He arrived early Tuesday morning. “I got there pretty early and the building wasn’t open,” he said. He went to a nearby McDonalds and waited and warmed up until the doors opened.
“When I first got there, there were four or five guys,” Matt said. “I figured this isn’t so bad. Then more and more came out.”

He was the second called in to audition. He pulled out his guitar and sang and then did a monologue from the show. Matt said that his performance garnered smiles. The field was narrowed to five with Matt among them.

Michele sat by the telephone Tuesday waiting to hear updates from her son. “It’s breathtaking,” she said. “I don’t even know how to feel right now.”

He was sent home in the evening with no word as to whether he was hired for the role or not. I’m not too disappointed because I got called back. I got to go to New York. It was amazing,” he said. The fact that he was called back also means he made an impression and my get chances at other professional roles.

Active in community theatre and TYT productions, Matt is headed to Western Michigan University in the fall where he will study musical theatre.