Actor from Indiana, Pa., to portray ‘Hamlet’ for the Public
Matthew Amendt will return to Pittsburgh in April to star as “Hamlet,” the final play directed by Ted Pappas as producing artistic director at Pittsburgh Public Theater. Before performing off-Broadway and with regional theaters throughout the United States, the Indiana, Pa., native was a winner of the Public’s 1999 Shakespeare Monologue & Scene Contest.
The 2000 Indiana High School graduate will take on what is considered by many to be the stage’s greatest challenge. In a statement, he said he “will find a way to lure Mike Tomlin and several Steelers to this production.” His Twitter account describes him as “actor, writer, Steelers lover.”
Mr. Amendt starred in Shakespeare’s “Henry V” in a 2009 coproduction of the Acting Company and Guthrie Theater, and The New York Times critic Charles Isherwoord wrote of the performance, “Unlike most Shakespeare plays, ‘Henry V’ contains only one truly central character, the king himself. Fortunately, Matthew Amendt, who plays the role here, is a charismatic, skillful actor with a clarion baritone who gives the production a magnetic focus.” Other notable roles include Prince Hal in “Henry IV, Parts 1 and 2” for Shakespeare Theatre Company in Washington, D.C.
Mr. Amendt told The Washington Post that he had a special connection to the Bard’s Henry plays. From the time he was 7, when he suffered a sudden paralysis of half his face, he spent “considerable time at a Pittsburgh children’s hospital as doctors tried to diagnose the problem.” His mother, an English teacher, inspired her advanced reader by giving him copies of the plays.
He told Shakespeare Magazine that he “loved the sweeping grandness of the story and the beauty of the poetry and the power of the verse. All those things really meant a lot to me. I was very young, and I just grew into it as I got older.” He had the opportunity to “work on all the
great Shakespeare plays” during 10 years as part of the Guthrie Theater acting company in Minneapolis.
In December, Mr. Amendt took part in The Acting Company of New York’s benefit reading of Crispin Whittell’s adaptation of “A Christmas Carol” that starred David Hyde Pierce. Earlier this year, he starred as Leonardo da Vinci in “A Lost Leonardo,” a new play at Amphibian Stage Productions in Fort Worth, Texas.
The Public’s “Hamlet” will run April 19-May 20 at the O’ReillyTheater, Downtown.