Matthew Minor and I are both awaiting orders from the photographer.<\/p>\n
We\u2019re standing on the storied stage at Casa Ma\u00f1ana, where generations have performed, albeit not necessarily in the half-moon. This place became famous as a theater in the round. They would run sets down the aisles. To the uninitiated \u2014 like me \u2014 it seemed like a logistical nightmare waiting for litigation.<\/p>\n
But Minor knows this terrain like the back of his hand. Every inch of it.<\/p>\n
Another member of our conversation mentions the 1,000 seats in here.<\/p>\n
\u201c1,001,\u201d Minor jokingly corrects. \u201cWhen they converted this to the half-moon, I did the first production \u2014 a musical called \u2018Summer of \u201942.\u2019 I\u2019ve been around these halls for a while. It\u2019s a great theater.\u201d<\/p>\n
In fact, Minor estimates that he\u2019s been in upwards of 50 productions here, including his very first. He was in the fourth grade at Country Day. He was a Casa Kid. That was the start of a love affair with the stage that has taken him to \u201cThe Theater Capital of the World,\u201d where even off-broadway feels like the big stage.<\/p>\n
He has done a few films and television, \u201cbut really what I’ve always loved is stage acting,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n
Minor, 37, is a residential Realtor for Compass, where in five short years he has made a rise on top Realtor lists. It was, he says, a natural fit for him when he pivoted \u2014 only slightly \u2014 as a professional actor.<\/p>\n
When he\u2019s not negotiating real estate transactions, you might find him on stage.<\/p>\n
If memory serves me well \u2014 a big if \u2014 he most recently portrayed Prince Albert Edward, \u201cBertie,\u201d the playboy Prince of Whales in \u201cSherlock Holmes and the Case of the Fallen Souffle\u201d by David McGregor at Stage West.<\/p>\n
He calls that credit \u201cthe most fun role I\u2019ve ever played,\u201d a flamboyant and hammy spoiled brat of a British prince (are there any other kind?) and future king who believes he\u2019s the target of a murder plot. And who better to get to the bottom of it than Sherlock Holmes?<\/p>\n
Those are the only roles he auditions for these days \u2014 those that he really wants to do. \u201cI only do it if it’s a role that is good that I want to play. I don’t audition for every little thing.\u201d<\/p>\n
By the way, he volunteered that \u201cBertie\u201d was a particular favorite. I later felt like I made a mistake when I asked him to list off five favorite roles. It\u2019s tantamount to the question, \u201cWhich is your favorite kid?\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cThat\u2019s a hard question,\u201d he says. \u201cI\u2019ve found value and growth in most roles I\u2019ve played.\u201d<\/p>\n
He played along, nonetheless. Good actors are willing to be directed, after all.<\/p>\n
His other roles (these are not necessarily his \u201cfavorite\u201d) have included Reiver in \u201cCrossing the Line\u201d and Roy in \u201cThe Death of Walt Disney,\u201d both at Amphibian Stage; Ellard Sims in \u201cThe Foreigner\u201d at Cape Playhouse in Massachusetts and The Maltz Jupiter Theatre in Florida; Horton in \u201cSeussical the Musical\u201d at both Casa Ma\u00f1ana and the National Tour; Bear in \u201cWhite People\u201d at the Ensemble Studio Theatre in New York City; Lexy Mill in George Bernard Shaw\u2019s \u201cCandida\u201d at the Pittsburgh Public Theatre; and Bobby in the stage adaptation of \u201cDeliverance.\u201d<\/p>\n
His role as Dragline in \u201cCool Hand Luke\u201d in the award-winning Godlight Theatre Company in New York, he says, was a favorite. He performed in several other roles at the Godlight and is still a company member there, traveling back to work with them when able.<\/p>\n
In New York he also did \u201cLord of the Flies.\u201d He played Piggy. This topic came up in passing as we chatted.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt was sad,\u201d he says, deadpan. \u201cYou get killed every night. I got killed every night.\u201d Then he snaps back to reality, dropping the role of clever subject, and says with a big smile, \u201cNo, it\u2019s fun.\u201d<\/p>\n
A graduate of The Neighborhood Playhouse School of the Theatre in New York, Minor is a member of the Actors\u2019 Equity Association and the Screen Actors Guild.<\/p>\n
Before performing as Horton in \u201cSeussical\u201d last year, Minor\u2019s last role at Casa was as a 15-year-old, an interim of 20 years.<\/p>\n
Minor was born and raised in Fort Worth. He went to Country Day up until high school. He graduated from Arlington Heights.<\/p>\n
Theater was, of course, a prominent part of his life every step of the way.<\/p>\n
He went to Oklahoma University to hone the craft. He stayed there for two years before being called to something bigger: New York City. At 20 years old, he dropped into the Big Apple to chase this dream of the stage on the biggest stage of them all.<\/p>\n
\u201cI had wanted to go for so long,\u201d he says. \u201cI was just kind of wanted to get into it. I felt like I was really trained.\u201d<\/p>\n
He says he had the support of his parents, who urged him to \u201cgo do your thing.\u201d<\/p>\n
After all, what are your 20s for, if not the pursuit of a dream? There is no better time to take a leap. How does one even begin to start as an actor in New York City? Knock on doors? Just show up?<\/p>\n
\u201cYes,\u201d he says laughing, indicating that it\u2019s all of that. \u201cI found it in incredibly nerve-wracking to move to NYC before I even turned 21. But I had begun acting professionally before I left elementary school. I remember going to college and feeling like I\u2019d \u2018learned it all.\u2019 And I don\u2019t mean that to say I was any good, I was just ready to stop learning how to act and go do it.\u201d<\/p>\n
He stayed there for the next 10 years, working all over the country as an actor based in New York.<\/p>\n
\u201cI loved living there until I didn’t. That city is a grind,\u201d Minor says. \u201cWhen I went there, I was so young and scrappy that it was fun, but then after a while, it just got to be just too much of a grind. I lived such a simpler half of my life here [laughing]. I was spending two hours a day on the subway \u2014 at least.<\/p>\n
\u201cBut I\u2019m proud that I relied on my raw talent and ability which offered me the chance to experience the city at such a young age.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
He says real estate was always the plan when he returned home. He loves this career. It starts with a passion for interior design, a reverence for great architecture, and an instinct for transformation \u2014 seeing not what a space is, but what it could be.<\/p>\n
It\u2019s a set, after all.<\/p>\n
\u201cAbsolutely,\u201d he says when asked if his life and career in theater have helped him as a Realtor. \u201cBeing an actor in New York City trains you in many ways. Perseverance, effort, honing a craft, cultivating beauty. Real Estate awakens all of my senses. There is an art to not only staging a home but pricing it. I take pride in curating not only a performance onstage, but the sale of a property. I believe art and commerce do go hand-in-hand and feel blessed to pursue both.\u201d<\/p>\n
He had thought about doing real estate in New York, \u201cbut I just didn\u2019t have the network that I have here. I had a great start just with my family and friends alone.\u201d<\/p>\n
He did some interior design stuff in New York.<\/p>\n
Even the theater community is a great network. He sold a house just this summer to a castmate in a show at Stage West.<\/p>\n
\u201cAlso, I know these streets and neighborhoods like the back of my hand, just being from here.\u201d<\/p>\n
When he left 16 years ago, he didn\u2019t necessarily think he was coming back. It\u2019s part of youth, the thought of leaving home and never coming back.<\/p>\n
\u201cI love Fort Worth,\u201d Minor says. \u201cI always thought when I was a kid that I would never stay around. But then when I would visit over the years, I’m like, this is a really cool city. And for acting, I’ve been a union performer since I was 20, so I can only do shows at professional theaters. Fort Worth has the most professional theaters of any city in Texas, not just North Texas. More than Dallas, more than Austin. More than even Houston.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe have great arts in Fort Worth, don’t we?\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Matthew Minor and I are both awaiting orders from the photographer. We\u2019re standing on the storied stage at…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":395138,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5138],"tags":[5229,120116,9604,7371,7372,13814,405,4329,27752,358,7453,3187,67,586,132,5230,68,2969],"class_list":{"0":"post-395137","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-fort-worth","8":"tag-america","9":"tag-compass-real-estate","10":"tag-entrepreneurs","11":"tag-fort-worth","12":"tag-fortworth","13":"tag-john-henry","14":"tag-new-york","15":"tag-real-estate","16":"tag-realtors","17":"tag-texas","18":"tag-top-story","19":"tag-tx","20":"tag-united-states","21":"tag-united-states-of-america","22":"tag-unitedstates","23":"tag-unitedstatesofamerica","24":"tag-us","25":"tag-usa"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/115588981615494640","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/395137","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=395137"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/395137\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/395138"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=395137"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=395137"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=395137"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}