Amy Matysio

Before they arrived at the NAC for rehearsals, we asked a few questions to the members of the 2014-15 Ensemble about themselves.

1)      What are you working on over the summer?
I'm producing the best show I will ever co-star in... my wedding! It has been an insanely busy summer planning our wedding from across the country and keeping up with my artistic work as well. I am currently developing & co-creating a web comedy with Pat Kelly (CBC's This is That) as well as two new seasons of my current series, inSAYSHAble.

2)      What are you looking most forward to when you arrive at the NAC?
Meeting and working with all the incredible artists involved in the 2014/15 season! I'm also looking forward to getting to know the staff and tech crew at the theatre. You always need someone to help you figure out how to use the office printer!

3)      How did you get involved in acting?
I actually started very young as a piano player and dancer. It wasn't until high school that I started acting. I started improvising with the Canadian Improv Games which then led to wanting to do plays. It's hard to say when I fully got involved in acting. I feel like I was always a performer but realized I had a voice as a teenager.

4)      What’s the most interesting thing that has happened to you on stage? 
It was during my run of the play The Syringa Tree at the Globe Theatre, directed by the NAC's Jillian Keiley. The play was a one woman show in which I played over 23 characters, both young and old, male and female. This was a process and a play that changed me as an actor and tested all my actor skills and strengths – both physically and mentally. Before the last show, my stage manager said to me, "it will be so hard to watch you finish each scene, you will be saying good-bye to so many people out there." I had never thought about it like that. But it was true, I was carrying all these people with me for months and I was about to release each one of them. After each character left the story, clear as day I could see them, I could see them walk away. It was exhausting!! Imagine saying goodbye to all your new best friends in a two hour period. An exercise in imagination and belief, it was an experience I will always carry with me.

Raised in: Regina, SK | Based in: Toronto, ON

For the NAC:

Songs of a Prairie Girl (Prairie Scene).

Theatre:

Venus in Fur (Golden Apple Theatre); Pith! (The Theatre Department); The Syringa Tree, Midsummer {A Play with Songs}, Girl in the Goldfish Bowl, Cinderella, Peter Pan, George Dandin, Dogbarked, Honk! (Globe Theatre); Rabbit Hole (Persephone Theatre); Mo and Jess Kill Susie (Northern Light Theatre); The Shape of Things (Globe Theatre/Theatre Ecstasis); Burn, The Leisure Society (Theatre Ecstasis); Antony & Cleopatra, A Midsummer Night’s Dream, Measure For Measure, Hamlet, As You Like It, Love’s Labours Lost (Shakespeare on the Saskatchewan); Mr. Marmalade, Pageant (Hot House Theatre).

Other:

Film/TV: WolfCop, Lawrence & Holloman, Stranded, Chained, Ferocious, Just Friends, Dolan’s Cadillac, Vampire Dog, The Shape of Rex, Single White Spenny, InSecurity, Corner Gas, Little Mosque on the Prairie.

Amy is the creator, writer and star of the web comedy inSAYSHAble, which garnered her a seventh Canadian Comedy Award nomination and a "Best Actress" win at both LA WebFest and HollyWeb (Los Angeles).