Photograph by Robert Scheer
"Don't forget to project outward," Gary DeMattei coaches the cast of "Sweet Charity" at Presentation High School, where he is theater director.
'I don't think Los Angeles or New York is necessarily the pinnacle of a theater career," Gary A. DeMattei said. "It could happen right here." DeMattei was raising an interesting question. Could the South Bay's theater scene, composed mainly of community theater groups, provide enough artistic stimulus to satisfy seasoned theater professionals such as himself?
An answer might be found in DeMattei's own career. Over the last decade, DeMattei, 40, has remained in the South Bay, and he has managed to stay busy.
In fact, he has over the years become one of the area's leading theater lights.
His latest triumph is 1776, which closed Feb. 17 at the Saratoga Civic Theater. It reunited many of the Bay Area's leading talents, such as Tim and Barbara Reynolds and Bill Quinlin, who returned from acting stints in New York City.
DeMattei serves as theater and arts director at Presentation High School in San Jose. His production there of Jesus Christ Superstar won the 1995 American Musical Theatre award for best Bay Area high school musical.
In 1982, for his Saratoga Drama Group performance in A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum, DeMattei won the Bay Area Theater Critics' Award for best actor in a musical.
With these laurels under his belt, it's safe to say DeMattei has kept busy in the South Bay and his current Saratoga home.
"I was born and raised here, and this is where I want to be," DeMattei said. "You want quality regardless of who you're working with."
He spoke from experience.
After his 1982 Best Actor award, he went to New York City to try the big time on Broadway.
"The scary thing about going there is that you go with a specific purpose and then find yourself pounding the pavement to survive," DeMattei said.
That kind of make-it-or-starve pressure has driven back thousands of aspiring actors and actresses over the decades. DeMattei lasted a year.
"I stayed until my money ran out," he said.
But not until he had acted in such off-off-Broadway oddities as Red, Hot and Blue, a basement musical with actors singing Cole Porter songs dressed in black and giving the songs a decidedly revisionist twist.
"The person who wrote the musical thought Cole Porter was a Communist spy," DeMattei said.
When he came back to the South Bay, he received more respect than he felt before he left, he said.
"People see you've gone to New York, and they assume you've learned something," he said. "For all they know, you could have been eating lettuce the whole time."
Needless to say, he fared better in the South Bay.
He had begun his career studying theater at Roosevelt Junior High School in San Jose. At 18, he helped found the Northside Theatre Company, and acted for the San Jose Civic Light Opera.
When he came back from New York, he acted and did voiceovers for the Great America amusement park, as well as directing professional and community theater groups.
He also began participating in children's theater.
Six years ago, DeMattei came to Presentation High School and started a partnership between the high school and the San Jose Children's Musical Theater.
"We had nothing before Gary came," said Mary Miller, principal at Presentation. "He took our kids and brought their talents out. His love of drama rubbed off on the kids, so that they loved drama, too."
"That's what we want in a drama teacher," she said.
DeMattei's direction and the high school's efforts culminated in Presentation winning the best high school musical award in 1995.
"It was amazing winning that with only a six-year-old program," Miller said. "That came about because of Gary and the people he has attracted to our program.
DeMattei's recent production of 1776 attracted praise from many South Bay theater fans, including talk show co-host Steve Dini, who gave stellar reviews of the production during his morning radio show on KEZR.
"I was absolutely thrilled with what Gary did with the musical," he said. "It was simply done but elegant."
DeMattei said he takes a theater approach to musicals, similar to directors such as Peter Sellars, of Nixon in China, and Des Macanuf, who took Tommy to Broadway.
Dini had hoped to join the production but couldn't find the time.
"When I saw that there were auditions and Gary was the director, I really wanted to work with him," he said. "People tell me he subtly directs his company and leaves a lot of room for the actors to interpret their parts."
DeMattei said, "I always saw myself as a straight theatrical actor, but musicals are where the money is."
"I'm happiest if I can make a statement with a musical," he added.
In the next few months, he will be busy here. Sweet Charity has landed on his plate at Presentation, and next month, he will direct the Sound of Music for the American Musical Theatre of San Jose.
This article appeared in the Saratoga News, March 13, 1996.
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