P.O. Box 691 Sebring Florida USA 33871 Tel: 863-382-2525
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P.O. Box 691 Sebring Florida USA 33871 Tel: 863-382-2525 |
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Gordy Mattson - The Actor, The Designer, The Carpenter, The Cook and His Wife By: Roy Riedy |
It was indeed a fortunate day for Highlands Little Theatre when a dedicated Gordy Mattson first appeared on the set of Don't Drink the Water in the summer of 1990 working with the construction crew of that Woody Allen comedy. Since that time he has left his hammer marks on forty-one other plays. As a result of this long and steady trail of sawdust, Gordy has won eight Zenons at five of the fourteen Annual Awards Ceremonies, a unique honor that he shares with Jim Lanier and Tammie Pollard, who are also the recipients of eight well earned and deserved Zenons.
Gordy has won three Best Set Designs three years in a row. The first award was in 1996 for Highland Little Theatre's third edition of Fiddler on the Roof; a show that swept the awards in every category that season. The next year he received another Best Set Design for Harper Lee's moving drama, To Kill a Mockingbird. In 1998 he did it a third time for the set design of Lerner and Loewe's western musical Paint Your Wagon. He received his first of two Discretionary Awards for his set construction and carpentry during the 1992/93 season, and again for the 1995/95 season. He has received two Board Service Awards for Gourmet and Building Maintenance for the 1994/95 season and the 1996/97 season.
In 1995 he played his first role on the stage that he had helped build sixteen sets. He assumed the role of Colonel Thomas McKean in the patriotic 1776, a part he played so well he was nominated for a Zenon for a Best Performance by an Actor in a Supporting Role. In 1996 he received that award of Best Supporting Actor Award for his part as the resourceful Froggy LeSueur in Off Broadway Award winning hit comedy The Foreigner, which proved to all that the designer, carpenter and cook also had the ingredients to be an excellent and convincing actor.
Since January, 1994 Gordy's name has also appeared over two dozen times in the Gourmet Section of the theater's playbills which almost always also have the name of his wife, Carole, who has shared Gordy's Board Service Award for Gourmet and Building Maintenance in 1995 at the Tenth Annual Zenon Awards Ceremony and again in 1997 at the Twelfth Annual Presentations. I doubt if one Mattson can be found in the playhouse with out finding the other one somewhere in the building, they are unquestionably a dedicated, devoted, and invaluable team.
Since the 26th Season began in October, 1999, Gordy has been involved in four plays: He worked on the set construction of John H. Lovelette's One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest that opened in November of 1999 and the January 2000 presentation of Frank C. Oberhausen's Annie Get Your Gun. In June of 2000 playgoers saw the set he had designed and helped build for Mike Logsdon's Run for Your Wife; and most recently, in the 28th Season, he has worked on the set construction of Melanie Boulay's Peter Pan.
Thank you Gordy and Carole, for the untold hours you have spent at Highlands Little Theatre, doing the many things that you saw had to be done. It's difficult, if not impossible, to fairly evaluate your contribution and those of the other hard working and benevolent members who have truly made the Lakeside Playhouse the show place that it has become. All of us involved in the theater are genuinely in your debt for your ongoing contributions to the many areas of our well-developed and growing organization that you have so selflessly and memorably contributed. We would never have arrived at this state of excellence without your ongoing and significant help.
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