Eduardo José Paco Mateo (AKA Eduardo Paco) is one of those actors who you just can’t seem to get enough of. He takes his craft very seriously. He doesn’t however, take himself way too seriously. He plays small parts with as much effort and professionalism as leasing roles and is genuinely liked by and kind to every single person. Some of the more recent roles Eduardo has played (on the Live Arts stage and around greater Atlanta) are Emcee in Cabaret, Steve Heidebrecht in August: Osage County, Himself/Steve in Complete works of Shakespeare; Abridged. He is playing Gwendolyn Fairfax in our flipped version of The Importance of Being Ernest.
He was glad to share a few tidbits with us:
Q: Is this your first show at Live Arts, and what other shows have you done with us?
A: Not my first rodeo. This is my fourth show with Live Arts. First was Dracula, then Complete works... and the last one was Cabaret.
Q: What attracted you to audition for The Importance of Being Ernest?
A: I love Oscar Wilde, but, to quote Gwendolyn, “if I may speak candidly”, I wanted to audition most of all because it was a flipped show. For some reason I have the best time when wearing a dress on stage.
Eduardo in Cabaret
Q: What is your dream acting role?
A: Well, my whole life it had been my dream to be in a Blade Runner remake or a continuation of it, but Ryan Gosling is already doing that, so I better find a new one.
Q: What is your dream acting role flipped?
A: I have to go back to sci-fi movies, which is clearly my thing, I would love to play Ellen Ripley. They should do an Alien musical like they did with Evil Dead. I would audition for that in a heartbeat.
Q: This show is completely different from your last role with us as Emcee in Cabaret. Can you tell us how your preparation for this role is different from that one.
A: Well, it is a different role, yes, but for both I’ve had to learn a new accent (not sure I’ve succeeded with either), so that part is not that different.
But for me the biggest difference is that with the Emcee I had to find the human side of the character. I tried to focus on making that larger-than-life character real. For Gwendolyn I’m trying to do the opposite, making her as over the top and obnoxious as I possibly can.
Our flipped show, The Importance of Being Ernest, is running only one weekend starting tomorrow (Thursday – Sunday) and it is a fundraiser as we prepare for our summer musical, Fiorello, which will finish out our “Death and Taxes” season. http://liveartstheatre.org/fiorello/ Be sure to get your tickets for The Importance of Being Ernest now! http://liveartstheatre.org/flipped-show/