Life Story

Matthew Hardy was born in the deep South. When Matthew first learned to crawl he immediately set North for New York, but due to a defective sense of direction, which he inherited from his Mother, Matthew ended up in Texas. Fortunately Matthew’s parents caught up with him before he crawled into the Gulf of Mexico and tied him to a post in Houston to keep him from wandering off. Matthew stayed tied to that post for most of his formative years before heading off to attend college in Utah. It was during his stay in Utah that Matthew recalled his primal urge to crawl to New York City. Matthew set off immediately for New York, but once again his defective sense of direction led Matthew to the West coast where he boarded a cruise ship and sailed around the world for a year and a half before arriving in New York in February of 2002.

Writing

Matthew started writing for a cabaret act that he did when he first moved to New York called Songs for the Dysfunctional which consisted primarily of rewriting lyrics from existing songs according to the dictates of his sick and twisted mind. Songs for the Dysfunctional premiered at Danny’s Skylight Room in April of 2002 and was followed by a sequel: Love Songs for the Dysfunctional in July. Matthew's music director, Randy Klein suggested that he start writing original songs and a collaboration began. Together Matthew and Randy are writing a full length original musical called The Thing About Joe. Matthew is an Advanced member of the Lehman Engel BMI Musical Theater Workshop and is also collaborating with composer Robert Maggio. With Robert, Matthew wrote the book and lyrics for a musical short called The Rubberers.

Theatre

Matthew began his theatrical training at the Alley Theatre’s Children’s program in Houston Texas. Although Theatre was never his official major, Matthew continued to perform throughout High school and College. Before moving to New York, Matthew performed at Sundance Summer Theatre (Utah), Busch Gardens (Virginia), and with Crystal Cruises (Everywhere). After moving to New York Matthew performed for a year with the National Broadway Tour of Fosse and at many regional theaters. In June of 2007 Matthew completed the two year actor training program at The William Esper Studio, studying under Mr. Esper himself.

Dance

Matthew began dancing at Brigham Young University, first in Theatre Department Productions, then in the Dance Department with “BYU Theatre Ballet”, and finally with BYU’s modern dance groups “Dance Ensemble” and the touring “Dancers’ Co.” Matthew choreographed for both groups, the latter taking a piece he directed to Lincoln Center where it received top honors at the National level of the American Collegiate Dance Festival. Matthew went on to earn a Master’s degree in choreography at the University of Utah where he also danced with the University’s “Performing Dance Company” performing works by Lar Lubovitch, Molissa Fenley, and Steven Koester among others.

Design

After earning his BFA from Brigham Young University’s rigorous Graphic Design Program, Matthew began working as a Designer but quickly grew tired of the hours spent in front of the computer screen. Matthew currently designs all of his own publications and works on free lance projects when time permits.

Sadly, Matthew left the desgn world before Flash became so popular, which is why his website is done entirely in html. (But I'm learning.)