By Cole Wimberly
Matthew Helton is a Salem alumnus who performed on Broadway and is now back in town, ready to lead and assist in Salem Community Theater productions.
Helton graduated from Salem Community High School in 2001 and moved to New York shortly after. Within three weeks, Helton was on tour, traveling all around the country performing. Helton found his love for theater by accident.
“Yeah, sort of by accident, I was never really interested in theater specifically; I was always into singing, and I love dancing. I was a gymnast when I was a kid, so I was flipping around in all the places. I just found something that allowed me to use all of those skills and all of those interests in one place.”
Helton worked on Broadway, touring the country, and performing in big cities for 15 years. In this time, in 2008, Helton attended a college in New York pursuing a degree in music. Helton took a break for a while to go back on tour, and upon his return to New York, he finished his schooling for a degree in classical voice.
After his time in New York, Helton moved to San Francisco, where he began teaching theater and dance. Helton first played around with teaching when he was in New York, by helping fellow cast members with their parts, and assisting in summer theater camps occasionally. His teaching career really kicked off when he found a pamphlet for a non-profit theater program that traveled from school to school, teaching kids about theater and dance. After helping with the non-profit in San Francisco, Helton moved back to Salem, Illinois.
Since moving back, Helton is now a part of the Salem Community Theater Board, and was an assistant director for “Misery”. He also hosted an “Acting Workshop” that taught singing lessons, Dance lessons, and acting exercises for teens, and he hopes to do more in the future with different age groups. Helton is now the director of the Broadway show at the Salem Community Theater, ‘Barefoot in the Park’. The final performances are seven Saturday night and three Sunday afternoon.
“It’s been great, we have had so much support. Drew, Meredith, and Dana have been amazing supporters. Cathy has been a Godsend in terms of just assisting with everything and keeping the ship running. It’s been great, I’ve got a great cast, and I’ve always fantasized about coming back to direct shows because when I was in high school, this didn’t exist. It was the theater, and it was closed down, and we didn’t do productions. I always wanted to come back and do something, and it’s really like one of my dreams to be here and do this.”
Now, Helton works for the Iuka grade school in a normal classroom setting, but he is working on possibly building a theater program at the school.
