Matthew R. Wilson is a freelance actor, director, instructor, and choreographer of physical comedy and stage combat. Based in Washington, DC, he has worked throughout Europe and the United States and is an MFA candidate at the Shakespeare Theatre Co.'s Academy of Classical Acting. His extensive Shakespeare credits include directing Troilus & Cressida and A Midsummer Night's Dream and performing Hamlet, Malvolio, Romeo, Benedick, Sir Andrew Aguecheeck, and Touchstone. Regionally he has performed with the New England Shakespeare Festival, the Nashville Shakespeare Festival, and the Clarence Brown Theatre and has been on tours of the New York City tri-state area, New England, and the Deep South. In New York, he has performed at such venues as John Houseman Theatre Center, Cherry Lane Theatre, 45 Bleecker, Tribeca Playhouse, HERE Arts Center, La Mama ETC, Producer's Club, The Belt, The Red Room, Teatro La Tea, One Arm Red, and New York Comedy Club. Internationally, he has collaborated as co-creator/performer on countless new works of the Commedia dell' Arte (including his Great One-man Commedia Epic, performed in New York, Italy, Spain, France, Portugal, Germany, the UK, and across the States.) He is a theatre instructor in Italy at Antonio Fava's Stage Internazionale di Commedia dell' Arte and has been a guest lecturer/artist at Georgetown, NYU, Columbia, and numerous other colleges, high schools, and theatre festivals, as well as a faculty member of the Tennessee Governor's School for the Arts and an Adjunct Professor of Theatrical Movement at Virginia Intermont College. He is the Founder and Executive Director of Faction of Fools Theatre Company, Inc. and a proud member of Actors' Equity Association, the American Federation of Television and Radio Artists, and the Society of American Fight Directors. He holds a B.A. in Philosophy from Columbia University and is a candidate for the Master of Divinity degree at Emmanuel School of Religion, where he served as a Chaplain at Johnson City Medical Center.