STOP KISS: Meet Matt Froese as Peter

Who are you, and where might audiences have seen you before?
 My name is Matthew Froese. I've got my own Caesar at home. Most recently audiences might remember me from Bedroom Farce at Korda.
 
What can you tell us about your character? What's he like and how does he figure into the story and themes of Stop Kiss?
 Peter’s situation is pretty familiar to a lot of people. His relationship is over and he doesn't know it yet. He needs closure and instead he's presented with an opportunity to try to white knight his relationship back to life. I think he presents the easy option for Sara, making her choice to stay in New York that much harder.
 
It might be easy to play a character like Peter as a one-word sad sack. How do you make him dynamic, living, and real?
 We talk in rehearsal all the time about how none of these characters are bad people. That includes Peter, although his goodness is perhaps hardest to see. My goal is to get the audience to see his heart breaking and not let his entitlement and self-centered petulance take center stage.
 
Love seems to be the central theme in Stop Kiss - specifically, that love comes in many varieties, some of them unexpected and novel to people at various points in their lives. Peter, as you say, is a good person, and he seems to represent or embody a specific sort of love. How would you describe it?
Peter's love is misguided, confused and based on happier times, I guess?

Photograph by The Headshot Company

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