When Kathleen Clark’s romantic comedy “Southern Comforts” opens at Off-Broadstreet Theater in Hopewell on Friday, August 27, a newcomer to the Hopewell theater stage will be Dennis McGeady of Plainsboro. He portrays a widower who is set in his ways and thinks he is quite content — until he meets a woman from Tennessee. Baseball brings them together and they are soon intrigued by each other.
A Plainsboro resident for 37 years, McGeady served as a Plainsboro Township committeeman and planning board member in the 1980s. He and his wife, Kathy, both retired on January 1. He worked at GE Healthcare in Carnegie Center, and she worked at the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation in Plainsboro. They have two grown daughters who graduated from West Windsor-Plainsboro High School; Kelly was Class of 1992 and Lauren was Class of 1997. Kelly, who lives in Browns Mills, has two children.
McGeady was born in Teaneck and was raised in Bogota, Totowa, and Little Falls. He attended Pace University in New York City and Mercer Community College. When he and Kathy moved to Plainsboro they were both working and commuting to New York City.
Now retired from the insurance world, McGeady has embarked on a second career in the theater world. Successful in commercials, he has recently ventured on to more theatrical work. Much of his live stage experience is in workshops and classes.
New York theater credits include a lead role as the therapist in “Therapy R Us,” the lead in “Out of Left Field,” a principal role as attorney Charles O’Gorman in “The Cat, The General, The Wife, The Judge and Calzone,” and a co-starring role in the one-act play “Play for Pay.”
His television credits include a supporting role on CBS’s “Guiding Light,” a doctor on ABC’s “Dirty Sexy Money,” vice-president of the United States on the NBC series “ED,” and an attorney on “Law and Order, Criminal Intent.”
McGeady has also appeared in supporting roles in several independent films and has many commercial acting credits including national TV spots, and numerous voice-over spots. He has been the commercial spokesperson for Carmax, a major national auto retailer, for 11 years. He portrays Tony, the senior service manager on commercials, voice overs, and in print.
In high school the only acting McGeady had ever done was when he was studying Shakespeare: “People would always complement me on my voice,” he says. Twelve years ago Kathy told him about a course at WW-P High School (now South) “How to Start a Career in Voice Overs,” and he attended and did an audition. “The next morning the instructor called me with a job lead and an audition,” he says. Since then he has taken acting courses in New York City and Philadelphia. “It is the benefit to being in this area,” he says.
Dennis and Kathy often attend Off-Broadstreet and chat with Julie and Robert Thick, the owners of the theater. “When I told them I was an actor they asked for a headshot and resume,” he says.
When the Thicks read the play they thought it would be a good fit for McGeady and offered him the role. “He is an incredibly nice man that is playing a curmudgeon,” says Robert Thick. “The show is a heartwarming look at two people who find true love later in life.”
“The character has lost all of his social graces,” says McGeady. “The most difficult thing was to dig down deep to find the obnoxious and difficult character within me.”
Southern Comforts, Off-Broadstreet Theater, 5 South Greenwood Avenue, Hopewell. Opening night is Friday, August 27, 7 p.m. $27.50 to $29.50 includes dessert. 609-466-2766. www.off-broadstreet.com.
