Imagine investing $12,000 dollars of your own money into a play that receives great reviews, celebrity praise, earns top awards and respect by the artistic community, and you didn’t earn a dime. This scenario is all too familiar for director Roger Mathey.

After receiving his bachelor’s degree in theater from Chapman University in 1991, Mathey worked as a personal assistant in Hollywood film. It was his work in the movie industry where he developed distaste for the business.

“I hated the film industry, which is why I do theater,” Mathey said. “Everybody was backstabbing each other, and Hollywood was all about who you knew and who you could screw over.”

Mathey then moved to Denver where he started his own theater company until he carried his directing bags to San Francisco. He then made his way to Bakersfield in 1997 to get his teaching credential but was halted when the program was already full.

Faced with a roadblock, Mathey decided to use his time and signed up for the Kern Shakespeare Festival at Bakersfield College. Mathey’s work in local theater was just beginning. He soon opened his own downtown theater, “The Space.” There, he could do the kind of plays he wanted to do. This is where Mathey also started his own production company, “Seat of Your Pants,” which is how he survived.

“I’ve worked other jobs like, I worked for the county, I taught technical theater at BC,” Mathey said. “I’ve kept afloat. I’ve worked jobs that kept me in the industry because the whole ‘desk job’ thing just doesn’t work for me.”

After closing the doors of “The Space” after a year and a half, Mathey saved up to produce and direct the play adaptation of “Trainspotting” in Los Angeles. He received the highest theater directing awards in the city for his work and was finally getting his foot in the door.

Mathey went on to direct other plays, such as “Hurly Burly,” “House of Yes” and “Hatikvah,” which he is currently in talks with the HBO film division on a movie version of the script.

“After the show closed they (HBO) called me and were interested in reading the script,” Mathey said. “So I sent them a copy, and they are still in the process of looking it over.”

Mathey knows that things in Hollywood are never for certain and stays optimistic on the green light from HBO.

He’s currently working in Los Angeles, where he does stage management work, which is one of the few jobs in theater that actually pays. He claims he loves what he does and doesn’t put time limits on his progress.

“It took me 12 years to get recognized by my peers for directing,” he said. “And it may take me another 12 years to get to the next level of wherever I’m planning to go.”

Mathey said that, ultimately, he would like to get his teaching credential and move back to Hawaii, where he attended high school. He said he would like to teach high school theater and spend his mornings surfing, his afternoons teaching, and his nights on the beach, all the while writing his great American novel.

“I don’t have any commitments to anybody but me right now, so I can be selfish and do what I want to do,” Mathey said. “Maybe someday I will settle down, but in the meantime I don’t want to have any regrets in my life. I want to know that I tried as hard as I could to do what I wanted to do.”