About Matte:
“After hearing from a variety of different people who had seen it [Matte’s production of White Noise] in New Orleans, I read the script and listened to the music. I knew this was a show I needed to be a part of. The writing smacks you in a challenging, emotional, and entertaining way, and explores social issues in a way I don’t remember ever seeing before on a stage.”
“Matte O’Brien is a voice to be reckoned with. He is incredibly smart, but even more than that, he is a creature of the theatre. There is no voice out there that knows and understands how to write for the theatre better than Matte.”
“Matte O’Brien’s script is tightly written in lavish iambic pentameter, full of quotes, jokes, and broken sonnets. As director, O’Brien gives his cast freedom to play with these rhythms, so the language feels richly musical but never overwrought.”
Matte O’Brien is a playwright, lyricist, director, and educator dedicated to developing new work, shaping compelling theatrical stories, and training the next generation of artists. He lives in Williamsburg, Brooklyn, with his dog, Mowgli Waffles.
His plays and musicals have been performed at Goodspeed Musicals in Connecticut, The Hope Theatre in London, The Arches in Glasgow, The Royal George in Chicago, Le Petit Théâtre in New Orleans, and The Rev Theatre Company in Auburn, New York. His musical White Noise was produced by EGOT winner Whoopi Goldberg. His play The Wonderful Mr. & Mrs. O’Leary was a finalist for the Eugene O’Neill National Playwrights Conference and was performed at The Actors Company Theatre in New York City, featuring Tony Award winner Alice Ripley and Tony Award nominee Aaron Lazar.
He wrote the book and lyrics for an adaptation of L.M. Montgomery’s Anne of Green Gables, which had its world premiere at Goodspeed Musicals. The production has been optioned for Broadway and is licensed by Concord Theatricals.
Matte O’Brien served as Artistic Director of Access Theater in New York City, a vital downtown Non-Profit Off Broadway incubator that, since 1992, has championed emerging artists, produced hundreds of new plays, and helped launch work that went on to Off-Broadway, regional theatre, British stages, and feature film development. Access has been associated with early work by artists including Stephen Belber, Aasif Mandvi, Tom McCarthy, and others.
Matte is also the Founder and Producing Artistic Director of Rope Swing Entertainment, a 501(c)(3) nonprofit arts organization based in New York City devoted to developing and nurturing new plays and musicals. Through Rope Swing, he fostered collaborations with The Araca Group—producers of Wicked and The Outsiders—through The Araca Project, helping to advance new work toward major productions with Tony and Olivier Award-winning producers. He has directed numerous plays and musicals for professional and educational theatres across the United States and the United Kingdom and currently serves as the Distinguished Professor of Musical Theatre at Western Carolina University.
He holds an MFA in Directing Classic and Contemporary Texts from the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland and a BFA in Musical Theatre from Syracuse University.
He has taught classes and workshops at Syracuse University, Ithaca College, Indiana-Bloomington University, Boston University, the College of Charleston, Tulane University, the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland, the New York Film Academy, and the New York State Theatre Institute. He also works as a private audition coach and dramaturg in New York City.
LIST OF WRITTEN WORKS:
• The Wonderful Mr. + Mrs. O’Leary
• Peter + I, A New Musical
• White Noise, A New Musical
• As Flies to Wanton Boys
• Morning Has Broken
• Becoming David
• THE MEANING OF LIFE…and other useless pieces of information
• The Worst Was This
• Anne of Green Gables, A New Musical
• The Night Elaine Stritch Died