MAT SMART
Playwright of The Last Nun at Lake Leaf Monastery
Mat Smart has written 27 full-length plays that have been produced around the United States. His play, A Black-billed Cuckoo, will premiere in Sept/Oct 2026 at the La Jolla Playhouse directed by Shelley Butler. He is currently writing an original screenplay for Taylor Sheridan, Bosque Ranch Productions, and Range Media Partners. A new musical version of his play Kill Local – with music and lyrics by indie rock sensation Liza Anne and directed by Jaime Castañeda – will premiere at Dallas Theater Center in Spring 2027. Mat is collaborating with the folk rock band Delta Rae (“Bottom of the River”) on a new Southern Gothic musical called The Ninth Woman with Logan Vaughn directing and P3 producing. Select productions include: The Agitators (premiered at Geva, more than 20 productions since), The Royal Society of Antarctica (Gift Theatre, recipient of the Jeff Award for Best New Work in Chicago), Eden Prairie, 1971 (National New Play Network Rolling World Premiere, Riverside Theatre; New Jersey Rep; BETC), Samuel J. and K. (Williamstown Theatre Festival; Steppenwolf), Tinker to Evers to Chance (Geva; Merrimack Rep), The 13th of Paris (City Theatre), and The Hopper Collection (Huntington; Magic). An avid traveler and baseball fan, Mat has been to all of the states, all of the continents, and all of the current MLB stadiums. MFA: UCSD.
Why are you excited to bring this piece to the O'Neill and what are you hoping to accomplish here?
While this is probably the fifth draft of the play, I’ve never had a public reading of it. I’m excited to experience it for the first time with an audience. Also, I had a play at the O’Neill when I was 22 years old and now, after two decades of working as a playwright, I’m excited to go back and take stock of how I’ve changed as a writer and how I’m the same.
What inspired you to create this piece?
Who are we outside of what we do? I wanted to explore what happens to a couple who goes to an isolated place to be totally cut off—no phones, no internet, no screens, no talking. What is left when the noise of modern life is silenced?
Why are you drawn to plays/musicals as a medium for storytelling and/or for telling this particular story?
I write plays to explore questions I don’t know the answer to. For me, playwriting is, at its best, a visceral, immediate excavation of something unknown. At its worst, it’s misery.
What advice would you give to aspiring playwrights?
My advice to young and aspiring writers is simple: Write. It’s easy to get stuck in a loop of not writing and then feeling guilty about not writing. Just get a page out. Let it be terrible—spectacularly terrible. Then write another page. Then another. Until you get to a first draft. Take out the pencil and paper. Open the word doc. Just get it out no matter what.