- Reviews
- About the Author(s)
- About the Book
- Special Notes
Press Quotes
“Based on the evidence of HOPPER … Mat Smart is a talent worth keeping an eye on for some time to come. HOPPER is an impressive debut. It’s — yes — smart, as well as fresh, funny and full of unexpected turns and curiously evocative moments. Still more impressive is the skill with which Smart has created an individual voice for each character. Daniel may complain of ‘the endless hell that is having a wife that doesn’t love you but still wants to talk’ — with a wonderfully meaningful emphasis on that final word. But even more than his cleverly evolving situations and wry observations, it’s the way these characters talk that marks THE HOPPER COLLECTION as the work of a very promising artist.” —Robert Hurwitt, San Francisco Chronicle
“A work of art … Albee’s influence on Smart is all to the good as the play progresses … The twenty-six year-old is wise beyond his years about how people live, and don’t live, their lives. There is a measure of innocence as well as experience in Hopper’s painting, and those two qualities are apparent in Smart’s play as well. Real theatrical flair.” —Ed Siegel, Boston Globe
“Intriguing … acerbic and touching! Clever and slightly absurdist … the barbed sophistication and the innocence at the heart of the play.” —Carolyn Clay, Boston Phoenix
“Wonderfully crazy-funny characters … Sparks fly! Smart proves he’s a talent worth watching.” —Terry Byrne, Boston Herald
Author(s)
Mat SmartMat Smart is the recipient of the 2014 New Voices Award from the William Inge Center for the Arts. Plays include: NAPERVILLE (Slant Theatre Project in Fall 2014), TINKER TO EVERS TO CHANCE (Geva in May 2014), THE STEADFAST (Slant, published by Dramatists Play Service), SAMUEL J. AND K. (Williamstown Theatre Festival, Steppenwolf and Passage Theatre), THE HOPPER COLLECTION (Magic Theatre and Huntington Theatre Company, published by Broadway Play Publishing), THE 13TH OF PARIS (City Theatre, Seattle Public Theatre, Horizon Theatre, Public Theatre of Maine, Warehouse Theatre and LiveWire in Chicago), THE BEBOP HEARD IN OKINAWA (O'Neill Playwrights' Conference) and THE DEBATE OVER COURTNEY O'CONNELL OF COLUMBUS, NEBRASKA (Slant, Chalk Rep, Bryant Lake Bowl, Boone's Bar and Theatre 502). An alumnus of the Soho Rep Writer/Director Lab and Ars Nova's Play Group, he is currently a Core Writer at the Playwrights' Center, a member of the Dorothy Strels in New American Writer's Group at Primary Stages, and was an inaugural member of The Working Farm at SPACE on Ryder Farm. He has been commissioned by South Coast Rep and Huntington. He has received two Jerome Fellowships and a McKnight Advancement Grant. He is a co-founder of Slant Theatre Project. Undergrad: University of Evansville. MFA: UCSD. An avid baseball fan and traveler, Mat has been to all 30 of the current MLB stadiums, all 50 states and 6 continents — including a stint working as a janitor at McMurdo Station in Antarctica. His newest play, THE ROYAL SOCIETY OF ANTARCTICA, has received readings at Primary Stages, the Playwrights' Center, and The New Harmony Project. He lives in Manhattan.
Special Notes
If original stage producers credits appear in bold below, all licensees are required to include them in the following form on the title page in all programs distributed in connection with performances of the Play and in all advertising in which the full cast appears in size of type not less than ten percent (10%) of the size of the title of the Play:
Originally produced by the Magic Theater, San Francisco
In addition, the following must appear within all programs distributed in connection with performances of the Play:
by special arrangement with Broadway Play Publishing Inc, NYC
www.broadwayplaypub.com
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