Matthew Libby

Matthew Libby is a writer and actor based in Brooklyn, by way of Los Angeles. He made his Off-Broadway playwriting debut with DATA (Lucille Lortel Theatre, Outer Critics Circle nomination for the John Gassner Award); regional productions of his plays include DATA (Arena Stage, Helen Hayes Award nomination for Best New Play or Musical) and SISTERS (Writers Theatre upcoming, Northern Stage). DATA was also previously adapted as a digital production by the Tony-winning Alliance Theatre in May 2021, a production featured in a New York Times review of virtual theatre works that “clear a path toward continued innovation and growth of the form.” Winner of the Kendeda National Graduate Playwriting Competition and Neukom Playwriting Award, Matt is a 2026 Ucross Resident, 2022-2023 Dramatists Guid...

Matthew Libby is a writer and actor based in Brooklyn, by way of Los Angeles. He made his Off-Broadway playwriting debut with DATA (Lucille Lortel Theatre, Outer Critics Circle nomination for the John Gassner Award); regional productions of his plays include DATA (Arena Stage, Helen Hayes Award nomination for Best New Play or Musical) and SISTERS (Writers Theatre upcoming, Northern Stage). DATA was also previously adapted as a digital production by the Tony-winning Alliance Theatre in May 2021, a production featured in a New York Times review of virtual theatre works that “clear a path toward continued innovation and growth of the form.” Winner of the Kendeda National Graduate Playwriting Competition and Neukom Playwriting Award, Matt is a 2026 Ucross Resident, 2022-2023 Dramatists Guid Foundation Fellow, 2023 Theater Masters Visionary Playwright, three-time Princess Grace Award finalist, five-time O’Neill Playwrights Conference semifinalist, and Blue Ink Playwriting Award featured finalist. His work has been produced and developed by theaters across the country, including Roundabout, Alliance Theatre, New York Stage and Film, Westport Country Playhouse, Northern Stage, Pioneer Theatre Company, The Kennedy Center, National New Play Network, Theater Masters, The Barrow Group, The Road Theater Company, WNYU’s Theatre-in-the-Sound, and others. With Stanford Repertory Theater, he helped devise and acted in THE MANY FACES OF FARCE, which was nominated for a Bay Area Critics Award for Best Production. For the screen, he is a writer on Season 3 of Fox's hit medical drama DOC, has developed TV projects for Hulu, Lionsgate/eOne, Beau Willimon's Westward Productions, and Alex Gibney's Jigsaw Productions, and has been recognized for his screenwriting work by The Black List and Script Pipeline. Matt studied cognitive science and creative writing at Stanford University, and received his MFA in dramatic writing from NYU’s Tisch School of the Arts, where he was awarded the Chair’s Award for Distinguished Achievement and where he also teaches. He is a proud member of the Writers Guild of America and the Dramatists Guild of America. https://www.matthew-libby.com/

Scripts

Data

by Matthew Libby

Synopsis

2026 Nominee, Outer Critics Circle John Gassner Award
2025 Nominee, Helen Hayes Award for Best New Play or Musical
2020/21 Winner, Alliance/Kendeda National Graduate Playwriting Competition

Maneesh is a brilliant entry-level programmer at Athena Technologies, a data-mining firm deep in Silicon Valley. Content to work in the low-stress environment of User Experience, Maneesh has a crisis of conscience when he is...

2026 Nominee, Outer Critics Circle John Gassner Award
2025 Nominee, Helen Hayes Award for Best New Play or Musical
2020/21 Winner, Alliance/Kendeda National Graduate Playwriting Competition

Maneesh is a brilliant entry-level programmer at Athena Technologies, a data-mining firm deep in Silicon Valley. Content to work in the low-stress environment of User Experience, Maneesh has a crisis of conscience when he is offered a transfer to the more-central Data Analytics team, and learns the true nature of Athena’s work. Torn between the idealism of his friend Riley and the fierce company loyalty of his mentor Jonah, Maneesh is forced to come to terms with his own identity, and decide the personal and societal cost of his work — all while learning the extent to which Athena is willing to go to hide its secrets.

Sisters

by Matthew Libby

Synopsis

2022 Winner, Neukom Institute Literary Arts Award for Playwriting
2022 Finalist, Princess Grace Award, New Dramatists

Told over the course of 90 years, this is the story of Matilda and Greta, a pair of sisters, growing up, learning from each other, dealing with responsibility and loss, fighting viciously, drifting apart, and eventually coming back together. They’re just like any other sisters. Oh, except Greta...

2022 Winner, Neukom Institute Literary Arts Award for Playwriting
2022 Finalist, Princess Grace Award, New Dramatists

Told over the course of 90 years, this is the story of Matilda and Greta, a pair of sisters, growing up, learning from each other, dealing with responsibility and loss, fighting viciously, drifting apart, and eventually coming back together. They’re just like any other sisters. Oh, except Greta is an artificially intelligent computer program. But other than that…

The Machine

by Matthew Libby

Synopsis

2021 Featured Finalist, Blue Ink Playwriting Prize, American Blues Theater
2019 Finalist, Princess Grace Award, New Dramatists

1998. Laney Chamberlain is an acclaimed poet-turned-professor with a severe case of writer’s block. One day, she is approached by the CEO of a tech company with a strange proposition: he wants to design an artificially intelligent computer program that will create works replicating her...

2021 Featured Finalist, Blue Ink Playwriting Prize, American Blues Theater
2019 Finalist, Princess Grace Award, New Dramatists

1998. Laney Chamberlain is an acclaimed poet-turned-professor with a severe case of writer’s block. One day, she is approached by the CEO of a tech company with a strange proposition: he wants to design an artificially intelligent computer program that will create works replicating her poetic voice – in other words, a machine that can write her poetry. This sends Laney through a journey of self-discovery, as she struggles with her identity as an artist in academia, with a tragedy in her recent past, and with the question: what does it mean to lead a creative life in an increasingly technological world?

Tomorrow and Tomorrow

by Matthew Libby

Synopsis

2024 Semi-Finalist, Premiere Play Festival, Premiere Stages
2022 Finalist, Blue Ink Playwriting Prize, American Blues Theater

In 1955, Raymond and Evelyn meet at a party. He’s an unhappily married war veteran and math professor; she’s a lonely secretary with aspirations of being a novelist. Their chance encounter leads to a complicated romance, the consequences of which unfold across the next 65 years and two...

2024 Semi-Finalist, Premiere Play Festival, Premiere Stages
2022 Finalist, Blue Ink Playwriting Prize, American Blues Theater

In 1955, Raymond and Evelyn meet at a party. He’s an unhappily married war veteran and math professor; she’s a lonely secretary with aspirations of being a novelist. Their chance encounter leads to a complicated romance, the consequences of which unfold across the next 65 years and two generations.

Pizza Bagels

by Matthew Libby

Synopsis

2025 Finalist, Princess Grace Award, New Dramatists

Two young Jewish men from different traditions of the diaspora discover that they were switched at birth. What do they owe the people from the lives into which they were and were not born? A family drama about the fickleness of fate and identity, and what you're born with when you're born a Jew.

2025 Finalist, Princess Grace Award, New Dramatists

Two young Jewish men from different traditions of the diaspora discover that they were switched at birth. What do they owe the people from the lives into which they were and were not born? A family drama about the fickleness of fate and identity, and what you're born with when you're born a Jew.

The Companion (ten minutes)

by Matthew Libby

Synopsis

2020 Winner, Take Ten, Theater Masters

A chance encounter between a lonely trucker and a dying robot on the side of the road.

2020 Winner, Take Ten, Theater Masters

A chance encounter between a lonely trucker and a dying robot on the side of the road.