Matthew Libby

Matthew Libby

Matthew Libby is a writer and actor based in Brooklyn, by way of Los Angeles. His play DATA won the Kendeda National Graduate Playwriting Award, and was adapted as a digital production presented 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.” Matt is a 2022-2023...
Matthew Libby is a writer and actor based in Brooklyn, by way of Los Angeles. His play DATA won the Kendeda National Graduate Playwriting Award, and was adapted as a digital production presented 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.” Matt is a 2022-2023 Dramatists Guild Foundation Fellow, Theater Masters Visionary Playwright, Neukom Award winner, two-time Princess Grace Award finalist, three-time O’Neill Playwrights Conference semifinalist, and Blue Ink Playwriting Award featured finalist, and his work has been produced and developed by theaters across the country, including Roundabout, Alliance Theatre, New York Stage and Film, 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 2018 Bay Area Critics Award for Best Production. As a TV writer, he is developing a pilot for Hulu with producer Beau Willimon, and his screenwriting work has been recognized 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. He is a proud member of the Writers Guild of America and the Dramatists Guild of America. https://www.matthew-libby.com/

Plays

  • Data
    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...
    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
    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...
    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
    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...
    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
    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.
  • The Companion (ten minutes)
    2020 Winner, Take Ten, Theater Masters

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