Matthew Doherty

Matthew Doherty

Matthew Doherty was born and raised in the Chicagoland area, in a good, Irish-American family, which meant three boys, lots of Hail Marys, and a helluva lot of trouble. At ten, he got a wild hair to audition for movies - and though he didn’t get that first part after doing a cartwheel, badly, in front of Garry Marshall, he was told, “you should get an agent, kid”. So he did. He soon got cast in the Mighty Ducks...
Matthew Doherty was born and raised in the Chicagoland area, in a good, Irish-American family, which meant three boys, lots of Hail Marys, and a helluva lot of trouble. At ten, he got a wild hair to audition for movies - and though he didn’t get that first part after doing a cartwheel, badly, in front of Garry Marshall, he was told, “you should get an agent, kid”. So he did. He soon got cast in the Mighty Ducks franchise as Les/Dave Averman, and then as Heed on So I Married an Axe-Murderer - which changed everything. Matthew experienced all the absurdity and pitfalls of being a child star, before stepping away as a teenager to go to Northwestern and study writing - which may have saved his life.

A finger-style folk guitarist, lifetime member of The Actor’s Studio and veteran actor of stage, screen, and TV, Matthew now focuses almost exclusively on writing, and has a particular gift for absurd tragicomedies that expose the ridiculous injustice of The System - whatever that System might be. That said, in his pieces, there’s always hope for redemption (no matter how fucked up, or unlikely) - may that be true for us all.


Matthew has a number of plays and screenplays in various stages of development and consideration, available upon request. He was a 2018 Nicholl Academy Semi-Finalist and a Julliard Fellowship semi-finalist, Berkley Ground Floor finalist, a AFF second rounder, Screencraft and Final Draft Big Break Semi Finalist, Golden Voice quarter finalist, and a Newman/ Woodward BPP finalist. His work has been read at The Antaeus Theater's Lab Series, for IAMA, Rogue Machine, VS, The Road, and the famed Actor's Studio. He worked extensively with the Antaeus Writer’s Lab in LA, as a former panelist and moderator, to develop his, and others’, works along with the recently founded Playwrights Think Tank. Most recently, his REIGN of TERROR has been developed by Moving Arts Madlabs and his A SURE THING was awarded runner up for the 2023 Risk Modern Tragedy Award. He has ghost written and consulted on several projects he can’t talk about and facilitates writing groups in residential treatment facilities in and around Los Angeles. You can find him on skates or in the mountains or online at www.mattdoherty.net www.asongofourselves.com

Plays

  • A Sure Thing by Matthew Doherty
    Cast: 
    4
    ·
    Genre: comedy, satire + 1 more
    ·
    Keyword: class, Race + 3 more
    Genre: comedy, satire, tragedy
    Keyword: class, Race, compulsive gambling, crime, family tragicomedy
    A steel-working family, facing furloughs yet again, feels they have no choice but to pony up the scratch for a slot-machine jackpot scam -  since their friend from prison swears it’s “a sure thing”.  A riotous, heartbreaking origin tale for the Invisible Rust-Belters who got conned by the myth of the American Dream and how they / we turn on each other after we’ve been jettisoned in the name of progress.
  • Brother's Play by Matthew Doherty
    Cast: 
    3
    ·
    Genre: dark comedy, tragedy
    ·
    Keyword: dark comedy, definitions of masculinity
    Genre: dark comedy, tragedy
    Keyword: dark comedy, definitions of masculinity
    Thomas throws a rock through the rose window at church shattering his family's code of secrets days before Christmas. Melding the profane with the sacred, Brother's Play examines the fragility of masculinity in crisis these days by lampooning the long-term effects of ritualized sex abuse with humor and violence. A nativity play... of sorts.
  • That Horse Don't Look Too Good by Matthew Doherty
    Cast: 
    9
    ·
    Genre: comedy, commedia dell'arte + 2 more
    ·
    Keyword: class, american race relations + 6 more
    Genre: comedy, commedia dell'arte, political, satire
    Keyword: class, american race relations, Sri Lanka, African, El Salvador, Mexican, Guatemala, american immigration
    Monito changes the dynamics among the valets at the Vista Grande mainly because he is white and not an immigrant on the night a White Caddy is prophesied to show with the promise of a big tip that the team will claw each other's eyes out for in the name of unity. Satirizing the way the invisible classes are pitted against each other while servicing the privileged few, it fills the wait all Valets know...
    Monito changes the dynamics among the valets at the Vista Grande mainly because he is white and not an immigrant on the night a White Caddy is prophesied to show with the promise of a big tip that the team will claw each other's eyes out for in the name of unity. Satirizing the way the invisible classes are pitted against each other while servicing the privileged few, it fills the wait all Valets know with the comedy and poetry of boredom. A group project for any company looking to give eight or nine people a chance to shine comedically and lampoon stereotypes. I made a promise to Don Julio to write it one night when we were particularly aggrieved at the hotel I worked at. These characters and pretty much everything they say comes from those experiences that changed my life far more than going to university.
  • The House Across The Street by Matthew Doherty
    Recommendations: 1
    ·
    Cast: 
    5
    ·
    Genre: comedy, satire
    ·
    Keyword: Finalist Woodward Newman Award
    Genre: comedy, satire
    Keyword: Finalist Woodward Newman Award
    Set at the tail-end of suburban white flight in the 1990s, a middle income mid-American white family must decide to "fly off" to Indiana or not, now that changing racial demographics have caused a steep decline in the value of their home.
  • Persuasion by Matthew Doherty
    Cast: 
    4
    ·
    Genre: dark comedy, experimental + 3 more
    ·
    Keyword: absurd, journalists + 1 more
    Genre: dark comedy, experimental, mystery/thriller, political, satire
    Keyword: absurd, journalists, theater of cruelty
    Libby, an award-winning journalist, undergoes conversion therapy in a dead room till she is convinced that the sky is pink. Meant to sidestep logic in an attempt to give voice to the war on truth and effects of cultural gas-lighting. Menacing clowns and a theater of cruelty / oppression / absurdity delight in the breakdown of meaning inside a digital womb that oversees it all named Enid. It's a mindf--k...
    Libby, an award-winning journalist, undergoes conversion therapy in a dead room till she is convinced that the sky is pink. Meant to sidestep logic in an attempt to give voice to the war on truth and effects of cultural gas-lighting. Menacing clowns and a theater of cruelty / oppression / absurdity delight in the breakdown of meaning inside a digital womb that oversees it all named Enid. It's a mindf--k of a ride. And a f-you to double-speak.