Mat Smart

Mat Smart is an award-winning playwright and tv/film writer. He has written 27 full-length plays that have been produced around the United States. His newest play, A BLACK-BILLED CUCKOO, will premiere in Fall 2026 at the La Jolla Playhouse directed by Shelley Butler.

Mat is currently writing an original screenplay for Taylor Sheridan to direct with Bosque Ranch Productions and Range Media Partners producing. Together with Regina Corrado, Mat is developing a limited series starring Michelle Pfieffer based on Linda Hirshman’s best-selling book SISTERS IN LAW.

His play, KILL LOCAL, premiered at the La Jolla Playhouse and is being developed as a feature film with Depth of Field. In 2022, KILL LOCAL was translated into Korean and performed in Seoul. A new musical adaptation of the...

Mat Smart is an award-winning playwright and tv/film writer. He has written 27 full-length plays that have been produced around the United States. His newest play, A BLACK-BILLED CUCKOO, will premiere in Fall 2026 at the La Jolla Playhouse directed by Shelley Butler.

Mat is currently writing an original screenplay for Taylor Sheridan to direct with Bosque Ranch Productions and Range Media Partners producing. Together with Regina Corrado, Mat is developing a limited series starring Michelle Pfieffer based on Linda Hirshman’s best-selling book SISTERS IN LAW.

His play, KILL LOCAL, premiered at the La Jolla Playhouse and is being developed as a feature film with Depth of Field. In 2022, KILL LOCAL was translated into Korean and performed in Seoul. A new musical adaptation of the play – with music and lyrics by indie rock sensation Liza Anne and directed by Jaime Castañeda – will premiere in Spring 2027 at the Dallas Theater Center.

THE AGITATORS, his play about the true, untold friendship between Susan B. Anthony and Frederick Douglass, has been produced at more than 20 different theatres from Maine to California. It premiered with a sold-out run on the mainstage of Geva Theatre, directed by Logan Vaughn. Mat adapted THE AGITATORS into a podcast that was produced by PRX and hosted by Ashley C. Ford.

An avid traveler, Mat has been to all seven continents and written a play set on each one. His play THE ROYAL SOCIETY OF ANTARCTICA – about the three months he spent working as a janitor on a science base in Antarctica – premiered at the Gift Theatre in 2015 and won the Jeff Award for Best New Work in Chicago.

Select theatrical productions include: EDEN PRAIRIE, 1971 (National New Play Network Rolling World Premiere, Riverside Theatre; New Jersey Rep; BETC), SAMUEL J. AND K. (Williamstown Theatre Festival, starring Justin Long; Steppenwolf), NAPERVILLE (Slant Theatre Project; Theatre Wit), TINKER TO EVERS TO CHANCE (Geva; Merrimack Rep), THE 13th OF PARIS (City Theatre), and THE HOPPER COLLECTION (Huntington; Magic). His work has been developed at The New Harmony Project, O’Neill Playwrights Conference, South Coast Rep, Goodman, Manhattan Theatre Club, Atlantic, and Roundabout.

A native of Naperville, Illinois, Mat currently lives in Brooklyn. Undergrad: University of Evansville. MFA: UCSD. Proud member of the Writers Guild of America.

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Scripts

The Agitators: The Story of Susan B. Anthony and Frederick Douglass

by Mat Smart

Cast Size
2
Genre
biography,
docudrama/historic,
drama,
period,
political

The Agitators tells of the enduring but tempestuous friendship of Susan B. Anthony and Frederick Douglass. Great allies? Yes. And at times, great adversaries. Young abolitionists when they met in Rochester in the 1840s, they were full of hopes, dreams, and a common purpose. As they grew to become the cultural icons we know today, their movements collided and their friendship was severely tested. This is the...

The Agitators tells of the enduring but tempestuous friendship of Susan B. Anthony and Frederick Douglass. Great allies? Yes. And at times, great adversaries. Young abolitionists when they met in Rochester in the 1840s, they were full of hopes, dreams, and a common purpose. As they grew to become the cultural icons we know today, their movements collided and their friendship was severely tested. This is the story of that forty-five-year friendship – from its beginning in Rochester, through a civil war, and to the highest halls of government. They agitated the nation, they agitated each other, and, in doing so, they helped shape the Constitution and the course of American history.

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Eden Prairie, 1971

by Mat Smart

Cast Size
3
Genre
drama,
period

As war churns in Vietnam, night falls over the tranquil hills and creeks of a small Midwestern town, and a young woman hears a tap at her window.

On the same night Apollo 15 makes its lunar landing, draft-dodger Pete steals home to Eden Prairie, after a 300-mile trek from Canada. He risks arrest to deliver an important message to his childhood friend, Rachel. Both are caught between duty to the ones they love...

As war churns in Vietnam, night falls over the tranquil hills and creeks of a small Midwestern town, and a young woman hears a tap at her window.

On the same night Apollo 15 makes its lunar landing, draft-dodger Pete steals home to Eden Prairie, after a 300-mile trek from Canada. He risks arrest to deliver an important message to his childhood friend, Rachel. Both are caught between duty to the ones they love and their own futures. In a moment of national tension that mirrors our own, Pete must defend his choices and grapple with the sacrifices he has made.

This stark, passionate drama questions our notions of bravery and responsibility.

(It is a 3-person, single set, single scene 90-minute play.)

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