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Matthew Weaver

Recommended by Matthew Weaver

  • Deadliest Intersection in Idaho by Lee R. Lawing
    5 Oct. 2022
    “ Pitch-dark play, about an auspicious ... achievement doesn't seem QUITE like the right word here.
    Like all of Lawing's plays, DEADLIEST INTERSECTION IN IDAHO will certainly make an audience think. Perfect for any one-minute play festival, natch, as well as to punctuate/accentuate any evenings revolving around driver safety. (Show it to your teenagers in driver's ed and college students before they make the trip to/from college!)
    Or go the extra mile and (safely, please) stage this at the intersection in question! Lawing is always good about creating theater that makes a point. ”
  • I Don't Like Theatre [a monologue] by Steven G. Martin
    3 Oct. 2022
    “ Theater is for everyone, so we say, but a lot of theater, let's face it, can be off-putting if you're not a diehard enthusiast.
    But then here is this lovely monologue from Steve Martin about how, sometimes, if you look past the largeness of theater, at its very core, at its very heart, at its very truth, if you just listen, there's something for anyone to find a connection.
    As with all of Martin's words, this is very elegant and very moving. I like it because it's like Don got thrust up on stage or he felt compelled to speak. ”
  • Layers, or "The Casserole Play" by Scott Sickles
    1 Oct. 2022
    “ Delightful! Adorable! Sickles plays with the magic of the theater in a way very much reminiscent of Steven G. Martin's BENNY V. (very much a compliment) as three performers unearth the true origins of the casserole and its mysterious inventor, Elmire Jolicoeur, COMPLETE WORKS OF WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE, ABRIDGED style. Resource book enthusiasts, in particular, will find much to be turned on in LAYERS!
    It's smart, it's funny, it's sexy, it's laugh-out-loud cryingly funny and movingly heartfelt - no surprise from a writer of Sickles' caliber, but here he truly outdoes himself. Quite possibly his magnum opus amongst magnum opi. ”
  • the dowagers by Justice Hehir
    15 Sep. 2022
    “ A fascinating observation of the dynamics between several neighbors as they go about their daily lives - fending off neighborhood perverts, caring for the stray cats around the building, grieving the loss of a loved one, exploring the sparks of new attraction.
    Hehir also captures the uneasiness of the early days of the COVID-19 pandemic, adding further layers of discomfort as Salome, Tara and Chris navigate the tricky nature of their own histories.
    Hehir does an amazing job of harnessing the way PEOPLE ACTUALLY TALK, capturing each conversation as a single moment wholly formed by all those that came before. ”
  • true believer by Justice Hehir
    15 Sep. 2022
    “ Just as she did with the stunning FREEPLAY, here Hehir captures the mundaneness of a politically charged environment - an abortion clinic at Christmastime, in the middle of a blizzard. Secret Santa gifts are exchanged. Someone gripes about the smell of a co-worker's food. Old grudges and feuds are unearthed. It's real life, right there on the stage and on the page, and Hehir - and her audience - know it's just as fantastic and compelling and worthy as anything else. If anything, in Hehir's capable hands, it's moreso. ”
  • Welcome to the Wedding of Vincent and Gina by Justice Hehir
    15 Sep. 2022
    “ Hehir has an uncanny knack for creating interesting characters we immediately want to hang out with, and the ragtag Table 14 bunch at Vincent and Gina's wedding are no exception. They're an awkwardly game group thrust together for a few hours under less than ideal circumstances (fortunately McDonald's is right across the street), and we in the fortunate audience get to sit amongst them and observe their secrets as they spill forth.
    Hehir knows the true best part of a wedding is the peoplewatching, and she delivers with gusto. ”
  • Poseidon and the Sea Nymph by Scott Sickles
    3 Sep. 2022
    “ Sickles offers a new sort of fairy tale for our times, with a heroine who, understandably, never quite lets her guard down and a genuinely well-meaning rescuer, who understands. These are two gentle souls, each bearing their own scars, seeking to safely navigate dangerous waters.
    Sickles' tale is complicated and simple in the same breath, no surprise to anyone who is well-acquainted with his ability to explore deep, thoughtful people striving to achieve the fullness of their existence, and the oasis they find in one another along the way. ”
  • This Grass Kills People by Daniel Prillaman
    31 Aug. 2022
    “ Chilling, and remains chillingly timely.
    Prillaman is a master of creeping dread and the intersection between everyday life and unsettling dread.
    Somewhere, Rod Serling sits beaming, tips his cap and raises a toast. ”
  • MOUSE and FROG by Emma Goldman-Sherman
    27 Apr. 2022
    “ Oh, I feel this monologue from Emma Goldman-Sherman in my bones, and so will you, too.
    As with all of her writing, Goldman-Sherman's words bear weight. Here, Mouse relives longlost, relatively minor forgotten sins, unnoticeable to anyone but the perpetrator, but oh, how those old sins can press down. Until they crush.
    Draped in sorrow, Mouse ponders how radical the idea of forgiveness is. Extraordinarily moving. ”
  • Untitled by Ruben Carbajal
    26 Mar. 2022
    “ The way Carbajal plays with words on the page and words on the stage is always something to behold, and UNTITLED is no exception. Here he explores a single sound, picks it up, examines it and holds it out for the rest of us, asking the audience to ponder: What is our relationship to the things we hear?
    If that were the only question Carbajal poised, it would be enough. By shaking up how he presents it, we must ponder our relationship with that page and with that stage. It's an exciting jolt to art and to our hearts. Aspire. ”

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