Matt is the Executive Artistic Director of Diversionary Theatre in San Diego, CA. Under his leadership, Diversionary was the recipient of the 2016 Don Braunagel Award for Outstanding Work by a Small Theatre at the San Diego Critics Circle Awards, and was cited as the #1 Theatre in San Diego in City Beat’s Best of 2017 issue.
Since joining Diversionary, Matt has directed the World Premiere of Georgette Kelly’s Ballast, the San Diego Premiere of Bash Doran’s The Mystery of Love and Sex (Best of 2016, San Diego Union Tribune), and the West Coast Premieres of Jordan Seavey’s Homos, Or Everyone In America, Jordan Harrison’s Amazons and Their Men and Christopher Shinn’s Now Or Later.
Prior to joining Diversionary, Matt was the Associate Artistic Director of City Theatre Company, a LORT theatre in Pittsburgh dedicated to producing work written in the past five years. With City he directed the Regional Premiere of Jessica Dickey’s Charles Ives Take Me Home, the World Premiere of Tami Dixon’s South Side Stories (Pittsburgh Post Gazette & Tribune Review’s Top Ten of 2012), Kim Rosenstock’s Tigers Be Still; and workshops of the new musical The Shadow Sparrow by Anton Dudley, Keith Gordon and Charlie Sohne, and Don’t You F*cking Say A Word by Andy Bragen for City’s Momentum Festival of New Works.
He has developed new work with The Sundance Theatre Institute, The Banff Centre, American Conservatory Theater, Lincoln Center, PlayPenn, and Page 73 Productions in residence at the Yale School of Drama. His work as a director has been seen in NYC at Amas, Playwrights Horizons, Urban Stages, EST, HERE, Dixon Place, Cherry Lane, The York, The Tank, NYC Int’l Fringe, Midtown Int’l Festival, among others. His production of Jennifer Haley’s Neighborhood 3: Requisition of Doom with Bricolage Production Company was cited in the Top Ten of 2010 by The Pittsburgh Tribune Review.
Spring 2018 Matt will direct the World Premiere musical The Loneliest Girl in the World by Gordon Leary and Julia Meinwald, and Caryl Churchill’s Cloud Nine at The Old Globe/USD MFA program. Matt is currently developing Jennifer Haley’s FROGGY.
Matt served as The John Wells Professor of Directing at Carnegie Mellon University’s School of Drama (Graduate & Undergraduate Directing programs), and is a member of the Lincoln Center Director’s Lab. He holds a BFA in Directing from Carnegie Mellon University.
Directing Credits
Upcoming: Cloud Nine by Caryl Churchill, The Old Globe/USD MFA Program, San Diego 2018
Upcoming: The Loneliest Girl in the World by Gordon Leary & Julia Meinwald, (World Premiere), Diversionary Theatre, 2018
Homos, Or Everyone In America by Jordan Seavey, (West Coast Premiere) Diversionary Theatre, San Diego 2017
Ballast by Georgette Kelly, (World Premiere) Diversionary Theatre, San Diego 2017
The Mystery of Love & Sex by Bathseba Doran, Diversionary Theatre, San Diego 2016
Now Or Later by Christopher Shinn, (West Coast Premiere) Diversionary Theatre, San Diego 2016
Amazons and Their Men by Jordan Harrison, (West Coast Premiere) Diversionary Theatre, San Diego 2015
SCarrie! The Musical by Tami Dixon & Joel Abbott, Bricolage Productions, Pittsburgh, PA
The Mystery of Irma Vep by Charles Ludlam, Penobscot Theatre, Bangor, ME
A Feminine Ending by Sarah Treem, Off the Wall Theatre, Pittsburgh, PA
Charles Ives Take Me Home by Jessica Dickey, City Theatre Company, Pittsburgh, PA
South Side Stories* by Tami Dixon, City Theatre Company, Pittsburgh, PA
Tigers Be Still by Kim Rosenstock, City Theatre Company, Pittsburgh, PA
Froggy (workshop) by Jennifer Haley, Sundance Theatre Institute Lab; Banff Centre, Canada; P73@Yale School of Drama, New Haven, CT; 3LD, NYC
The Shadow Sparrow (workshop) by Anton Dudley, Keith Gordon & Charlie Sohne, City Theatre Company, Pittsburgh, PA
Young Playwrights Festival City Theatre Company, Pittsburgh, PA
Great White (workshop) by Sean Jeremy Palmer and Matt M. Morrow, Atlantic Theatre, NYC 2010; Bricolage Productions, Pittsburgh, PA
Neighborhood 3: Requisition of Doom** by Jennifer Haley, Bricolage Productions, Pittsburgh, PA
2.5 Minute Ride (1st NYC Revival) by Lisa Kron, Altered Stages, NYC
Only Children (workshop) by Michael Jackson & Rachel Peters, Lincoln Center Director’s Lab, NYC
Ramona’s Kidnapper (workshop) by Stanton Wood, Urban Stages, NYC
Fati’s Last Dance (staged reading) by France-Luce Benson, Primary Stages, NYC
An Apology for the Life of Leni Riefenstahl (reading) by Stanton Wood, Urban Stages, NYC
Tuesdays With Morrie by Mitch Albom & Jeffrey Hatcher, Epiphany Theatre, Saratoga, NY
Floating Underwater (workshop) by France-Luce Benson, CMU Summer New Play Festival, Pittsburgh, PA; Going to the River Festival @ Ensemble Studio Theatre, NYC
Wings of Yi Sang (staged reading) music by Paul Nelson, words by Kyoung-Ae Kang, Dixon Place, NYC
Urinetown The Musical by Mark Hollman and Greg Kotis, St. John’s University, NYC
Comin’ Up a Cloud (workshop) by Tina Posterli and Mark Hunter, Manhattan Theatre Club Creative Center & Dramatists Guild, NYC; Epiphany Theatre, NYC & Saratoga
Spin: A New Musical (staged reading) by M. Kilburg Reedy, Amas Musical Theatre, NYC; The York Theatre Company, NYC; Douglas Fairbanks, NYC Published by Samuel French
Wedding Day by Stanton Wood, Big Bar (site specific), NYC
Patriot Games by David Valdes Greenwood, Cherry Lane Theatre & THAW, NYC
Six Women With Brain Death (Staged Reading) Amas Musical Theatre, NYC
The Exception and the Rule (Workshop) by Bertolt Brecht & Jeff C. Kunins, The Tank, NYC
The Most Fabulous Story Ever Told (1st NYC Revival) by Paul Rudnick, Theatre @ St. Clements, NYC
Flack by Tina Posterli, The Midtown International Theatre Festival, NYC
The Who’s Tommy_Guest Director, Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore, MD
Scream Creek by Tina Posterli, New York International Fringe Festival, Present Company Theatorium, NYC
The Falsetto Trilogy: In Trousers & Falsettos (1st NYC Revival) by William Finn and James Lapine, The Duplex, NYC
john & jen by Andrew Lippa and Tom Greenwald, The Studio Theatre at Playwrights Horizons, NYC
Four Dripping Cats by Nancy Jacobs, Lincoln Center and HERE’s American Living Room, NYC
Falsettos by William Finn and James Lapine, Guest Director, Hunter College, NYC
*Top Ten of 2012: Pittsburgh Post Gazette & Tribune Review + World Premiere
**Top Ten of 2010: Pittsburgh Tribune Review
Artistic Leadership & Management
Associate Artistic Director, City Theatre Company, Pittsburgh, PA
Literary & Development Director, Amas Musical Theatre, NYC
Development Manager, The Play Company, NYC
Development Director, Cherry Lane Theatre, NYC
Company Manager, Forbidden Broadway, NYC
Musical Theatre Resident & Assistant to Producer, Playwrights Horizons, Ira Weitzman, NYC
Teaching
John Wells Professor in Directing, Carnegie Mellon University School of Drama, Graduate & Undergraduate Directing programs
Acting Instructor, The Rosetta LeNoire Musical Theatre Academy, NYC
In-Class Teaching Artist, The Leadership Program, NYC
Affiliations
Stage Directors and Choreographers, Associate Member, recipient of the SDC Foundation Observership with Lonny Price on KISMET with Encores! @ City Center
The Lincoln Center Director’s Lab, Member
Education
Carnegie Mellon University, BFA in Drama, Major: Directing, Minor: Film and Media Studies
Lois Cowles Harrison School for the Arts, Diploma, Theatre Major graduate
New York Bar Association, Certified Arts Mediator, New York Arts Resolution Services