Latest News
RED by John Logan @ Westminster
Next up, I’m helping produce RED by John Logan, a co-pro between Sackerson and Lil Poppet Productions. 🙂
It’s being staged in an actual art studio at Westminster University. Click on “Read More” for tickets.
Review of “The Words At The Door”
Here’s a review by Front Row Reviewers for The Words At The Door, which I directed for Sackerson this summer at the Great Salt Lake Fringe Festival.
Review of “From the Borderlands to the Roots”
I reviewed Punto de Inflexión’s “From the Borderlands to the Roots,” a piece of dance/art installation that played at the Rose Wagner Performing Arts Center last week as a part of Corriente Alterna and RDT’s Link series.
In the Top 10 Utah arts events!
The fun found-space theatre project I did last summer, FROM JUNE TO AUGUST, was mentioned in the Utah Review’s annual Top 10 list of arts events across the state.
(Along with WORSHIP, by friend Morag Shepherd, and FIRE! by friend Jenifer Nii, acted by the always adroit Carleton Bluford, who was in my play A\VERSION OF EVENTS in 2015.)
“…characters that are so well-rounded and multi-layered” ~ Gephardt Daily
The first review for Wasatch Theatre Company’s production of ART & CLASS is out — and it’s a good one!
Selected Works
Photo by Doug CarterMatthew Ivan Bennett is a Co-Artistic Producer at Sackerson (SLC) and has been a regular contributor at Plan-B Theatre since 2007. He was a recent fellow at the Helene Wurlitzer Foundation in Taos, New Mexico (Fall 2024) and is currently training as a Certified Actor with the National Michael Chekhov Association. He co-wrote JUST ADD WATER with Elaine Jarvik, which premiered at Plan-B with assistance from Wake the Great Salt Lake and the Bloomberg Foundation in the fall of 2025. His adaptation of FRANKENSTEIN won the Best Feature Program award from the Utah Broadcasters’ Association. His one-person play ERIC(A) won Best Drama at the United Solo Festival in New York. His road trip play, A\VERSION OF EVENTS is published with Stage Rights ». His anti-bullying children’s play DIFFERENT=AMAZING is published with Leicester Bay Theatricals ». With the O’Neill, he’s been a Finalist (LET DOWN YOUR HAIR, 2016) and Semifinalist (ART & CLASS, 2019). He’s won the Best Local Playwright award from PlayUtah and Salt Lake’s City Weekly honored with an Arty for writing Plan-B’s entire season in 2009. In 2014, he received the Holland New Voices award from Great Plains Theatre Commons and returned in 2019 to workshop his play ART & CLASS. His short plays have appeared at Pacific Play Company in Seattle, the Source Festival in DC, Monkeyman in Toronto, and Theatre Out in Santa Ana. His comedy A NIGHT WITH THE FAMILY ran at the Omaha Community Playhouse. His short film B+A appeared at Slamdance and his feature-length film THE WHOLE LOT was an Official Selection of the Philadelphia Independent Film Festival, the Kansas City Independent Film Festival, and others in 2022 and 2023. In 2015 and 2016, he was a screenwriting finalist at the Austin Film Festival. In Utah, he’s worked as a playwright and/or actor with the Salt Lake Acting Company, Pygmalion, Voodoo, Improv Salt Lake, Sackerson (devised pieces: A BRIEF WALTZ IN A LITTLE ROOM and THE WORST THING I’VE EVER DONE), and Wasatch Theatre Company. His rom-com FROM JUNE TO AUGUST was the Official Selection for Meanwhile Park’s second season in Salt Lake. Matt served 13 years as Assistant Business Manager for Pioneer Theatre Company, as well as reading for their Play-by-Play series, and was previously a part-time Literary Manager for The Constructivists in Milwaukee. His poetry has been published with Sugar House Review, Western Humanities, Utah Life, and unearthed. Matt earned his Bachelors in Theatre from Southern Utah University—where he also acted for the Utah Shakespeare Festival’s educational tours of THE TAMING OF THE SHREW and A MIDSUMMER’S NIGHT DREAM. He’s an alum of Futurescapes and a member of the Dramatists Guild.
Upcoming Projects: A FRENCH TOAST @ Meanwhile Park; NEVERMORE with the Rose Wagner Performing Arts Coalition; fall project with Sackerson; studying with the National Michael Chekhov Association as a Certified Actor candidate (ongoing).