Matthew Ivan Bennett has been Resident Playwright of Plan-B Theatre since 2007, where he’s premiered several stage plays and 10 radio plays in collaboration with KUER’s RadioWest. His work usually focuses on the sociopolitical while centering character with elements of humor. 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 play Different=Amazing—for grades 3 to 6—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 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 in 2022. In 2015 and 2016, he was a screenwriting finalist at the Austin Film Festival. In Utah, he’s worked as a playwright with the Salt Lake Acting Company, Pygmalion, Sackerson (devised pieces: A Brief Waltz in a Little Room and The Worst Thing I’ve Ever Done), and Wasatch Theatre Company. Matt served 13 years as Assistant Business Manager for Pioneer Theatre Company, as well as reading for their Play-by-Play series, and was a Literary Manager for The Constructivists in Milwaukee. His poetry has been published with Sugar House Review, Western Humanities, Utah Life, unearthed, and Organic Ink, Volume 5.. 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 as Grumio and A Midsummer Night’s Dream as Puck. He is a member of the Dramatists’ Guild, and recently joined Mastodon.