Matthew Whittet
Matthew is an actor and writer who has worked extensively in theatre, film and television for the past 15 years.
Matt’s first play Twelve was workshopped at the National Playwrights Conference in Perth, 2006. His second was Silver, directed by Ben Winspear for Belvoir downstairs in which he also performed solo. In 2010, two further plays premiered in Adelaide. Fugitive (Windmill) andHarbinger (Brink Productions) began what has become an ongoing creative bond with the city and its audiences. In the same year, Matt was the Philip Parsons Young Playwright Award recipient, sparking the development of the play Old Man which premiered downstairs in Belvoir’s 2012 season.
Matt’s collaboration with Windmill has resulted in four plays, with Girl Asleep being the most recent. Its predecessors are the Helpmann Award and Sydney Theatre Award winning School Dance and Trilogy stable mate Big Bad Wolf. All three of these plays were concurrently performed at the most recent Adelaide Festival (2014). Matt’s two hander Cinderella garnered outstanding reviews at the close of 2014 in the Belvoir downstairs space and the premiere of his 2015 play Seventeen was a huge success in the upstairs theatre.
Matt’s feature film adaptation of his play Girl Asleep (supported by The Hive Production Fund) debuted at the Adelaide Film Festival and went on to open the 2016 Generation 14 Plus Program at Berlin International Film Festival. It won The Age Critics’ Award for best film at Melbourne International Film Festival, the Cinefest Oz Prize 2016 and the Seattle International Festival Youth Jury Prize and Grand Jury Prize. Its national release in September 2016 was followed by a free to air screening on ABC TV.
Matt’s play Fight with All Your Might the Zombies of The Night, winner of the 2015 Foundation Commission Award, premiered at ATYP in November 2016 and the Belvoir remount of Girl Asleep closes their 2016 Season. Matt was among the seven Sidney Myer Creative Fellows chosen in 2012.
Matt is collaborating with Sydney Dance Company and Co3 as a dramaturge for Crazy Times, showing at Sydney Opera House from 14-18 March 2017.