THE WONDERFUL MR. & MRS. O’LEARY
Written by Matte O’Brien
Directed by David Alpert
Featuring: Aaron Ramey, Alice Ripley, Sebastian Hedges Thomas, and Cassidy VanVonno
Wednesday June 25th at 7PM
Thursday June 26th at 7PM
Ellie and Patrick McDowell are a pair of restless siblings who occupy themselves by navigating their mother’s insecurities, her latest boyfriend’s shifting moods, and the doldrums of their small Louisiana town. All hope of escaping the reality of their situation seems lost until an after-school job materializes – babysitting for The Wonderful Mr. & Mrs. O’Leary. This darkly comic play reveals the power of imagination in the indefinite space between childhood and adulthood.
Cassidy VanVonno and Sebastian Hedges Thomas in THE WONDERFUL MR. & MRS. O'LEARY by Matte O'Brien, June 25th and 26th, 2014.
FROM THE PLAYWRIGHT:
The inspiration for The Wonderful Mr. & Mrs. O’Leary came from a small portion of a radio interview I heard while living in Scotland. For some time, I had been wanting to write a play that explored the lives and language of children on the cusp of growing up. In the snippet of this interview I heard, a woman mentioned that she and her brother, when they were children, invented an imaginary family to tell their parents they were babysitting for in order to go out and play with their friends. This seemed like the perfect backdrop for the play I’d been mulling around – and that’s how The Wonderful Mr. & Mrs. O’Leary came into existence.
ABOUT THE PLAYWRIGHT:
MATTE O’BRIEN (Playwright) is a writer/director based out of New York City. He began his theatrical career as a performer over twenty years ago. He is a member of The Actors Equity Association and has performed Off Broadway, on National Tours and at regional theatres across the country. As a writer, he has had numerous pieces produced throughout the United States and Europe, including White Noise, a rock musical produced by Whoopi Goldberg and directed by Sergio Trujillo; which had successful commercial runs at Le Petit Theatre in the French Quarter of New Orleans and the Royal George Theater in Chicago. Mr. O’Brien received a Jeff Award nomination for the Chicago production. His musical The Lost Boy: a tale of a drowning in Neverland (formerly Peter & I), written with composer Matt Vinson, was recently produced Off Broadway through the Araca Project at the Amercan Theatre of Actors. His play THE MEANING OF LIFE… and other useless pieces of information played the 45th Street Theatre Off Broadway in New York City. He has also written and directed workshop productions of Morning Has Broken and Becoming David; the latter starring Tony Award nominee, Lorraine Serabian. He is a proud member of the Dramatist Guild. Matte has directed a wide range of plays and musicals in both the USA and UK, featuring Tony and Olivier Award winning talent. He served for three seasons as the Artistic Director for the Colonie Summer Theater and is a founding member and the Producing Artistic Director of Rope Swing Entertainment in New York City. His most recent endeavors have included writing and directing the critically acclaimed play, As Flies to Wanton Boy at The Arches in Glasgow; and staging the world premier of Catherine Grosvenor’s,The Tinderbox, which toured London, Glasgow and Edinburgh. Matte holds a BFA in Musical Theatre from Syracuse University and a Masters in Directing Classic and Contemporary Text from The Royal Conservatoire of Scotland.
