MATTHEW LOPEZ

Playwright Biography

Matthew Lopez is the author of The Whipping Man, one of the most widely produced new American plays of the last several years. The play premiered at Luna Stage in Montclair, NJ and debuted in New York at the Manhattan Theatre Club. The production was directed by Doug Hughes and starred Andre Braugher. The sold-out production extended four times, ultimately running 101 performances off-Broadway and garnering Obie and Lucille Lortel Awards. Matthew was awarded the John Gassner New Play Award from the New York Outer Critics Circle for the play. Since then, it has received over 40 productions worldwide. His play Somewhere has been produced at the Old Globe, TheatreWorks in Palo Alto and most recently at Hartford Stage Company, where his play Reverberation received its world premiere in 2015. His newest play, The Legend of Georgia McBride, premiered earlier this year at the Denver Theatre Center for the Performing Arts. His play The Sentinels premiered in London at Headlong Theatre Company in 2011. Matthew currently holds new play commissions from The Roundabout Theatre Company, Manhattan Theatre Club, Hartford Stage, and South Coast Rep. Matthew was a staff writer on HBO’s The Newsroom and is currently adapting Javier Marias’ trilogy Your Face Tomorrow for the screen.

Highlighted Play

The Whipping Man

by Matthew Lopez

Synopsis

It is Passover, 1865. The Civil War has just ended and the annual celebration of freedom from bondage is being observed in Jewish homes across the country. One of these homes, belonging to the DeLeons of Virginia, sits in ruins. Confederate officer Caleb DeLeon has returned from the war to find his family missing and only two former slaves remaining. Caleb is badly wounded and the two men, Simon and John, are forced to care for him.

As the three men wait for the family's return, they wrestle with their shared past as master and slave, digging up long-buried family secrets along the way as well as new ones. Slavery and war, they discover, warp even good men's souls.

Discussion Questions

(All questions are courtesy of The Actors Theater of Louisville Website)

•Slavery and freedom are major themes of The Whipping Man. What does freedom mean to you? What would it be like if your freedom was taken away? What would you be willing to do to restore your freedom?

•It was common for slave owners to teach religion to their slaves in the 1800s. In The Whipping Man, Judaism is practiced by everyone in the DeLeon household. How do you think having a shared religion affected the relationships between slave owner and slave?

•The characters in The Whipping Man honor the Passover holiday by organizing a Seder, which serves as a symbolic celebration of freedom. How do you celebrate freedom in your life?

•At the end of the play, each character must choose what to do with their new sense of freedom. What kinds of choices do you think each man will make? Why? Who might be the best equipped to survive?

•Why did both John and Caleb resort to lying to the other characters? Was their lying justified? Why or why not? How would you behave in their set of circumstances?

Sample Activity

Break your class into groups of 2-4 students.
Ask each group to research and present significant moments in time in American history that coincided with another significant moment. For example, Andy Warhol was shot on June 3, 1968 and Robert F. Kennedy was shot on June 6, 1968.
Was one event more or less significant than the other? If so, why? There are NO wrong answers.
In the selection of your events, why did you choose one event to be of greater or less significance to you? Did it have to do with your personal beliefs about religion, race, politics, or social issues?
Could the event be a small one that is of local import to you? In other words, if an event takes place in your neighborhood can it still have the same impact on you as an event that takes place on a national or global scale? If so, why? Again, there are NO wrong answers.

Additional Plays

SOMEWHERE

Synopsis: It’s 1959, West Side Story is storming Broadway, and a movie version is on the way. It fuels the show-business dreams of Inez Candelaria, who works as a theatre usher but hopes that her children will succeed on the other side of the footlights as dancers. Meanwhile, the family nervously counts the days until the city will force them to relocate to an even poorer and more dangerous neighborhood. Comic and spirited, Somewhere is a dance-filled portrait of a passionate Puerto Rican family fighting to make their dreams come true.

REVERBERATION

Synopsis: After a personal tragedy, Jonathan has withdrawn from the world, with little social life beyond the men he meets online. When charming, flighty Claire moves into the apartment upstairs, she tries to coax him out of his shell. They forge a tenuous connection, but the past reverberates into the present, threatening what happiness they’ve found.

THE LEGEND OF GEORGIA MCBRIDE

Synopsis: He's young, he's broke, his landlord's knocking at the door, and he's just found out his wife is going to have a baby. To make matters even more desperate, Casey is fired from his gig as an Elvis impersonator in a run-down, small town Florida bar. When the bar owner brings in a B-level drag show to replace his act, Casey finds that he has a whole lot to learn about show business — and himself.

Comprehensive List of Plays

Tio Pepe

The Whipping Man

Reverberation

Noble Street

Between Us

Phemmi Klompers, Agent to the Stars

The Legend of Georgia McBride

Somewhere

The Sentinels

Awards

The Whipping Man

Winner of the 2011 John Gassner Playwriting Award by the NY Outer Critics Circle
Winner of the 2011 Lucille Lortel Award for Best Play
Winner of the 2011 Obie Award for Best Play
Nominated in 2011 in the “Best New Play” category for the inaugural Off-Broadway Alliance Awards

Bibliography of Related Sources

Lee, Felicia R. (2011). Writing the Play His Curiosity Led Him To, The Playwright Matthew Lopez and The Whipping Man. Retrieved here : www.nytimes.com/2011/01/28/theater/28lopez

Isherwood, Charles. (2011) Candles, Matzo, Wine and Some Unusual Hosts: The Whipping Man. Retrieved here : www.nytimes.com/2011/02/02/theater/reviews/02whipping.

"The Whipping Man Play Guide" by Leshawn Holcomb, Gabriel Garcia, Jane B. Jones, Sarah Lunnie, Hannah Rae Montgomery, Lori Pitts, Steven Rahe, Christina Shackelford, Jacob Stoebel and Kathryn Zukaitis, The Actors Theatre of Louisville. (2012-2013 Season). Retrieved here : actorstheatre.org/wp-content/uploads/2013/09/Whipping...

Freeman, Tzvi. (2012) “Torah, Slavery and the Jews.” Chabad.com. Chabad.com, n.d. Web. Retrieved here: www.chabad.org/library/article_cdo/aid/305549/jewish/Torah-Slavery-and-the-Jews

Soloveitchik , Joseph B.. “Slaves to Pharoah in Egypt.” Shabbat Shalom. Orthodox Union, 06 01 2010. Web. 11 Oct 2012. <http://www.ou.org/index.php/shabbat_shalom/article/64276/>.

Mandell, Jonathan. (2015) The Legend of Georgia McBride A Drag Show by Whipping Man Playwright. Retrieved here newyorktheater.me/tag/playwright-matthew-lopez

Gray, Margaret. (2017) "How an Elvis Impersonator-turned-drag queen was born: Playwright Matthew Lopez on 'Georgia McBride'" Retrieved here : www.latimes.com/...cm-matthew-lopez-20170502-htmlstory

Osenlund, Kurt R. (2015) Playwright Matthew Lopez on His Gay-Themed Play Reverberation. Retrieved here : www.out.com/.../playwright-matthew-lopez-his...reverberation

Rizzo, Frank. (2014) The Family Drama Behind 'West Side Story' - Inspired 'Somewhere' At Hartford Stage. www.courant.com/entertainment/arts/hc-somewhere-hartford...

Aparicio, Iride. (2010) Matthew Lopez Talks about his Experiences as a Playwright. Retrieved here: culturalworldbilingual.com/Reviews_Interviews/Int9.php

Web page compiled by Andrew Shaifer (2017)