Matt Hawkins

Director of Musical Theatre
Acting Director of Theatre
Associate Professor of the Practice, Theatre

Creative Producer of the New Works Lab

Specialties

Performance

Research Interests

Musical Theatre History, Musical Theatre Performance Techniques, Musical Theatre Movement/Dance Styles, Directing, Stage Combat, Musical Theatre Lab: How to Create a Musical

Biography

Matt Hawkins is a writer, director, actor, fight choreographer, and movement director. He is currently an Associate Professor for the Department of Film, Television, and Theatre at the University of Notre Dame, serving as the Director of Musical Theatre and the Founder and Creative Producer of the university’s New Works Lab. He is a Founding Member of The House Theatre of Chicago, an Artistic Associate and Resident Director with Strawdog Theatre, and has been an Artistic Associate with 500 Clown. Broadway credits include Paradise Square and Airline Highway, and has also worked with The Kennedy Center, Stratford Shakespeare Festival, Royal Shakespeare Theatre, Steppenwolf, Goodman, Lookingglass, Court Theatre, Penobscot Theatre, Asolo Rep, American Players Theatre, The Clarice Smith Performing Arts Center, Chicago Children’s Theatre, Victory Gardens, Old Town School of Folk Music and his TV/Film Credits include Happily After (Glass City Films); and Chicago Fire (NBC).

He also appeared as Stanley Kowalski in David Cromer’s critically acclaimed production of A Streetcar Named Desire at Writers Theatre and has appeared in Chicago Shakespeare’s production of Henry IV, Part I and II at the Royal Shakespeare Company.

He has served as the director for the Chicago Public School’s annual production at Chicago Shakespeare Theatre, which was the recipient of the National Arts and Humanities Youth Program Award, presented by Michelle Obama in 2014. He has been nominated for seventeen Jeff Awards and has been awarded five, including three for Best Fight Choreography, one for Best Director of a Musical and Best Production of a Musical. He was named one of the top five “Most Prolific Artists Of The Decade” by Time Out Chicago, and his production of Red Noses at Strawdog Theatre was named one of the Top Ten Shows of the year by Time Out Chicago. While completing his B.F.A. in acting from Southern Methodist University, he was the recipient of the Greer Garson Award, the Bob Hope Scholarship and the Dallas Critics’ Forum Award for Best Actor for his portrayal of Linus in You’re A Good Man Charlie Brown. He was a candidate for the Alan Schneider Directing Award, a finalist for the Eugene O’Neill National Director’s Fellowship, a finalist for the National Alliance for Musical Theatre’s New Musical Theatre Festival, a semi-finalist for The Eugene O’Neill’s National Music Theatre Conference, and the recipient of a Faculty Research Support Program Award to fund the creative development of My Heart Says Go (New Works Lab, University of Notre Dame) with Apples and Oranges Arts and The Goodman Theatre, co-created with Jorge Rivera-Herrans @jayherrans, where they produced a Studio Cast Album featuring Broadway stars Javier Muñoz and Jessie Mueller. @myheartsaysgomusical

(if you want to produce MY HEART SAYS GO you can!!!)

Hawkins also directed/produced What The Constitution Means To Me at Notre Dame, Indiana University South Bend, and St, Joseph County Library, with the intention to bring the play ALL OVER THE UNITED STATES!!! (with the blessing of Pulitzer Prize nominated playwright Heidi Schreck)

Hawkins holds an M.F.A. in directing from The University of Iowa, where he was an Iowa Arts Directing Fellow and the recipient of the IRAM Award for outstanding contribution to Iowa’s New Play Festival.

His wife Stacy, and their blind dog Ozzy, are everything.