Matthew Paul Olmos

Matthew Paul Olmos is a Mexican-American playwright from Los Angeles, California. He is best known for his play a home what howls (or the house what was ravine), which premiered at Steppenwolf Theater in 2024; as well as so go the ghosts of mexico a three-play cycle about the US-Mexico drug wars which was selected for a production at La MaMa by Sam Shepard.

Biography
Matthew Paul Olmos was born in Montebello, California to a police officer and Labor/Delivery nurse. He began writing in early high school, where he enjoyed rewriting lyrics to songs and thinking about their rhythm and poetry. Classmates would occasionally pay him to write poems for their girlfriends. Olmos transferred to University of California, Santa Barbara in his junior year, where he was drawn to acting and writing. Originally planning to write, direct and act in movies, Olmos was not exposed to theatre until his senior year of college when he took an Intro to Playwriting course. Olmos stayed an extra year and switched his major to receive a B.A in Playwriting, after his professor told him he had talent for playwriting.

Olmos moved to Brooklyn, New York in 2001 to pursue playwriting. He received his M.F.A in Playwriting from the New School of Drama in 2004.

Career
In 2009, his play i put the fear of méxico in'em, which was developed while he was in residency at INTAR theatre got him selected as a Sundance Institute Time Warner Storytelling Fellow. From 2009 to 2011, Olmos spent time in the Mabou Mines/Suite Resident Artist Program where, under the mentorship of Ruth Maleczech, he developed a piece titled The Nature of Captivity, which won top prize for the Americas in BBC's International Playwriting Competition. Olmos worked at the Lark Play Development Center before quitting to be a full-time playwright. In 2012, Olmos was in residence at New Dramatists as part of his Princess Grace Fellowship. In 2013, Olmos was selected in the Ucross Foundation's Sundance Institute Theatre Program. In the same year, he received the inaugural Ellen Stewart Emerging Playwright Award. In 2015, Olmos was selected as a Baryshnikov Arts Center Resident Artist.

a home what howls (or the house what was ravine)
World-premiered at Steppenwolf Theatre in 2024, under the Artistic Directors Glenn Davis and Audrey Francis. The production was directed by Laura Alcalá Baker and featured Charín Álvarez, Tim Hopper, Leslie Sophia Pérez, Isabel Quintero, and Eddie Torres.

so go the ghosts of méxico
Sam Shepard selected Olmos to create an original work to be produced by La MaMa, e.t.c. as a result of receiving the Ellen Stewart Emerging Playwright Award. so go the ghosts of méxico, part one directed by Meiyin Wang premiered in April 2013 to positive reception. Based on Marisol Valles García, the "Bravest Woman in Mexico," the play uses ghosts, a magic radio and other supernatural elements to give a poetic interpretation of the story of the 22-year-old woman who becomes chief of police after the previous chief of police is tortured and beheaded by the drug cartels.

Olmos has stated that so go the ghosts of méxico is a three-play cycle that is thematically connected but each play features entirely different characters and circumstances. Part one's focus is on the political becoming personal. Part two hones in on the drug cartels themselves, but was played by an all-women cast as a critique on the machismo in that realm. Part three centers on U.S involvement. All three plays feature ghosts and a prominent use of music.

In 2016, the Undermain Theatre, in Dallas, TX, committed to producing the entire cycle of plays over the course of three seasons, as announced in American Theatre.

Views on theatre
Olmos was interviewed by Brian James Polak for American Theater's The Subtext Podcast in January 2024 at Steppenwolf Theatre where he was in rehearsals for his play a home what howls (or the house what was ravine).

Olmos has said he believes there are two categories of theater: “1. the type that “theater people” buy tickets (or get comped) to see and 2. the type that we feel comfortable taking ‘non-theater people’ to see.” Olmos has issues with most theatre as being too pretentious and self-indulgent or lacking in substance. Theater is too "safe" of an art form and many groups simply put on shows that have audiences sit quietly for 90 minutes, then leave, which makes theatre irrelevant. Instead, Olmos hopes theatre allows itself to become more "relevant, dangerous and exciting," where any non-theater person can enjoy and have an engaging experience. Olmos enjoys writing that takes risks and is not afraid to anger, challenge, confuse and engage an audience. Olmos thinks it is important to create theater that is important to the world that anyone can watch and to avoid "doing art for art's sake." He enjoys the works of writers like Rogelio Martinez, Mando Alvarado, Caitlin Saylor Stephens, Samuel Hunter and companies like The Assembly and The TEAM.

Writing style
Many of Olmos' characters speak in a "stylized rhythm" based on how he hears Mexicans from the West Coast speak. When asked about his use of lower case and punctuation, Olmos has said that he has never been especially good with grammar and has a very small vocabulary, but he loves the endless ways people can communicate casually and tries to show that in his writing. Olmos focuses on writing about underrepresented, marginalized "have'nots." According to him, the majority of works in theatre are about people with social class, which he finds elitist. Olmos only writes stories with political or social relevance, and often incorporates fantastical elements within them as a way to "embrace theatricality" and "expand our imaginations." The fantastic elements in his worlds are also a way to approach the many ridiculous, unexplainable things people do to each other in the real world. Olmos hopes when writing about the underrepresented types of people that do not typically attend theater, that if they saw his play, they could connect through the theatrics or "hyper-realistic" elements in his work. Olmos likes to write about the small boundaries people create around themselves and often overlook. He finds that these boundaries that separate us and cause loneliness are ridiculous and that by writing about them we can recognize them and be able to look across them.

Accolades

 * Sundance Institute Time Warner Storytelling Fellow (2009)
 * BBC's International Playwriting Competition (2011)
 * Sam Shepard Selects Playwright Matthew Paul Olmos to Create New Work at La MaMa E.T.C. (2011)
 * La MaMa e.t.c.'s Ellen Stewart Emerging Playwright Award (2012–13)
 * Princess Grace Award in Playwriting (2012)
 * Sundance Institute UCROSS Resident (2013)
 * Sundance Institute Theater Lab (2014)
 * Arizona Theatre Company's National Latino Playwriting Award (2015)
 * Center Theatre Group L.A. Writers' Workshop (2017)
 * Cherry Lane Mentor Project, selected by Taylor Mac (2018)
 * Actors Theatre of Louisville 43rd Humana Festival of New American Plays Commission (2019)
 * Repertorio Español Miranda Family Voces Latinx Playwriting Competition 1st place for that drive thru monterey (2020)
 * Geffen Playhouse Writers Room(2020)
 * Ojai Playwrights Conference for that drive thru monterey (2021)
 * Primary Stages Inaugural Creative Development Grantee (2021)
 * Drama League Award Nominee (2021)
 * Ojai Playwrights Conference for a home what howls (or the house what was ravine)(2022)
 * Playwrights' Center Core Writer (2022)
 * Ensemble Studio Theatre Sloan Commission (2023)
 * Playwrights' Center & Venturous Theatre Fund List for a home what howls (or the house what was ravine) & that drive thru monterey (2023)
 * Dramatists Guild Inaugural Catalyst Fellowship (2023)

Full length plays

 * that drive thru monterey
 * sing it to the air, sing it to the ground, spill the wine, take that pearl
 * Richie never slept, was always up, moving around at night
 * a home what howls (or the house what was ravine)
 * immorality may well be imagined
 * three girls never learnt the way home
 * the broken'hearts of a corrupted white house
 * the shooters of an american president
 * "i am a drop'dead gorgeous, fabulous, stylish, exotic'ass gem amongst thousands of rocks" by elliot rodger
 * the living'life of the daughter mira
 * The OLMOS FAMILY Play
 * so go the ghosts of méxico, a brave woman in mexico
 * so go the ghosts of méxico, the rise of azul
 * so go the ghosts of méxico, a daughter sings the poet song
 * i put the fear of méxico in'em
 * The Nature of Captivity
 * monkey
 * nobody rides a locomotive no'mo
 * the death of the slow'dying scuba diver

Essays

 * Extraordinary Jokes with Saviana Stanescu
 * The Elaborate Theater of Kristoffer Diaz
 * The Broken Lines of Tommy Smith
 * The Edge of Togetherness in Carla Ching
 * The Past and Future Sunsets of Dominique Morisseau
 * Jesus in India: Finding Out Who We Are with Lloyd Suh
 * Young Jean Lee: Inviting Everyone into the Room, Straight White Men, Too