MATTHEW SPANGLER (co-Artistic Director)

Matthew Spangler is Co-Founding Artistic Director of Wordshed Productions (1998) and currently Artist Director of Wordshed West.

He received a BS in Performance Studies from Northwestern University (1996), an MA in Performance Studies from The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill (1998), an MPhil in Irish Culture and Theatre from Trinity College in Dublin, Ireland (1999), Ph.D in Performance Studies from The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill (2004). He is currently an Assistant Professor of Performance and Communication Studies at San Jose State University in California.

His stage work with Wordshed includes:

• Shady Hills:  The Short Stories of John Cheever, in which he adapted and directed four of Cheever’s short stories (2002 Chapel Hill)

• Antigone by Bertholt Brecht, in which he played The Guard (2002 Chapel Hill)

• Blue Heart by Caryl Churchill, in which he played Brian (2001 Chapel Hill)

• Hot Nights at the Go Go Lounge, in which he adapted and performed in the short story by Irish novelist, Patrick McCabe (2001 Chapel Hill)

• Thomas Wolfe’s The Lost Boy, in which he adapted and directed the novella (2000 Chapel Hill, nominated for best new play script, by Spectator Magazine)

• Nearly Finished, in which he directed five of Samuel Beckett’s short plays (2000 Chapel Hill)

• American Fiction, in which he adapted and directed the short stories of John Cheever and Jack London (2000 Chapel Hill)

• Hemingway’s Men and Women, in which he adapted and directed five short stories by Ernest Hemingway (1999 Chapel Hill; 2000 Birmingham, AL)

• Waiting for Godot, in which he played Estragon (1998 Chapel Hill)

• James Joyce’s Dubliners, which he adapted and performed in (Chapel Hill 1997; Baton Rouge, LA 1998; Maui, Hawaii 1998; Bournemouth, England 1998 & 1999; Dublin, Ireland 1999)

• James Joyce’s Finnegans Wake, which he adapted and performed in (Chapel Hill 1998; Chicago 1997)

• An Allan Gurganus Evening (for StreetSigns), in which he was an actor in this adaptation of several short stories by North Carolina author, Allan Gurganus (Chapel Hill 2000)

• Anton Chekhov’s The Seagull (for StreetSigns), in which he was actor (Chapel Hill 2000)

• Let Us Now Praise Famous Men (for StreetSigns), in which he was an actor in the adaptation of James Agee’s novel (Chapel Hill 2001; Atlanta 2001)

• W. B. Yeats’s Calvary and Words Upon a Window Pane, in which he was an actor at the International Yeats Summer School (Sligo, Ireland 2001)

Wordshed Productions
919.843.3155
wordshed@unc.edu