Last summer I had the side-splitting pleasure of working with a very talented team to bring Central Square Theater’s production of The Hound of Baskervilles to the stage.  I’ve been waiting all year to jump back into my artistic directing shoes and repeat the experience, this time with a new play and an almost entirely new group of artists.  I’m thrilled to welcome you to Matt and Ben!

This play has been on our minds at CST for some time, and I was delighted to learn that director Bevin O’Gara had been interested in it as well, and that we shared a similar vision for this comedy.  We pulled together a creative team comprised of a number of our peers with whom we already enjoyed collaborating, along with several we were interested in working with for the first time.  And it’s a thrill to introduce Philana Mia and welcome Marianna Bassham back to our stage as no less than Cambridge’s hometown heroes.

Our production team is a relatively young group, and I can’t help but consider how that influences our relationships to this play.  My friends and I saw Good Will Hunting on the big screen when we were in high school (technically too young for the R rating, but things were a bit more laidback in the 90s).  Now most of us are older than Matt Damon and Ben Affleck were in 1996, and also older than Mindy Kaling and Brenda Withers were when they turned Matt & Ben into their own successful vehicle. We understand the challenges that take on new dimensions when our teen years give way to the next decade of life: the tensions between our dreams and realities, the rifts that threaten even the closest friendships, the drive to make our mark on the world, the hunger to truly be seen and heard and to establish ourselves in our chosen fields.  It’s not often easy, so what a lovely gift that Matt & Ben allows us to come together to laugh and celebrate it all for a little while. It might even help us forget how much we miss good old Summer Vacation.