Matt Scholten

Matt Scholten is an Australian theatre director who graduated from the Victorian College of the Arts in 2006. He has worked for companies including Melbourne Theatre Company, Theatreworks Melbourne, and La Mama Theatre.^[1] He has been the Artistic Director of the independent theatre company If Theatre since 2006.

If Theatre's debut production was A Slight Ache by Harold Pinter and was closely followed by Three Short Plays by Jack Hibberd for La Mama's 40th Birthday in 2007.

Beginning in 2008, Scholten collaborated with playwright Daniel Keene on a practice based primarily in Melbourne's western suburbs, launching The Dog Theatre in Footscray with productions of Keene's Half & Half and then The Cove (eight short plays including four world premieres) . If Theatre has also toured two new commissions written by Keene: Boxman (commissioned by Big West Festival and then presented by Regional Arts Victoria on a Victorian and NSW tour) and Mother a one woman play written for Noni Hazlehurst which began a national tour and was published by Currency Press in 2015.^[2]

Scholten's production of Daniel Keene's The Nightwatchman was part of Theatreworks' Selected Works programme in 2010 and also that year he was Assistant Director to Peter Evans at the Melbourne Theatre Company on Keene's debut there, Life Without Me.

For the Melbourne Theatre Company, Scholten has directed The Heretic featuring Noni Hazlehurst & Andrew McFarlane and directed readings of Rejkavijk by Paul Galloway and Daniel Keene's The Curtain with Helen Morse and Alex Menglet.

Other directorial works include The Crucible by Arthur Miller, Glengarry Glen Ross by David Mamet, Mr. Kolpert by David Geislemen, and new Australian work including Human Resources by Chris Aronsten, Crossed by Chris Summers and Black Box 149 by Rosemary Johns.

Scholten is also a teacher of acting and directing, working extensively at the Victorian College of the Arts and was Head of Theatre Arts at Goulburn Ovens TAFE from 2010-2014, continuing to teach and direct there into 2015.

In 2013, he completed a Directorial Attachment with Channel Seven on the television drama A Place to Call Home working with director Lynn Maree Danzey.

Beginning in 2013, Scholten programmed the theatre season for Benalla Performing Arts & Convention Centre (BPACC) and in 2014 he was appointed as resident Artistic Director there, launching Season 2015. At BPACC, he collaborated with the VCA bringing the FR!SK festival to the venue, created a programme for emerging women playwrights with support from the Australia Council and wrote and directed The Drums of Time , a verbatim play based on local WW1 stories.

In 2015, Scholten toured with the regional productions of Mother throughout Victoria and Tasmania and then relocated to South East Queensland.^{[3] [4]}

In 2016, Mother toured New South Wales and Queensland and was nominated for two Helpmann Awards: Best Performance by a Female Actor for Noni Hazlehurst and Best Regional Touring Production.

Scholten is currently a Guest Director and Lecturer at the University of Southern Queensland, where he has directed productions of Lysistrata and Tartuffe.

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