{"id":38389,"date":"2018-10-05T15:42:22","date_gmt":"2018-10-05T21:42:22","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/artistsofutah.org\/15Bytes\/?p=38389"},"modified":"2018-10-10T00:17:18","modified_gmt":"2018-10-10T06:17:18","slug":"matthew-greene-is-in-good-standing-with-his-newest-play-at-plan-b","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/artistsofutah.org\/15Bytes\/matthew-greene-is-in-good-standing-with-his-newest-play-at-plan-b\/","title":{"rendered":"Matthew Greene is in Good Standing With His Newest Play at Plan-B"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a>Utah\u2019s Plan-B Theatre is set to debut playwright Matthew Greene\u2019s newest work, \u201cGood Standing,\u201d in just a few weeks at the Rose Wagner. The play presents an intriguing perspective of a meaningful and complex issue, with a single actor, Austin Archer, representing multiple roles within a disciplinary council of the LDS Church. As theme and setting begin to unfold in the play, Greene\u2019s script delivers this powerful line: \u201cIt\u2019s too cold when I walk in. It always is, when men in suits are setting the temperature.\u201d<\/h4>\n

Embodying both personal and widely relatable experience is the primary focus of this work, which addresses deep and complex questions for persons of any faith or philosophy in a warm, thought-provoking manner. The audience in many ways becomes participant as common but questionable ideologies are represented on stage. What makes this piece so special is the artist\u2019s ability to represent a divisive subject in a way that is both engaging and emotionally charged, without being offensive.<\/h4>\n

\u201cGood Standing\u201d is just the latest of several projects that Greene has been working on over the past few years. He says he prefers the stage over other media for his writing because he loves the collaboration involved. \u201cI write a script, then through working with the actors, directors, producers it becomes a play.\u201d<\/h4>\n

Greene, who currently lives in Brooklyn, was raised LDS in California and has both lived and worked in Utah. One of his first opportunities as a playwright was working with Jerry Rapier, artistic director at Plan-B Theatre Company, in the company\u2019s long-running SLAM series. His \u201c<\/em>Adam & Steve and the Empty Sea,\u201d<\/em> which played to sold-out audiences, premiered there in 2013.<\/h4>\n

Greene was a student at Brigham Young University during the Proposition 8 controversy, and the play explored what the debate on marriage equality did to two friends, one openly gay and the other actively Mormon. Though many associated Greene\u2019s perspective with the latter character, he actually embodied both. Now an \u201cout-and-proud gay man,\u201d as he described himself in Q Salt Lake, he freely admits his own life was the inspiration for \u201cGood Standing,\u201d which he calls a \u201clove letter to uncertainty and to complicated, problematic faith.\u201d<\/h4>\n

\u201cThe Mormon church is not comfortable with uncertainty or gray area,\u201d he says. \u201cThey love absolutes. As I get older I realize that easy answers don\u2019t exist. The world is complicated and there are many things that don\u2019t fit neatly. There is freedom when we embrace uncertainty that will always be there. Then we can really live and find joy.\u201d<\/h4>\n

Greene faced his own church disciplinary council, a process in which a member of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints is required to meet with a dozen or more lay clergy to answer charges that he or she has deviated from the requirements of the faith.<\/h4>\n

\u201cIt is so interesting that many people refer to these disciplinary councils as a \u2018loving, comforting journey,\u2019\u201d he remarks. \u201cI found that is not necessarily the case. Some find comfort in a patriarchal organization, in being \u2018taken care of\u2019 by authority. Structure can be comforting until it turns against you. Then you might feel disenfranchised, and that you have no way to make your voice heard. That can be painful.\u201d<\/h4>\n

Like the single actor who must embody several roles, Greene explores the dynamics of this difficult situation, able to empathize with perspectives from inside and from outside the culture. \u201cThis play is about how difficult and complicated life is, not about how awful the church can be. I don\u2019t feel antagonistic toward church members. A lot of people that I really love are orthodox members of the church. Writing this play helps me to love them. It helps to bridge the gap.\u201d<\/h4>\n

\u201cGood Standing,\u201d Plan-B Theatre Company<\/a>, Rose Wagner, Salt Lake City, Oct. 18 \u2013 28, tickets, 801-355-ARTS.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Utah\u2019s Plan-B Theatre is set to debut playwright Matthew Greene\u2019s newest work, \u201cGood Standing,\u201d in just a few weeks at the Rose Wagner. The play presents an intriguing perspective of a meaningful and complex issue, with a single actor, Austin Archer, representing multiple roles within a disciplinary council […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1589,"featured_media":38911,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_piecal_is_event":false,"_piecal_start_date":"","_piecal_end_date":"","_piecal_is_allday":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[6,36],"tags":[3236,1624],"class_list":["post-38389","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-current_edition","category-theatre","tag-matthew-greene","tag-plan-b-theatre-company"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/artistsofutah.org\/15Bytes\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/10\/matthew_greene.jpeg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-05-11 10:12:09","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/artistsofutah.org\/15Bytes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/38389","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/artistsofutah.org\/15Bytes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/artistsofutah.org\/15Bytes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/artistsofutah.org\/15Bytes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1589"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/artistsofutah.org\/15Bytes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=38389"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/artistsofutah.org\/15Bytes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/38389\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":38913,"href":"https:\/\/artistsofutah.org\/15Bytes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/38389\/revisions\/38913"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/artistsofutah.org\/15Bytes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/38911"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/artistsofutah.org\/15Bytes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=38389"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/artistsofutah.org\/15Bytes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=38389"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/artistsofutah.org\/15Bytes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=38389"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}