Matt Stabile believes that taking the leap might be the only way to discover where you are meant to land.
In this episode, I sit down with
Matt Stabile, Producing Artistic Director of
Theatre Lab, the professional resident company at Florida Atlantic University. Matt shares the unexpected path that took him from teaching high school theatre to helping build a professional theatre devoted exclusively to developing new work.
Matt takes me behind the scenes of Theatre Lab’s beginnings, including turning a former frozen yogurt shop into a 99-seat theatre and building a company committed to giving playwrights, students, and audiences a place to experience new stories. We talk about why he believes the classics of tomorrow depend on the new work being created today, why great theatre should occasionally make an audience uncomfortable, and why he is drawn to stories that surprise us and challenge the way we see the world.
We get into the harder parts of an artistic life too. Matt shares what it means to keep going when you want to quit, how Theatre Lab responded when the pandemic shut down the industry, and why knowing who you are can guide you through moments when you have no idea what comes next.
This conversation is for every artist considering a leap, every creative wondering whether the uncertain path is worth taking, and anyone who believes stories can help us understand one another a little better.
Pull up a chair, grab your favorite beverage, and join us on the porch.
Timestamps:
(
00:00) Welcome to Your Porch or Mine
(
02:40) Building a bridge from college theatre to the professional world
(
04:50) Why you cannot plan your creative career
(
09:42) How Theatre Lab at FAU began
(
14:10) Why the classics of tomorrow start with new work today
(
17:01) Creating theatre that challenges an audience
(
23:50) Why discomfort can help us grow
(
29:56) Directing Tammy Ryan’s
Tar Beach(
31:28) Why playwrights should write the impossible stage direction
(
35:34) What makes Matt choose a new play
(
40:43) Taking the leap when you do not know what comes next
(
43:21) Why every artist will probably try to quit
(
44:12) Keeping a theatre community alive during the pandemic
(
47:51) Why theatre teaches us empathy and humanity
(
50:00) The beauty of knowing every moment is temporary
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What is Your Porch or Mine?
Life doesn’t happen in perfectly scripted scenes. It happens on porches, between belly laughs and hard truths, with a mic nearby and maybe a glass of wine in hand. It’s messy, magical, and changes with every turn of the page.
Your Porch or Mine is for the feelers, thinkers, and everyday doers who crave real conversation, the kind that holds both the joy and the heartbreak, the pivots you never saw coming, and the moments that quietly change everything. It’s a space for anyone who’s ever wished they could sit down, exhale, and say, “Okay, let’s really talk about it.”
Hosted by Diana Suarez Mucci, playwright, mom of four, grandmother, and a lifelong storyteller. This show brings the spirit of her hometown porch to your ears. Pull up a chair, grab your favorite drink, and settle in for stories that will make you laugh, cry & everything in between.