The 2019 ECD Residency Grant -- the first grant awarded following the re-imagining of the Residency Grant as an opportunity specifically for early career dramaturgs -- has been awarded to Matthew Boerst for his work with Penumbra Theatre Company.

Says Matthew: “The ECD Residency grant supported me in my work as the assistant dramaturg (working with Saymoukda Vongsay, who served as both dramaturg and cultural consultant) for Penumbra Theatre Company and Theater Mu's co-production of The Brothers Paranormal by Prince Gomolvilas. This was a play that spoke to the way that people interact in their difference and in their similarity, all the while drawing from both horror and soap opera tropes in both the US and Thailand to talk about the trauma of loss and displacement. It was an exciting project that brought two (hugely significant) theatre companies and two communities (at least) together in new ways. Inside of this, I felt like both dramaturg and documentarian.”

Matthew Boerst is a dramaturg, writer, lighting designer, scenic designer and technician from Wisconsin, based in Minneapolis. He is a recent graduate of the University of Minnesota, where he studied theatre arts with mentors Talvin Wilks, Lisa Channer, Bill Healey and Chelsea Masteller-Warren as well as urban studies, focusing on cultural planning and arts leadership under Tom Borrup. As a dramaturg, he has worked with Penumbra Theatre Company and Theater Mu, Theatre Novi Most, the Apollo Theater, and with the University of Minnesota. He is excited by the crossings of theatre and community (both as places and as groups of people).