Polly Carl: Mat, what made you decide to become a playwright? Mat Smart: Well, there were two really formative experiences and they both happened during high school. I grew up in Naperville, where the play is set, and during high school I did a production of King Arthur. The director really got us all on the same page and it was a kind of collaborative experience I’d never had before. I also went to a Steppenwolf for Young Adults production of The Crucible, and it was really the most powerful piece of art I’d ever experienced. I thought, if I could just be part of that, then that’s what I want to do. So it’s really trippy to be coming back. I never would have thought, as a kid sitting in that audience, that I would later write a play that other kids would come and see. It’s a cool thing. PC: I love that story. Did you study theatre in college? MS: I wanted to be an actor. And then during my first year of college, three girls from my high school were killed by a drunk driver. It was the first time I knew anyone my age who had died. The only way I could make sense of it, because it was such a senseless, horrible thing that happened, was to write a play about it. I now find the plays that really speak to me are the ones that ask questions I can’t otherwise get past. PC: That’s such a great way to think about the reason we create art—to tell stories, to help us illuminate the parts of our lives that don’t make sense. Tell me about where you got the idea for Samuel J. and K. MS: The play was inspired by two things: me growing up in Naperville and then later taking a trip to Cameroon. One night I stayed out in a Cameroonian village and just had an experience like none other I’d had in my life. And so for me, the play is a collision of those two lives. How can you feel so connected to a foreign place when you’ve just arrived? And then other times you feel like a foreigner in your own hometown. The play asks questions like that. What is home? What is family? PC: So, how do you describe home now? Do you say you’re from Naperville? MS: You know, there are people from the suburbs who say they’re from Chicago. Then you ask them, “Oh, where in Chicago?” and they’re like, “Aurora.” But I’m proud of where I’m from. I had a great time growing up there, but there’s still a lot to complain about. I suppose that’s true of anywhere. But I do feel at home in Naperville—my mom still lives there, I still go there all the time, and it feels good to drive by the hospital I was born in. It’s actually right down the road from the cemetery I hope to be buried in. PC: How did you decide to travel to Cameroon? MS: I took a World Literature class in college that ended up being all about African literature. My professor was just a great teacher and had a lot of experience living in Africa. He actually went to Cameroon right after I graduated and offered to be my host if I traveled there. So I was granted a lot of access to the country because he’d been in Cameroon for almost a year. PC: I know you’re a huge sports fan. Can you talk about how that influences your writing? MS: One thing I love about sports is that you never know what’s going to happen. You know, you can have a home game, and the home team is supposed to win, but they get steamrolled. I think it’s exciting to try to take some of that and bring it into the theatre. PC: And your play really uses basketball as part of the action. Can you talk about the theatricality of basketball on stage? MS: You know, I initially wrote the basketball scenes offstage, because I didn’t think any theatre would want basketball onstage. But it turned out to be important that the game is really happening in front of the audience. I hope the audience will be excited to see that, because it’s not something you see very often. It’s a real game happening up there, not a metaphorical one. Of course there are places in the script where the actors are supposed to make the basket, and if they don’t—we ll, we have contingency plans.