APRIL MATTHIS
2016 RUTH MALECZECH AWARD
a performer who embodies Ruth’s daring and raw, naked fearlessness
APRIL MATTHIS is an actor and performer originally from Texarkana, TX. She has toured internationally as a member of Elevator Repair Service, and has been a fixture in the New York Theater scene for over fifteen years. Credits include: Primary Trust (Roundabout Theatre Off-Broadway); The Piano Lesson (Broadway Revival); Help (Original Off-Broadway Production); Toni Stone (Roundabout Theatre World Premiere); Signature Plays: Funnyhouse of a Negro (Signature Theatre); Antlia Pneumatica, Iowa (Playwrights Horizons); The Insurgents (Labyrinth); and The Sound & the Fury and Fondly, Collette Richland (at New York Theatre Workshop with Elevator Rerpair Service); On the Levee (LCT3); LEAR (Soho Rep); Melancholy Play (13P); The Sugar House at the Edge of the Wilderness (Ma-Yi); Dead City, Anna Bella Eema (New Georges). Regionally, April has appeared in productions at Yale Rep, the Humana Festival, The Magic Theater, as well as The Rude Mechs, Salvage Vanguard, and The Vortex, in Austin, TX, where she began her acting career. April’s work in the dance world includes Ralph Lemon’s Scaffold Room (Walker Art Center, The Kitchen), as well as Deborah Hay’s The Blues at the MoMA. Film/video work includes Wendell and the Lemon (Slamfest 2015), Black Card (HBO/Cinemax), and video work for recording artist Anohni’s HOPELESSNESS Tour. April is also the recipient of a New Dramatists Charles Bowden Award, as well as an OBIE Award for Sustained Excellence of Performance.