Matthew Glassman is a father, actor, writer, and director of original, ensemble theatre.  You can find him thriving in spaces devoted to embodied theatre training, performing on stage, and co-creating with his host of long-time collaborators. Glassman animates connections between the realms of imagination with the becoming of community, the unfolding of dreams, the awe of the natural world, and building grass-roots movements toward systemic change. Currently, he is serving as the Executive & Artistic Director of the Chocolate Church Art Center in Bath, Maine. Housed in a former Church built in 1847, he is stewarding a long-term vision of a community art center presenting and creating rad work in a small ship-building town on the coast of Maine, where he also lives with his family. He is also the founder and Director of the UnNameable Children’s Project, which, modeled after Black Mountain College, offers a theatrical laboratory for children 7-18 years old. 

From 2000-2022, Glassman was an Ensemble Actor and Co-Artistic Director of Double Edge Theatre, in Ashfield, MA. During that time, he co-created and performed in dozens of outdoor spectacles and indoor performances that toured to major art centers (Kennedy Center, Arena Stage, Meyerhold Center) and rural, urban, and far flung communities around the world. In that time he also contributed greatly to the long-term model of artistic sustainability of The Farm, Double Edge’s rural and international center for art and culture. Glassman also created the Art & Survival (directing and co-curating from 2014-2019)--a biennial convening of artists and activists researching the inner workings of artistic practice and its impact on culture and movement building. 

Underlying all his work is the belief that art is intrinsic to the health and happiness of a community. 

For years, Glassman was the Visiting Lecturer of Theatre and Dance at Trinity College, an advisor for LISC/ NEA Our Town Program, and the Community Foundation of Western Mass' Valley Create Program. He has served on the Board of Directors for Art of the Rural Board and on the HowlRound Advisory Council. He has been published in TDR and Howlround, was awarded the Mary Lyons Spirit of Adventure Award for Education, and was nominated for the Doris Duke Impact Award, the US Artists Award and the Johnson Fellowship for Artists Transforming Communities.