matt & ben

Last Thursday I stumbled upon a poster advertising the upcoming showing of a small play at a local school. This one weekend only special was being presented by Red Quill Productions and students at BelmontUniversity , brining to life a play written by Mindy Kaling  and Brenda Withers. Yes, Mindy Kaling, as in Kelly Kapoor from The Office and Mindy Lahiri from The Mindy Project. What some people may not know is that one of the first breaks Mindy had as a writer was when she and her bff Brenda wrote a two person one act play (which they starred in as well as directed) titled “Matt & Ben.” In her book, Is Everyone HangingOut Without Me?, Kaling describes “Matt & Ben” as “ weird but simple” with a tone “somewhere between the X-Files and The Odd Couple.”  The gist is the story of the Affleck and Damon friendship and how the epic success we know as “Good Will Hunting” might have come to fruition.

Since the opportunity kind of “fell from the ceiling,” I obviously had to attend.  Jenna Pryor (Ben Affleck) and Lauren Knoop (Matt Damon) gave an engaging and entertaining performance as a couple of Boston besties just trying to make the writing/acting thing work. While the setting might have been modest, just like Matt & Ben, Pryor and Knoop had a hit on their hands. What a treat it was for fate to bring me this play, just days after finishing reading Kaling’s book, and give me the chance to see it manifested in front of me. Word to the wise: keep your eyes peeled for unexpected opportunities to present themselves. You never know when something exceedingly good will land in your metaphorical living room floor.