A Single Act

Look no further than the Adams Dining Hall for the showing of the man behind the one man show, “The Matt Show – Matt Corriel ’05 sings Matt Corriel ’05.”  Corriel, who will perform his one-man show in New York City on November 18 with the support of Harvardwood, serves as Adams House’s resident songwriter and tutor for the dramatic arts.  While he was not able to reserve a space to coincide with his exact birth date (November 12), Corriel’s tradition of performing a showcase of his songs every year on his birthday has stuck with him since his time as an undergraduate at Harvard. “It’s entertainment from behind the piano, I sing songs, I tell stories, but I would hate to think of it as a recital. In the spring of my freshman year, I did a ‘Greatest Hits’ show, because that’s just the kind of guy I am – you know, Greatest Hits at 18 – it was really ridiculous,” says Corriel. Now 27, Corriel is still driven by the desire to perform. He explains that his show is “a celebration” for his New York friends and family. Corriel has written five musicals since graduating, and has a sixth one currently in the works. He also shares his passion with the Harvard Arts community by teaching a co-curricular workshop called “How Songs Work” and serving as Director of Operations for the Freshman Arts Program.  “There are a lot of people at Harvard who think about things – they think about plays, they muse about musicals, they think about films,” says Alex B. Lipton ’11, who has worked with Corriel for the Hasty Pudding Theatricals. “But there are very few people who do. Matt Corriel creates. He writes songs, he composes. He inspires kids to make instead of talking about things.” Now preparing to go to law school, Corriel is not sure if this will be his last year as a resident tutor in Adams. He has issued a challenge to the resident poet, Zachary C. Sifuentes ’97, though, to write six works dedicated to Adams before the end of the year and make what he calls “some lasting contribution of art to the artsy house.”