About
Matthew M. Hayashi currently serves as Managing Director of The Larking House, Head Carpenter at South Coast Repertory, and adjunct faculty in Technical Theatre at Fullerton College.
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As Managing Director of The Larking House, he is leading the organization’s transition to nonprofit status, overseeing financial systems, facilities and operations management, and production infrastructure. Through strategic partnerships with California State University of Fullerton, Curtis Theatre, and The Wayward Artist, The Larking House operates within a broader regional network—expanding access, resources, and performance opportunities for emerging artists.
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At South Coast Repertory, he leads the carpentry team under the supervision of the technical directors, managing shop workflow, scenic construction processes, transportation logistics, and crew training. His role bridges daily production execution with long-term operational stability within a LORT theatre environment.
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As adjunct faculty at Fullerton College, he teaches Introduction to Technical Theatre, a course that integrates lecture and practicum to provide students with foundational knowledge of production practices within a professional theatre context.
Leadership & Long-Term Vision
Hayashi’s leadership is rooted in integration. His work operates at the intersection of artistic development, production practice, and institutional infrastructure, with the belief that these elements cannot be meaningfully separated. Sustainable cultural work requires alignment between vision, craft, and structure.
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As Managing Director of The Larking House, he is leading the organization’s transition to nonprofit status while developing financial systems, operational clarity, and production frameworks designed for long-term viability. His focus extends beyond individual projects toward building an organization capable of supporting artists consistently and responsibly over time.
He is particularly invested in the transitional stages of an artist’s career—where mentorship, access, and structural support are often limited. By prioritizing infrastructure alongside artistic ambition, his leadership seeks to create environments where experimentation and rigor can coexist with sustainability.
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Hayashi’s long-term vision centers on cultural ecosystems rather than isolated productions. He is interested in models that unify professional production, arts education, and community engagement into a cohesive framework. In this model, institutions function not merely as presenters of work, but as cultivators of artists and stewards of shared civic space.
For Hayashi, leadership is measured by durability. The success of a production is immediate; the success of an institution is generational. His work aims to ensure that the structures built today are capable of sustaining the artists and audiences of tomorrow.
Education & Mentorship
Matthew M. Hayashi graduated cum laude with a Bachelor of Arts in Theatre and has been recognized nationally for his artistic work. He was a national recipient of the Kennedy Center American College Theater Festival’s SDC Directing Initiative in 2021 and a regional finalist and runner-up in 2020. He is also a recipient of the WildWind Performance Lab Fellowship. During his time at Fullerton College, he was awarded the Brodwyn Dodson Scholarship, the Paul Scop Scholarship, and the Marvin Levine Scholarship for excellence in theatre.
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As an educator at Fullerton College, Hayashi’s teaching is shaped by both professional practice and lived experience. Having begun his own academic journey at a community college, he understands the complexity of the students he now serves. Many balance work, family responsibility, and financial instability alongside their coursework. He approaches the classroom with the understanding that education does not occur in isolation from those realities.
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His philosophy of teaching centers on discipline, clarity, and collective responsibility. Through both his coursework and his leadership at The Larking House, he emphasizes a well-rounded view of production—one that asks artists to look beyond the individual lens and understand their role within a larger ecosystem. Technical training, in this framework, becomes preparation for participation in something greater than oneself.
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Mentorship, for Hayashi, is not about prescribing a single path. It is about illuminating possibilities. He prioritizes transparency about professional structures, demystifies industry expectations, and positions himself as an accessible resource as students navigate their own trajectories. Long-term development is cultivated through access, accountability, and honest conversation.
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During his own time as a student, Hayashi experienced housing instability that disrupted his academic progress and altered the course of a semester. That experience continues to inform his belief that educators are not only instructors of content, but potential lifelines within a larger institutional system. He holds high expectations in his classroom, but he pairs them with attentiveness and care, recognizing that rigor and empathy are not opposing forces.
In both professional and educational settings, his goal remains consistent: to build environments where emerging artists can develop skill, resilience, and a clear understanding of the pathways available to them.
​Artist Statement
I believe theatre is one of the last immediate and communal art forms. It gathers strangers into a shared space and asks them to experience something together—an idea, a conflict, an emotion—at the same time. In a culture increasingly defined by isolation and mediated connection, that act of gathering feels essential.
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My work moves between directing, writing, and technical production, but it is unified by a single question: how do we build spaces where people feel less alone? As a director and writer, I am drawn to stories that examine disconnection, loneliness, and the fragile ways we attempt to reach one another. As a builder and production leader, I understand that those stories rely on structure—literal and organizational—to hold them.
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Technical production is not separate from artistry; it is one of its clearest expressions. The materials we choose, the systems we build, and the discipline we bring to process shape the audience’s encounter as profoundly as performance. Structure is not opposed to emotion. It makes emotion possible.
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I approach theatre as an ecosystem. Clear communication, disciplined workflow, and collaborative accountability create the conditions in which meaningful work can happen. Whether constructing scenery, leading a production team, or developing an arts organization, my focus remains the same: build frameworks strong enough to support artistic risk and human vulnerability.
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In both professional practice and the classroom, I teach that craft is a form of care. To build well is to create a space where artists can trust one another and where audiences can gather in shared attention. For me, theatre is not only about spectacle or execution—it is about connection made visible, embodied, and communal.
Contact
I'm always looking for new and exciting opportunities. Let's connect.
123-456-7890