Semele Projects creates work for a world in motion. Our productions and partnerships bring together artists, institutions, and communities to develop theatre that is intellectually alive, emotionally resonant, and formally adventurous.
Rooted in the 20-year legacy of Son of Semele Ensemble, Semele Projects carries forward a history of bold Los Angeles theatre while embracing a more flexible, project-driven future. The name has evolved, but the commitment remains: to create work that challenges the room, sharpens the moment, and opens space for new perspectives.
Semele Projects creates theatre for the ideas that demand to be examined now. Through bold storytelling, creative risk, and collaborative production, we give artists and audiences a space to challenge assumptions, amplify new perspectives, and encounter work that keeps moving beyond the expected.
To create bold, thought-provoking theatre that steps directly into the questions of our time, embracing creative risk, artistic rigor, and collaboration as part of the live event.
To reshape the modern theatre experience through project-driven storytelling, unexpected partnerships, and work that invites audiences to feel the present moment differently.
To serve as a creative platform where artists, audiences, and ideas meet in the same charged room, making space for new voices, vital stories, and boundary-pushing performance.
To build each project around the people, place, process, and pulse it needs, allowing the work to find its own form before it meets the audience.
To invite people into more than a seat in the dark, creating live encounters where audiences become part of the question, the tension, and the meaning unfolding in the room.
To carry forward the fire of Son of Semele while opening a new stage for future-facing theatre, where the past becomes fuel for bolder forms still waiting to be made.
Matthew McCray is the Founder and Producing Artistic Director of Semele Projects. A director, producer, playwright, performer, and educator, he has created work with leading Los Angeles institutions including Center Theatre Group, the Los Angeles Philharmonic, South Coast Repertory, Deaf West Theatre, Theatre @ Boston Court, REDCAT, Rogue Machine, and more.
McCray produced 20 seasons of theatre for Son of Semele Ensemble, the former creative ensemble of Semele Projects. His work has featured nationally celebrated performers including Vanessa Williams and Bob Weir, as well as local, cherished Los Angeles artists. KCRW has described him as “one of the most plugged-in theatre makers in LA.”
His directing credits include Crevasse, Such Small Hands, Our Class, Next to Normal, The City, and The Other Place, with recognition from the LA Drama Critics Circle, Stage Raw, Ovation Awards, LA Weekly, Orange County Theatre Guild, SAGE Awards, and others. He has received support from EST/Sloan Science and Technology, Foundation for Contemporary Arts, and CCI/Durfee ARC, and was a finalist for the Sherwood Award.
Matthew teaches acting and directing at Los Angeles Valley College and writes new plays for the Symphonies for Youth program at the Los Angeles Philharmonic. He holds a BFA from Chapman University and is a member of Stage Directors and Choreographers Society, Actors’ Equity Association, and the Screen Actors Guild.
