Mat Smart, the author of several full-length plays, attended the University of Evansville, majoring in acting and writing, and went on to take an M.F.A in playwriting at the San Diego branch of the University of California. According to The Pittsburgh Post Gazette:
[Smart] says, ‘I write plays about something I don't understand and am trying to find the answer to.’ In 13th of Paris (the title refers to an area of the city), that's ‘what if you have an idea of what love can be, but what you have is very different? How do you reconcile that?’
Clearly the question has autobiographical relevance. ‘In a way, the play is helping me live my life better,’ Smart says. ‘I used to write plays much more overtly political. I'm much more interested now in love stories.’
Smart discussed his experiences in Paris with an interviewer from Playbill:
[Smart] says, ‘I write plays about something I don't understand and am trying to find the answer to.’ In 13th of Paris (the title refers to an area of the city), that's ‘what if you have an idea of what love can be, but what you have is very different? How do you reconcile that?’
Clearly the question has autobiographical relevance. ‘In a way, the play is helping me live my life better,’ Smart says. ‘I used to write plays much more overtly political. I'm much more interested now in love stories.’
Smart discussed his experiences in Paris with an interviewer from Playbill:
Smart told Playbill.com, ‘I first went to Paris about ten years ago and was very unimpressed. It was the middle of the winter — cold, gray, raining and snowing. There were numerous strikes that closed down the museums and the trains, and everything was inconvenient. Even the streets were filthy. Then about two-and-a-half years ago, I took a trip to Cameroon in Africa. On the way, I had a couple-day layover in Paris. I got a cheap hotel in the 13th District. I had no expectations of the city. But it was May and there was beautiful weather, and I found it to be the wonderful city that it is known to be. I started writing the play in the little cafe at the hotel, while looking at an old black and white photograph on the wall of an older man at a cafe with his dog.’
Does Smart have an interest in ghost stories?
‘I don't really think of Jacques — Vincent's grandfather — as a ghost, but rather a real person who just happens to have died 40 years ago. I am fascinated by the differences in generations. Did people love more fully 40 years ago? A hundred years ago? Do cell phones and email lessen the romance in our lives? What can be done about it? It just so happens that the person Vincent is having this debate with is no longer living.
So this play is in significant measure based on the playwright’s own personal encounter with Paris and its 13th Arrondissement.