Matthew C. Williams, an assistant professor of performance and movement at SIU Carbondale, is working on a libretto featuring Violent Femme songs. (Photo by Russell Bailey)
April 16, 2025
SIU theater professor’s collaboration with Violent Femmes singer may lead to the stage
CARBONDALE, Ill. — With the help of Violent Femmes lead singer Gordon Gano, Matthew C. Williams, an assistant professor of performance and movement in Southern Illinois University Carbondale’s School of Theater and Dance, is putting the final touches on a libretto that weaves the group’s music into the story of a struggling family’s search for redemption.
The School of Theater and Dance will serve as an incubator for the yet-to-be-named musical, which Williams hopes to complete this summer. He expects SIU students will help “germinate” the libretto, with possibly a reading this fall on campus before finding a producer and sponsors to continue the process. The culmination would be a full theater production and commercial run.
Williams has listened to Violent Femmes music since the 1980s, and he “always had a suspicion that their material would make greater fodder for a musical.”
The libretto’s third version focuses on a struggling New York City restauranteur, his wife (an antiques auctioneer) and their two estranged teenage children. The family is on the verge of financial, emotional and physical ruin when they receive notice of an enormous inheritance left to them by their deeply religious aunt who was the last living Shaker in America. There is a catch. The family must abandon their city lives and live in isolation for 10 months as devout Shakers in rural upstate Maine in order to inherit the Shaker Village property, valued at over $4 million. What they encounter is much more than a “weekend in the country” when they find themselves entangled in a spiritual battlefield between good and evil within the haunted stone walls of the village.
Williams said he and Gano believe this solidified third version “is the most effective one that hits all of the marks. I think it’s the most compelling story, the most personal story for me.”
A lengthy process
Williams’ work goes back nearly 15 years, started while he was living in New York City and working as an actor and choreographer. Williams and his collaborator at the time received permission to use Violent Femmes’ music in a theatrical piece. After working on the project for about a year, Gano attended the reading and was “really struck with how well we were able to incorporate the music into a story,” Williams said, but the tale did not resonate with Gano.
At that point, Williams’ collaborator left the project, and Williams decided to continue with a new story. The second version a few years later with a different scenario featured the same music and was one that Gano liked, but Williams said he was unhappy with it because “it didn’t quite match up.”
“Gordon was still interested in continuing with it, so I said I would like to revisit it and write a third. I wanted to do something new. And he said sure. He was very accommodating. I learned a lot from version one and then version two,” Williams said.
The third version was delayed by the COVID-19 pandemic and Williams and his family’s move to Southern Illinois.
“Version three had a longer gestation period. I got the job here at SIU in 2021 and that further sort of expanded the duration of this creation,” Williams said. “I finally over time nailed down the story of what I wanted the third version to be about, and I was able to sit down and outline it and then get the first act completed.”
Back to the ’80s
The libretto’s setting in 1983 New York City coincides with the Violent Femmes’ debut album and quick second album release.
“I love that time period,” Williams said. “It’s nice to get away from the digital era and backtrack to 1983. I grew up in the 1980s. It’s a period I can harken back to and write about in a real way.”
Williams drew from the Shakers’ origins for several reasons, including the groups’ basic tenets — regular confession of sin, communal living (sharing of property and money), celibacy and separation from the outside world. Formed in the mid-1700s in England, the Shakers arrived in the United States a few decades later and formed several communities. Today, there is one remaining Shaker community in Maine with two members.
Williams notes the Shakers were formed by a woman and were the first group to live “truly equitably” in terms of race and gender in addition to being pacifists. “Their Christianity and how they represented it, along with sublimating sexual energy into work, make them a compelling story,” he said. Williams notes the Violent Femmes’ second album, “Hallowed Ground,” is largely considered a gospel album “for the most part with incredible dark tones.”
Moving forward
Williams has about 144 songs — from the band, Gano’s solo material and collaborations with other artists and movie soundtracks to choose from. With each version of the story “some songs remain, some songs get scrapped, and others get put in according to what the needs of the story are,” Williams said.
For the musical, Williams selected more than 20 songs — largely from the group’s debut and second albums.
“This project is different from taking an existing catalogue of songs and shoehorning them into a story,” he said. “I think this version is an upgrade from being a vehicle to showcase songs. It’s a much more fully integrated story because I’ve had so much time with it.”
Williams said the time spent in New York City and his affection for the Violent Femmes helped in the process.
“I’m not writing about my life specifically, but it’s so much easier to write from your own experience,” he said. “It ends up being honest, being authentic. When you try to write something that not you, you cannot hide around what you are writing.”