Ben Siegler

Productions of my full-length plays include “The Good Coach” at off-Broadway’s WPA Theater, “To My Chagrin” at the Key West Theatre Festival and “Growing Pains” at Fordham University at Lincoln Center. I have had workshops and readings of a number of other plays at Playwrights Horizons, Ensemble Studio Theater (both in New York and Los Angeles), Circle Repertory Company, the American Theater Group in New Jersey, and New Dramatists. I have also written several episodes of the animated TV series “Rugrats,” an unpublished novel, and my screenplay, "Grimm" has been optioned by Dumont Entertainment Group.

As an actor I have performed on Broadway in Lanford Wilson’s “Fifth of July,” as well as in plays at Circle Rep, Playwright’s Horizons, the Public Theater, Jewish Rep, Ensemble Studio...

Productions of my full-length plays include “The Good Coach” at off-Broadway’s WPA Theater, “To My Chagrin” at the Key West Theatre Festival and “Growing Pains” at Fordham University at Lincoln Center. I have had workshops and readings of a number of other plays at Playwrights Horizons, Ensemble Studio Theater (both in New York and Los Angeles), Circle Repertory Company, the American Theater Group in New Jersey, and New Dramatists. I have also written several episodes of the animated TV series “Rugrats,” an unpublished novel, and my screenplay, "Grimm" has been optioned by Dumont Entertainment Group.

As an actor I have performed on Broadway in Lanford Wilson’s “Fifth of July,” as well as in plays at Circle Rep, Playwright’s Horizons, the Public Theater, Jewish Rep, Ensemble Studio Theater, the Eugene O’Neil Playwright’s Conference, and regional theaters such as the Mark Taper Forum, South Coast Rep, Actor’s Theater of Louisville, and the Cleveland Playhouse. I have had recurring roles in the TV shows “West Wing,” “Joan of Arcadia,” and “The Guardian,” and appeared in films such as “S.W.A.T.,” “Fallen,” “Quid Pro Quo,” and won the award for Best Actor at the Fantasia Film Festival for the independent film “Rule of Three.”

Scripts

Station Identification

Station Identification by Ben Siegler

Synopsis

Charles Sandal, star of the daytime drama The Days of My Children’s Lives at the Hospital, grapples with growing concerns about the morality of his character’s on-air actions. It’s 1989, and while society is more captivated by “Who Shot J.R.?” and reruns of The Cosby Show, few are paying attention to how TV is reshaping human behavior.

When his childhood friend is assassinated while running for President...

Charles Sandal, star of the daytime drama The Days of My Children’s Lives at the Hospital, grapples with growing concerns about the morality of his character’s on-air actions. It’s 1989, and while society is more captivated by “Who Shot J.R.?” and reruns of The Cosby Show, few are paying attention to how TV is reshaping human behavior.

When his childhood friend is assassinated while running for President, Charles becomes consumed by guilt over his recent TV movie, The Unhappy Assassin, which eerily paralled the crime. As he embarks on a search for the real-life killer and their motive, Charles uncovers mounting evidence of television’s subtle, insidious influence—leading to a shocking revelation about the murderer.

RIGHT

by Ben Siegler

Synopsis

Brief Synopsis:

Secrets and rage come to the surface when a group of liberals working alongside conservatives at a right-wing news website hears reports of a terrorist act taking place within their city.

Long Synopsis:

The majority of employees at the conservative RightSideCity.com website are revealed to be largely liberal democrats. As they try to reconcile the site’s recent success with their own...

Brief Synopsis:

Secrets and rage come to the surface when a group of liberals working alongside conservatives at a right-wing news website hears reports of a terrorist act taking place within their city.

Long Synopsis:

The majority of employees at the conservative RightSideCity.com website are revealed to be largely liberal democrats. As they try to reconcile the site’s recent success with their own antithetical ideologies, the producers and editors go about their daily work while casually watching yet another car chase on the streets of Los Angeles.

When the televised police chase becomes two separate police chases- on two different LA freeways, following two separate moving trucks- the group begins to react in a fashion that brings out their individual shadow selves. When a third truck on yet a different LA highway produces its own police chase, broadcast news stations’ coverage (unseen but heard) begins to reveal the characters’ hidden concerns and exacerbate prejudices.

Along with the news coverage, some of the employees initiate their own investigation into whether or not the three chases are actually a single terrorist act. As the pressure of the chases and the horrific implications escalate, the characters’ true feelings and secrets boil to the surface.

THREE JOHNSONS & A MULE

by Ben Siegler

Synopsis

19 year-old Sidney Goldberg (aka “Mule”) believes his neighbors, the Johnsons, to be the perfect sitcom family. Alternating between his attempts to charm them and to evade both his interrupting fantasies and his once successful Borsht Belt comedian grandfather Fat Benny, Mule hopes to become part of the family and "unburden" himself of his Jewishness.

19 year-old Sidney Goldberg (aka “Mule”) believes his neighbors, the Johnsons, to be the perfect sitcom family. Alternating between his attempts to charm them and to evade both his interrupting fantasies and his once successful Borsht Belt comedian grandfather Fat Benny, Mule hopes to become part of the family and "unburden" himself of his Jewishness.