Ben Ferber

Ben Ferber

I write plays about the Internet and technology! They've been developed/produced at/by places including Williamstown Theatre Festival, The Brick, Portland Stage Company, the Shed, The Tank, UglyRhino, New York Madness, Horse Trade, and BrainMelt Consortium. I'm also a director and sound/projection designer; and often take on more than one role in my work. (Quite often, in particular, I design the plays I write.)

Plays

  • I'm Very Online
    Two people from the most extreme parts of opposite ends of the Internet (which are, to be clear, not morally equivalent) meet irl. And become best friends. And work at a bookstore. Which is dying. But neither knows about the other's Internet life. And things get weird. And people get hurt. And lives get destroyed. And books get sold.
  • Let's Play Play
    Three popular YouTubers start a let’s play channel, where they record themselves playing video games. Questionable journalistic ethics, the prospects of selling out, and Gamergate begin to dissolve their relationships.
  • For the Lulz
    A politically-motivated black hat hacker named poof begins attacking social networks. Fay, a stalwart tech journalist, Gale, a professor and embezzler, and MrJ, a patriotic grey hat hacker, decide to take him down for fame, for revenge, and for the lulz.
  • Aliterary Reading
    A two-character Mary-Sue rumination on the literary value of fanfiction, starring the author, and featuring readings from fanfics by famous, infamous, and canonical authors.

    Script available upon request; it contains work by other authors [which is fully-attributed, and permission has been granted where applicable], so I've elected to keep it offline.
  • Andy Warhol Was Actually Part of a Real Reverse Heist that Really Happened on the Actual Moon, and Related Conspiracies Ranging from Totally True to Semi-Factual to Definitely False, as Propagated by Reddit.com and the Rest of the Internet
    A play about Internet conspiracy theorists discovering how Andy Warhol smuggled art onto the moon. A note on the script: it's currently formatted the way that it is because it was designed for actors to read off of smartphones.
  • Atheist Ghost Party
    Two dead scientists haunt their lab, and prove to two living scientists that ghosts are real, and not religion-related in any way.
  • Body Hacking Dispensary
    A woman tries to implant a computer into her baby.
  • Body Pillows
    Three enthusiasts throughout history attempt to normalize the romantic love of body pillows: a U.S. Representative with an anime body pillow, a 1970s businessman with a Raquel Welch pillow, and an ancient Japanese rice farmer with a bamboo wife.
  • Everything Seems So Plausible At 1 A.M.!
    Several people call their lawyer at 1 a.m. for legal advice. Some of them kill each other.

    Co-written with Donald McEwan.
  • Illuminati Confirmed
    Several professors try to prove, and disprove, that a modern-day Illuminati is real. Their research is specious.
  • I Was a Teenage Cyborg Assassin
    At a school full of robots where nerds bully jocks, one cyborg tries to change the status quo.
  • Keynote Speech
    A parody of Apple product launches in which a CEO announces a teleporter toilet.
  • RAD ENOUGH DUDE??? (Yes.)
    Captain N meets Glengarry Glen Ross (sort of) when a cool teen is sucked into a video game to save Ronald Reagan from copyrighted ninjas.
  • Shut Down
    A Turing test is administered on a person who is not a computer. Or is she?