Katie Bender

Katie Bender

Katie Bender (she/her/hers) is a playwright, performer and theater maker. Her plays include Judith, SHE WOLF, The Survivors/Los Sobrevivientes, Instructions for a Séance and Howling, Texas to name a few. Filled with games, physical exertion and a poetic delight in the mundane, her work often examines the surprising ways humans transform within impossible systems.
Katie’s work has been developed and...
Katie Bender (she/her/hers) is a playwright, performer and theater maker. Her plays include Judith, SHE WOLF, The Survivors/Los Sobrevivientes, Instructions for a Séance and Howling, Texas to name a few. Filled with games, physical exertion and a poetic delight in the mundane, her work often examines the surprising ways humans transform within impossible systems.
Katie’s work has been developed and produced all over the country including at Hyde Park Theater, ZACH, The Alley, Shrewds, EST, Kitchen Dog, The Playwrights’ Center, LAUNCH PAD, Fusebox Festival, THT Rep, New Harmony Project, ACT Theatre, All For One Theater, Urbanite and Amphibian Stage. She is the co-creator of Underbelly, with whom she made ecstatic site-specific performances such as Slip River which received the Critics Table Award for Best New Comedy. Her play Judith received the B.Iden Payne award for Best New Script. Katie was a Jerome Fellow and is thrilled to be returning as a Core Writer at The Playwrights Center. She received her M.F.A from The University of Texas.

Plays

  • Howling, Texas by Katie Bender
    Recommendations: 2
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    Cast: 
    4
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    Genre: comedy
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    Keyword: comedy, faith + 8 more
    Genre: comedy
    Keyword: comedy, faith, Sex, marriage, monsters, climate change, global warming, Texas, Texas comedy, A Family Drama-Comedy
    In the wake of Hurricane Harvey, in the small town of Howling, local pastor Deborah Lewis has started receiving text messages from God, a prophecy for the next phase of human evolution. It does not look good. It looks hard. Also, she's gonna need a volunteer to help with the technology. Karen, a stranger to Howling, has upended her life to come live with Johnny. The sex is good, and dammit, she’s not ready...
    In the wake of Hurricane Harvey, in the small town of Howling, local pastor Deborah Lewis has started receiving text messages from God, a prophecy for the next phase of human evolution. It does not look good. It looks hard. Also, she's gonna need a volunteer to help with the technology. Karen, a stranger to Howling, has upended her life to come live with Johnny. The sex is good, and dammit, she’s not ready to settle down. Thrown together, Karen and Deborah confront prophecy, change, and their role in shaping the future. Howling, Texas is a comedy about faith, sex, marriage, and monsters.
  • Judith by Katie Bender
    Recommendations: 1
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    Cast: 
    1
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    Genre: adventure, comedy + 1 more
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    Keyword: Shakespeare, identity + 4 more
    Genre: adventure, comedy, period
    Keyword: Shakespeare, identity, solo-show, female, Virginia Woolf, History
    "Let me imagine, since facts are so hard to come by, what would have happened had Shakespeare had a wonderfully gifted sister, called Judith, let us say." -Virginia Woolf.
    Dressed in drag, Judith assumes her brother's identity and heads to London to save his reputation. In a patriarchal, politically-charged, deeply divided nation, she discovers the pleasures and pitfalls of passing as a...
    "Let me imagine, since facts are so hard to come by, what would have happened had Shakespeare had a wonderfully gifted sister, called Judith, let us say." -Virginia Woolf.
    Dressed in drag, Judith assumes her brother's identity and heads to London to save his reputation. In a patriarchal, politically-charged, deeply divided nation, she discovers the pleasures and pitfalls of passing as a man, while becoming the poet known around town-and to history-as The Bard. Gallivanting in and out of character, Judith is an unexpected solo show that explores ambition, self-worth, and queer identity.
  • Instructions for a Séance by Katie Bender
    Recommendations: 1
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    Cast: 
    1
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    Genre: biography, comedy + 2 more
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    Keyword: magic, escapism + 7 more
    Genre: biography, comedy, docudrama/historic, immersive
    Keyword: magic, escapism, motherhood, solo-show, Houdini, History, seance, family relationships, comedy
    This DIY séance hosted by writer/performer Katie Bender invites an audience to conjure escape artist Harry Houdini and learn how to escape their own lives. Part magic show and a playful look at one of history’s greatest illusionists, Instructions for a Séance explores the gauntlet that is motherhood, artistic ambition, and escapism.
  • SHE WOLF, Margaret of Anjou by Katie Bender
    Cast: 
    12–15
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    Genre: adaptation, adventure + 2 more
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    Keyword: Shakespeare, adaptation + 7 more
    Genre: adaptation, adventure, biography, docudrama/historic
    Keyword: Shakespeare, adaptation, Henry VI, female centered, power, democracy, History, insurrection, BIPOC actors
    A nation divided, an unending off-shore war, an ineffectual leader, insurrection, systemic racism, inequality, oh, and don’t forget the plague. Margaret of Anjou marries Henry the Sixth in an alliance meant to broker peace, but arrives in England with her Ladies-in-Waiting to discover a nation built on war without the tools to transition to anything else. Queen Margaret is one of Shakespeare’s most misaligned...
    A nation divided, an unending off-shore war, an ineffectual leader, insurrection, systemic racism, inequality, oh, and don’t forget the plague. Margaret of Anjou marries Henry the Sixth in an alliance meant to broker peace, but arrives in England with her Ladies-in-Waiting to discover a nation built on war without the tools to transition to anything else. Queen Margaret is one of Shakespeare’s most misaligned and complex female characters; SHE WOLF is a cheeky, ambitious, remarkably current retelling of her story.
  • The Survivors/Los Sobrevivientes by Katie Bender
    Recommendations: 3
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    Cast: 
    7–8
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    Genre: adventure, biography + 4 more
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    Keyword: Mexico, Texas + 6 more
    Genre: adventure, biography, docudrama/historic, drama, period, political
    Keyword: Mexico, Texas, Immigrants, History, pioneers, women, battle, survivor
    The Survivors/Los Sobrevivientes is based on the historically documented group of women, children and enslaved people who survived the battle of the Alamo. It’s an epic historical drama told by a diverse ensemble of people who didn’t make it into the history books. It’s an intimately drawn look at the surprising alliances necessary to survive the shifting and mercurial rule of Mexico’s fledgling democracy.
  • The Fault by Katie Bender
    Recommendations: 1
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    Cast: 
    5
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    Genre: comedy, dark comedy + 1 more
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    Keyword: family, Inheritance + 5 more
    Genre: comedy, dark comedy, drama
    Keyword: family, Inheritance, Sisters, drug addiction, california, opioid addiction, poetry
    Star is fourteen, charming, precocious and quickly developing a drug habit she can’t control. Jane, her older sister, just wants to go to UCLA. Angie, the eldest, kicked out months ago is heading home. Three sisters, living on the edge of a small town in Northern California, growing up in an itinerant family, uprooted by natural disasters and poverty, struggle with their obligations to each other and their...
    Star is fourteen, charming, precocious and quickly developing a drug habit she can’t control. Jane, her older sister, just wants to go to UCLA. Angie, the eldest, kicked out months ago is heading home. Three sisters, living on the edge of a small town in Northern California, growing up in an itinerant family, uprooted by natural disasters and poverty, struggle with their obligations to each other and their disparate ambitions to get out.

    The Fault is an unflinching heartfelt look at families living off the edge of the American dream. The cast is small (5) with four of the roles being strong funny women who won’t give up on their dreams, or each other.
  • Still, Now by Katie Bender
    Recommendations: 1
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    Cast: 
    7–9
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    Genre: drama
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    Keyword: women, body + 5 more
    Genre: drama
    Keyword: women, body, cancer, health, dance, Butoh, death
    After witnessing the fall of the twin towers, Annie heads to Japan to study Butoh, looking for a dance form that expresses the destruction she can’t comprehend.  Ten years later, Annie is diagnosed with stage four cancer and returns to Butoh to prepare for her final dance. Still Now confronts us with the accelerated motion of a woman learning and losing her body, accompanied by the doctors, teachers, friends...
    After witnessing the fall of the twin towers, Annie heads to Japan to study Butoh, looking for a dance form that expresses the destruction she can’t comprehend.  Ten years later, Annie is diagnosed with stage four cancer and returns to Butoh to prepare for her final dance. Still Now confronts us with the accelerated motion of a woman learning and losing her body, accompanied by the doctors, teachers, friends and lovers that become her partners in movement, to ask the question: what can our bodies teach us that our minds cannot fathom?
  • One Night Only by Katie Bender
    Recommendations: 3
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    Cast: 
    2
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    Genre: biography, docudrama/historic + 2 more
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    Keyword: Houdini, Magician + 6 more
    Genre: biography, docudrama/historic, drama, mystery/thriller
    Keyword: Houdini, Magician, magic, Ambition, family, vaudeville, escape artist, escape
    One Night Only imagines the iconic escape artist, Harry Houdini’s last performance. It is a two-hander magic show about ambition and the shared hunger, between performer and audience, for moments of the impossible.