Bennett Fisher

Bennett Fisher

Bennett Fisher is an Artistic Associate and former Shank Fellowship Playwright in Residence at Victory Gardens Theater in Chicago, a company member of Campo Santo, People of Interest, and the Cutting Ball Theater. His plays include Damascus (Samuel Goldwyn Award, O'Neill Conference finalist), Borealis (Alliance/Kendeda Prize finalist), Don't Be Evil, Candlestick, Campo Maldito, and the dialogue for...
Bennett Fisher is an Artistic Associate and former Shank Fellowship Playwright in Residence at Victory Gardens Theater in Chicago, a company member of Campo Santo, People of Interest, and the Cutting Ball Theater. His plays include Damascus (Samuel Goldwyn Award, O'Neill Conference finalist), Borealis (Alliance/Kendeda Prize finalist), Don't Be Evil, Candlestick, Campo Maldito, and the dialogue for the immersive theater experience The Speakeasy, currently running in San Francisco. His work has been presented and produced by the Bay Area Playwrights Festival, Strawdog Theater Company, La Jolla Playhouse's WOW Festival, the Alliance Theater, the Kennedy Center MFA Playwrights Workshop, Florida Repertory Theater, the Martin E. Segel Center, Burbage Theater Company, People of Interest, Ubuntu Theater Project, Theater Emory, the Unicorn Theater, Sleepwalkers Theater, New Conservatory, the Cutting Ball Theater, Custom Made Theatre Company, and others. Bennett has been commissioned by the House Theater, Theater Emory, Campo Santo, and others. As an actor, dramaturg, and director, he has collaborated with California Shakespeare Theatre, Stanford Summer Theatre, Just Theater, Crowded Fire, Pear Ave Theatre, Adirondack Shakespeare Company, Marin Shakespeare Company, and many others. He received his MFA from UC San Diego in 2016. He lives in San Francisco.

Plays

  • Damascus
    Hassan is a Somali-American airport shuttle driver in Minneapolis, struggling to make ends meet as more and more of his customers switch to Uber and Lyft. So when a stranded teenager at the airport pays Hassan to take him to Chicago, it seems like it’s worth the risk. Until it isn't. A claustrophobic thriller about privilege, paranoia, and the assumptions we make about one another.
  • Candlestick
    It's 2013, the last season of the 49ers football team at Candlestick before the stadium is torn down, which means it's the end of an era for hardcore fan Niners fan, Lyle, who lives just a few blocks away. As Lyle and his friends try to enjoy their last season of tailgating before the team moves to Santa Clara, old rivalries and new tensions spring up in the parking lot. A bittersweet comedy about...
    It's 2013, the last season of the 49ers football team at Candlestick before the stadium is torn down, which means it's the end of an era for hardcore fan Niners fan, Lyle, who lives just a few blocks away. As Lyle and his friends try to enjoy their last season of tailgating before the team moves to Santa Clara, old rivalries and new tensions spring up in the parking lot. A bittersweet comedy about football, family, gentrification, and losing what you love. Like King Lear, but with more hot wings.
  • Borealis
    When a cryptic but ominous letter arrives from her brother on the oil fields, thirteen-year-old Cozbi sets off for Anwar, Alaska to find him. Armed with a book by Donald Trump and an axe, Cozbi battles her way through an Arctic wilderness in pursuit of her missing brother, squaring off against a host of monstrous Ass-Hats on each rung of the corporate ladder. Part mythic journey, part workplace satire, the play...
    When a cryptic but ominous letter arrives from her brother on the oil fields, thirteen-year-old Cozbi sets off for Anwar, Alaska to find him. Armed with a book by Donald Trump and an axe, Cozbi battles her way through an Arctic wilderness in pursuit of her missing brother, squaring off against a host of monstrous Ass-Hats on each rung of the corporate ladder. Part mythic journey, part workplace satire, the play is a darkly comic adventure about family obligation, career aspiration, and what we leave behind to make our way to the top.
  • Campo Maldito
    Angry ghosts are disrupting business at a tech startup in the Tenderloin district of San Francisco. When the young CEO hires a Santeria priest to purify the office, he gets a lot more than what he bargained for. Campo Maldito is a darkly comic fable about the cost of gentrification, the casualties of capitalism, and the price you pay when you piss off the dead.
  • Don't Be Evil
    In this dark comedy about interrogation and innovation, a computer programmer is arrested after the search engine he designs answers “yes” to the question “is the government of the United States evil?” Desperate, he strikes a deal with his captors, agreeing to resign the software in exchange for his freedom. As they work to understand the search engine’s answer and how to change it, both the programmer and his...
    In this dark comedy about interrogation and innovation, a computer programmer is arrested after the search engine he designs answers “yes” to the question “is the government of the United States evil?” Desperate, he strikes a deal with his captors, agreeing to resign the software in exchange for his freedom. As they work to understand the search engine’s answer and how to change it, both the programmer and his persecutors begin to question their faith, their ability, and whether it is possible to do something good in the service of something evil.
  • Hermes
    Inspired by the collusion between Goldman Sachs and the Greek government that paved the way for a global economic collapse, Hermes weaves together high finance and Greek mythology as it follows a group of four American businessmen desperate to turn a profit at any cost.
  • No Bull
    When Bell announces to her parents that she does not identify girl, but a bull, they decide the most humane solution is to trap her inside a labyrinth. An allegorical comedy about becoming who you really are, and whether the world can accept it.