Benjamin Benne

This park has everything: children catching bugs, teens catching bugs, adults chasing “bugs”, cruising, murders, buried bodies, ghosts. So what are best friends Rafa and Toby chasing? Sex? A soul mate? Unrequited love? It’s all about to go down in the park after dark.

Irene and Emilia quickly connect over common ground: they're both Latina, working mothers, against giving soda to toddlers, and could use a helping hand. When Irene hires Emilia as a live-in nanny, Emilia gains Irene as an ally in her immigration process. Housed under one roof, they become company to each other's needs, wants, and dreams. As their lives intertwine, can they transcend the divergent realities they were born into and now face? [synopsis by Cat Rodríguez]

Melanie has just landed her dream job as a killer whale trainer...but how long will it take before she realizes she's stepped into a nightmare?

Sean and Nathanael are cousins, born just a few weeks apart in 1988. Every year they visit the same beach in Southern California (first as children, then as adults) to swim in the ocean, eat carne asada, and witness how their lives, their bodies, and the natural world around them have changed year after year. Spanning 10 billion years in the life of the earth, Benjamin Benne’s Seattle Rep 20x30 Commission is a theatrical meditation on human and ecological transformation, intimacy between men, and the cycles of life and death that shape our existence. [synopsis by dramaturg Paul Adolphsen]

Commissioned by Seattle Repertory Theatre
(formerly titled "this man i call mi primo")

WORLD PREMIERE: Actors Theatre of Louisville (Louisville KY), 2026

It’s Christmas Eve in Southern California and Rosie’s family gathers in her newly-renovated kitchen to make chuchitos. Her grandchildren are eager to learn and document every part of the recipe for this traditional Guatemalan dish she has prepared her entire life. But Rosie’s cooking has more to do with intuition than metrics, and recording and remembering are entirely different things. An expansive and lyrical intergenerational story that spans nearly two decades, Fantasma explores how we preserve our culture, how we assimilate, and the cost of what we leave behind. [Synopsis by South Coast Rep]

Commissioned by South Coast Repertory Theatre

Mary and Johnny are siblings – with a complicated cult upbringing. Johnny has left the cult but Mary remains. They reunite on a remote mountain in New Mexico when Mary brings news that will force them both to reckon with their relationship, their beliefs, and their faith. [synopsis by Union Arts]

Winner, Dr. Kerry English Artist Award at Ojai Playwrights Conference

A father and his sons spread the ashes of his wife/their mother in their backyard garden. When a giant zucchini manifests overnight, they each begin to develop language for their individual experiences of loss through their interactions with the supernatural vegetable. But can they also develop a communal vocabulary to express their grief with each other?

WORLD PREMIERE: Portland Stage (Portland, ME), 2024 / Grand Prize Winner, Portland Stage's Clauder Competition
WEST COAST PREMIERE (forthcoming): Crowded Fire (San Francisco, CA), 2026

This is a list of things Christian believes in: logic, banana Laffy Taffy, video games, and Daniel. This is a list of things Christian doesn't believe in: caffeine, alcohol, monogamy, and God. Daniel, a Mario Kart wizard and aspiring Lutheran pastor, is falling for Christian. But as these men explore the potential of their new relationship, voices from Christian's past threaten to overpower the connection they share -- with one another, and something bigger than themselves. [synopsis by dramaturg Sarah Lunnie]

WORLD PREMIERE: Mosaic Theater Company (Washington DC), 2022
CHICAGO PREMIERE: First Floor Theater (Chicago, IL), 2024

Working mom Alma has singlehandedly raised her daughter, Angel, on tough love, home-cooked comida, and lots of prayers. But on the eve of the all-important SAT, Alma discovers her daughter isn’t at home studying. A schooling and la chancla await Angel at home—but so does a creeping realization that more’s at stake than just a test score. A sacrifice from Alma’s past weighs heavy on their present; now, Alma fears that her worst nightmare may soon be their reality. Will the American Dream cost them a life together? [synopsis by dramaturg Catherine Rodriguez]

WORLD PREMIERE (in cooperation with ABT): CTG Kirk Douglas Theatre (Los Angeles, CA), 2022
SEATTLE PREMIERE: ArtsWest (Seattle, WA), 2022
WORLD PREMIERE (in cooperation with CTG): American Blues Theater (Chicago, IL), 2022
REGIONAL PREMIERE: Curious Theatre Company (Denver, CO), 2023
PRODUCTION #5: Central Square Theater (Cambridge, MA), 2023
PRODUCTION #6: The Spot (Ketchum, ID), 2023
PRODUCTION #7: Chance Theater (Anaheim, CA), 2024
PRODUCTION #8: Passage Theatre Company (Trenton, NJ), 2024

Winner, Orange Curtain Review Award for Best Writing
Winner, Arizona Theatre Company's National Latinx Playwriting Award
Winner, American Blues Theater's Blue Ink Playwriting Award
Selection, The Eugene O'Neill Theater Center's National Playwrights Conference

This poetic and sensory play follows the reunion of twin sisters Cat and Chris at a cabin on the Pacific Northwest shoreline after it becomes apparent one of them will die within the year. Surrounded by the passage of time and the rhythm of the ocean, What / Washed Ashore / Astray paints a humorous and warm character-driven portrait which tenderly explores grief, loss, memory, and identity. [synopsis by Pillsbury House Theatre]

WORLD PREMIERE: Pillsbury House Theatre (Minneapolis, MN), 2023

Every week, Marina returns to the same fish store, buys a catfish, and makes soup—a quiet, methodical act masking devastating grief. But when her usual fishmonger suddenly vanishes, her fragile routine shatters and Marina is forced to confront the wreckage of her carefully constructed world when something unexpected breaks through: the stirrings of romance and a tidal wave of magic. Paper cranes begin to fly, and Marina enters uncharted, terrifying waters. Is the unraveling of her comfort a curse, or the beginning of something wondrous, wild, and entirely new? [synopsis by Boston Court Pasadena]

WORLD PREMIERE (forthcoming): Boston Court Pasadena (Los Angeles, CA), 2026 / LA New Play Project Winner

What's a boy to do when his favorite fruit is banana in a world that says he's gotta love mangoes? "querencia" (a Spanish word having to do with the longing to find or return to a place that feels like home) is a magical coming-of-age story about a young boy named Milo’s search for belonging as he grapples with friends, family, and his sexual identity, guided by a mysterious character called La Bruja. [synopsis by Playwrights Realm]

Selection, The Playwrights Realm's Scratchpad Series
Winner, Robert Chesley/Victor Bumbalo Playwriting Award
Winner, The Playwrights' Center's McKnight Fellowship in Playwriting
Winner, The Playwrights' Center's Many Voices Fellowship