Benjamin Benne

Benjamin Benne

Benjamin Benne (he/him) is a Yale School of Drama MFA Candidate in Playwriting and represented by Paradigm Talent Agency. He is a member of the Dorothy Strelsin New American Writers Group at Primary Stages and currently under commission from South Coast Repertory Theatre.

Awards: Portland Stage's Clauder Competition Gold Prize (2020), Arizona Theatre Company's National Latinx...
Benjamin Benne (he/him) is a Yale School of Drama MFA Candidate in Playwriting and represented by Paradigm Talent Agency. He is a member of the Dorothy Strelsin New American Writers Group at Primary Stages and currently under commission from South Coast Repertory Theatre.

Awards: Portland Stage's Clauder Competition Gold Prize (2020), Arizona Theatre Company's National Latinx Playwriting Award (2019), Kennedy Center/KCACTF Latinx Playwriting Award (2019), American Blues Theater's Blue Ink Playwriting Award (2019), Chesley/Bumbalo Playwriting Award (2017), Playwrights’ Center’s McKnight Fellowship in Playwriting (2017-18) and Many Voices Fellowship (2016-17).

Development: O’Neill National Playwrights Conference, Playwrights Realm, The Lark, The Public, Roundabout, Denver Center, The Old Globe, Two River, Seattle Rep, Boston Court Pasadena, SPACE on Ryder Farm, Pillsbury House Theatre, Parley, among many others.

Forthcoming productions in 2022:
ALMA (World Premiere) at American Blues Theater (Chicago, IL)
ALMA (Seattle Premiere) at ArtsWest Playhouse (Seattle, WA)
IN HIS HANDS (World Premiere) at Mosaic Theater Company (Washington, DC)

Plays

  • at the very bottom of a body of water by Benjamin Benne
    Recommendations: 10
    ·
    Cast: 
    4
    ·
    Genre: adventure, comedy + 8 more
    Genre: adventure, comedy, dark comedy, drama, experimental, fable/folktale, fantasy, movement/physical, romantic comedy, tragedy
    Finalist, Williamstown Theatre Festival's L. Arnold Weissberger Award
    Selection, The Lark's Playwrights' Week
    Selection, Steppenwolf Theatre Company's The Mix

    Marina is being haunted. Every night, she dreams about drowning. Every week, she makes catfish soup. But when this ritual meal is disrupted by the disappearance of her fishmonger, she can no longer swim in...
    Finalist, Williamstown Theatre Festival's L. Arnold Weissberger Award
    Selection, The Lark's Playwrights' Week
    Selection, Steppenwolf Theatre Company's The Mix

    Marina is being haunted. Every night, she dreams about drowning. Every week, she makes catfish soup. But when this ritual meal is disrupted by the disappearance of her fishmonger, she can no longer swim in the routine circle of her solitary life. She embarks on a surreal quest--all the way down to the darkest place she can imagine--to confront the ghost that is holding her captive...or rather, the ghost that she's been holding captive.
  • What/Washed Ashore/Astray by Benjamin Benne
    Recommendations: 4
    ·
    Cast: 
    3
    ·
    Genre: comedy, dark comedy + 7 more
    Genre: comedy, dark comedy, drama, experimental, fantasy, movement/physical, political, tragedy, verse
    Selection, Campfire Theatre Festival's Reading Series
    Finalist, Playwrights Foundation's Bay Area Playwrights Festival

    Twin sisters, Cat and Chris, are reunited in their beloved family cabin on the Pacific Northwest shoreline. But everything has aged: the cottage, their bodies. Then, dead things wash ashore, conch shells become uninhabited, ice caves melt, the water surrounding...
    Selection, Campfire Theatre Festival's Reading Series
    Finalist, Playwrights Foundation's Bay Area Playwrights Festival

    Twin sisters, Cat and Chris, are reunited in their beloved family cabin on the Pacific Northwest shoreline. But everything has aged: the cottage, their bodies. Then, dead things wash ashore, conch shells become uninhabited, ice caves melt, the water surrounding the cabin comes up higher and higher...and one of them will die within the year.
  • q u e r e n c i a: an imagined autobiography about forbidden fruits by Benjamin Benne
    Recommendations: 12
    ·
    Cast: 
    5
    ·
    Genre: comedy, dark comedy + 4 more
    Genre: comedy, dark comedy, drama, fantasy, movement/physical, tragedy
    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
    Finalist, The Eugene O'Neill Theater Center's National Playwrights Conference
    Finalist, Princess Grace Award...
    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
    Finalist, The Eugene O'Neill Theater Center's National Playwrights Conference
    Finalist, Princess Grace Award
    Selection, Steppenwolf Theatre Company's The Mix
    Selection, 50 PP's Best Unproduced Latin@/x Plays

    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.
  • Alma by Benjamin Benne
    Recommendations: 6
    ·
    Cast: 
    2
    ·
    Genre: comedy, dark comedy + 5 more
    Genre: comedy, dark comedy, drama, fantasy, political, tragedy, verse
    WORLD PREMIERE (forthcoming): American Blues Theater (Chicago, IL), 2022
    SEATTLE PREMIERE (forthcoming): ArtsWest (Seattle, WA), 2022

    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
    Selection...
    WORLD PREMIERE (forthcoming): American Blues Theater (Chicago, IL), 2022
    SEATTLE PREMIERE (forthcoming): ArtsWest (Seattle, WA), 2022

    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
    Selection, Denver Center for the Performing Arts' Colorado New Play Summit
    Selection, 50 PP's Best Unproduced Latin@/x Plays

    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]
  • In His Hands by Benjamin Benne
    Recommendations: 13
    ·
    Cast: 
    4
    ·
    Genre: comedy, dark comedy + 8 more
    Genre: comedy, dark comedy, drama, experimental, faith-based, fantasy, movement/physical, romantic comedy, tragedy, verse
    WORLD PREMIERE (forthcoming): Mosaic Theater Company (DC), 2022

    Selection, Roundabout Underground Reading Series
    Selection, New Harmony Project Residency
    Winner, Kennedy Center/KCACTF Latinx Playwriting Award
    Gold Prize, Portland Stage's Clauder Competition
    Finalist, Kitchen Dog Theater's New Play Festival
    Finalist, Playwrights Foundation's Bay...
    WORLD PREMIERE (forthcoming): Mosaic Theater Company (DC), 2022

    Selection, Roundabout Underground Reading Series
    Selection, New Harmony Project Residency
    Winner, Kennedy Center/KCACTF Latinx Playwriting Award
    Gold Prize, Portland Stage's Clauder Competition
    Finalist, Kitchen Dog Theater's New Play Festival
    Finalist, Playwrights Foundation's Bay Area Playwrights Festival

    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]
  • Manning by Benjamin Benne
    Cast: 
    3–4
    ·
    Genre: comedy, dark comedy + 5 more
    Genre: comedy, dark comedy, drama, experimental, fantasy, movement/physical, tragedy
    A father and his two sons have just experienced an unspeakable loss. One cooks. One falcons. One gardens. When a giant zucchini manifests overnight, they begin to find language to express their individual experiences of grief. But can they also find an expression for their collective mourning?
  • and thou shalt be healed (f.k.a. Rapture) by Benjamin Benne
    Recommendations: 1
    ·
    Cast: 
    2
    ·
    Genre: dark comedy, drama + 6 more
    Genre: dark comedy, drama, experimental, faith-based, political, science fiction, tragedy, verse
    Siblings Mary and Johnny were raised with the same religious rhetoric--but now, in their 30s, they have completely different relationships to Faith and God. When they reunite on a remote mountain in New Mexico, surrounded by energy vortexes, rumors of UFOs, and a golden eyelash palm pit viper named Daisy, their faith in each other will be put to the test. But who is most in need of salvation?