Benjamin Benne

Benjamin Benne

Benjamin Benne (he/him) is newly graduated from the David Geffen/Yale School of Drama MFA Playwriting program 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 and Seattle Repertory Theatre.

Awards: Portland Stage's Clauder Competition Gold Prize (...
Benjamin Benne (he/him) is newly graduated from the David Geffen/Yale School of Drama MFA Playwriting program 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 and Seattle 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.

Productions in 2022:
ALMA (World Premiere in cooperation w/ ABT) at CTG Kirk Douglas Theatre (Los Angeles), March 6-April 3
ALMA (Seattle Premiere) at ArtsWest Playhouse (Seattle), May 5-22
IN HIS HANDS (World Premiere) at Mosaic Theater Company (Washington, DC), June 22-July 17
ALMA (postponed World Premiere) at American Blues Theater (Chicago), Sept 22-Oct 22

Forthcoming productions in 2023:
ALMA (Regional Premiere) at Curious Theatre Company (Denver), Jan 14-Feb 18
ALMA at Central Square Theater (Cambridge), Feb 23-Mar 26

Plays

  • Fantasma by Benjamin Benne
    Cast: 
    6
    ·
    Genre: comedy, dark comedy + 10 more
    Genre: comedy, dark comedy, docudrama/historic, drama, experimental, faith-based, fantasy, holiday, movement/physical, political, tragedy, verse
    COMMISSIONED BY SOUTH COAST REPERTORY THEATRE

    Three generations within a Guatemalan-heritage family, living in the United States, come together on Christmas Eve to teach/learn/practice how to make a traditional meal. Over two decades, they reckon with what has been remembered and what has been lost in the process of assimilation. What things do we archive for posterity's sake? What memories...
    COMMISSIONED BY SOUTH COAST REPERTORY THEATRE

    Three generations within a Guatemalan-heritage family, living in the United States, come together on Christmas Eve to teach/learn/practice how to make a traditional meal. Over two decades, they reckon with what has been remembered and what has been lost in the process of assimilation. What things do we archive for posterity's sake? What memories live in the body? And what is the cost of letting go?
  • and thou shalt be healed by Benjamin Benne
    Cast: 
    2
    ·
    Genre: comedy, dark comedy + 8 more
    Genre: comedy, dark comedy, drama, experimental, faith-based, fantasy, movement/physical, science fiction, tragedy, verse
    Mary and Johnny were raised in the same household with the same rhetoric about God. Now in their 30s, they have completely different understandings of and relationships to God. Reunited on a remote mountain in New Mexico, surrounded by energy vortexes, rumors of aliens, and a golden eyelash palm pitviper named Daisy, they wonder: Did they ever know the same God?
  • Manning by Benjamin Benne
    Recommendations: 3
    ·
    Cast: 
    4
    ·
    Genre: comedy, dark comedy + 7 more
    Genre: comedy, dark comedy, drama, experimental, fantasy, movement/physical, science fiction, tragedy, verse
    Finalist, Eugene O'Neill Theater Center's National Playwrights Conference
    Finalist, Playwrights Foundation's Bay Area Playwrights Festival

    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...
    Finalist, Eugene O'Neill Theater Center's National Playwrights Conference
    Finalist, Playwrights Foundation's Bay Area Playwrights Festival

    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?
  • In His Hands by Benjamin Benne
    Recommendations: 14
    ·
    Cast: 
    4
    ·
    Genre: comedy, dark comedy + 7 more
    Genre: comedy, dark comedy, drama, experimental, faith-based, fantasy, movement/physical, romantic comedy, verse
    WORLD PREMIERE: 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...
    WORLD PREMIERE: 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]
  • 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 (in cooperation with ABT): CTG Kirk Douglas Theatre (Los Angeles, CA), 2022
    SEATTLE PREMIERE: ArtsWest (Seattle, WA), 2022
    WORLD PREMIERE (forthcoming): American Blues Theater (Chicago, IL), 2022
    REGIONAL PREMIERE (forthcoming): Curious Theatre Company (Denver, CO), 2023
    PRODUCTION (forthcoming): Central Square Theater (Cambridge, MA), 2023

    Winner,...
    WORLD PREMIERE (in cooperation with ABT): CTG Kirk Douglas Theatre (Los Angeles, CA), 2022
    SEATTLE PREMIERE: ArtsWest (Seattle, WA), 2022
    WORLD PREMIERE (forthcoming): American Blues Theater (Chicago, IL), 2022
    REGIONAL PREMIERE (forthcoming): Curious Theatre Company (Denver, CO), 2023
    PRODUCTION (forthcoming): Central Square Theater (Cambridge, MA), 2023

    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]
  • What/Washed Ashore/Astray by Benjamin Benne
    Recommendations: 5
    ·
    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.
  • at the very bottom of a body of water by Benjamin Benne
    Recommendations: 11
    ·
    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.
  • 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.