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 currently a Core Writer at The Playwrights Center. She received her M.F.A from The University of Texas.
Free
Playwrights’ Center, 710 Raymond Ave, Saint Paul, MN 55114
December 9 @ 7:00 pm - 9:00 pm CST
About the play
Bradley Bradlison is a wellness guru with millions of followers. He preaches happiness through the neuroscience of physical and mental control. For three years he’s also been in three different relationships with different women, all of whom believe him to be monogamous. This is a play about those women. The Optimizers is a farce about trying to have it all and what happens when it all falls apart.
I’ve always been fascinated by the mechanics of comedy, and farce specifically. I love the way the form, when done full on, gets an audience rolling with laughter. There’s a mischievous glee to the controlled chaos of a farce coming undone. Anything can happen. What an exciting place for the audience to be.
Making your reservation
The sign up link below is for the in-person reading on Tuesday, December 9. If you need to reserve your spot for Monday, December 8 instead, you can do so here.»
Walkups are welcome, but we cannot guarantee there will be available seating without a reservation.
This reading will be recorded and made available to view online January 12–18. You can sign up to watch that recording here.»
If you have any questions about making your reservation, please email us at rsvp@pwcenter.org.
Planning your visit
All seating is general admission. We recommend arriving 10-15 minutes prior to the reading to check in and find your seat.
Visit our About page to learn more about parking and accessibility.
Large groups
If you are making a reservation for more than six people, please email rsvp@pwcenter.org to arrange. If you make a reservation for more than six, a member of our Advancement team may be in touch closer to the reading date to confirm final numbers for your group.
Katie Bender
