Benjamin Benne
he, him, his
Core Writer, Affiliated Writer
Tacoma, WA
Biography

Benjamin Benne (he/him) is a playwright from Los Angeles who has been based in the Pacific Northwest, Midwest, and most recently the East Coast where he completed an MFA in Playwriting at the David Geffen/Yale School of Drama '22. He is a current member of the Dorothy Strelsin New American Writers Group at Primary Stages NYC, a Playwrights' Center '23-26 Core Writer, and has been commissioned by South Coast Repertory Theatre and Seattle Repertory Theatre. He was named part of "LA Vanguardia: The Latino innovators, investigators and power players breaking through barriers" by the Los Angeles Times.

Ben's plays—including Alma (World Premiere '22: Center Theatre Group's Kirk Douglas Theatre in Culver City CA & American Blues Theater in Chicago IL; Seattle Premiere '22: ArtsWest Playhouse; Regional Premiere '23: Curious Theatre Company in Denver CO; Central Square Theater in Cambridge MA '23), In His Hands (World Premiere '22: Mosaic Theater Company of DC), and What / Washed Ashore / Astray (World Premiere '23: Pillsbury House Theatre in Minneapolis MN)—feature intimate relationships grounded in emotional realism but allow environment, time, and objects to introduce aspects of the surreal, expressionistic, and absurd into the fabric of their worlds. These works center movement and sensory experiences of the human body to ask existential questions (about grief and loss, faith and the divine, mortality and the afterlife) with wit and an imagistic dramaturgy. His play Manning is scheduled to have its World Premiere at Portland Stage in Portland ME in 2024. 

Ben is a recipient of Portland Stage's Clauder Competition Grand Prize (2022), the ASCAP Cole Porter Prize in Playwriting (2022), 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), Robert Chesley/Victor Bumbalo Playwriting Award (2017), Playwrights' Center's McKnight Fellowship in Playwriting (2017-18), and Many Voices Fellowship (2016-17). His plays have been developed by the Eugene O’Neill Theater Center's National Playwrights Conference, The Public Theater NYC, Roundabout Theatre Company, Playwrights Realm, The Lark, Denver Center for the Performing Arts, The Old Globe, Two River Theater, Boston Court Pasadena, IAMA Theatre Company, New Harmony Project, SPACE on Ryder Farm, among many others. He is represented by Luminosity Management and Paradigm Talent Agency. www.benjaminbenne.com

 

Agent Information

Rachel Ellicott
Paradigm Talent Agency
rellicott@paradigmagency.com

Kelly Miller
Luminosity Management
kellymiller@luminositymanagement.com

Plays

What's a boy to do when his favorite fruit is banana in a world that says he's gotta love mangoes? "q u e r e n c i a" (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.

Cast:
4W, 1M

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 ocean floor--to confront the ghost that is holding her captive.

Cast:
3W, 1M

Nearly 18 years ago, Alma crossed the border between Mexico and the United States pregnant with a child and great dreams for the life ahead of them. Now it’s December 2, 2016, Alma has been studying for her citizenship test while her daughter, Angel, studies for her SATs. But on the eve before Angel’s test, Alma comes home early to discover that Angel isn’t at home studying. A real-time, two-hander about an undocumented parent and their U.S. citizen child's differing visions of the "American Dream."

Cast:
2W

Successes

Williamstown Theatre Festival has announced the recipient of the 2021 L. Arnold Weissberger New Play Award and the 2022 Jay Harris Commission, as well as recipients of 2021 WTF Commissions through WTF's Andrew Martin-Weber New Play and Musical Commissioning Program.

John J. Caswell, Jr. is the L. Arnold Weissberger Award recipient for his play Wet Brain. Caswell receives the $10,000 award as well as the $10,000 Jay Harris Commission to write a new play.

The finalists for the award included At The Very Bottom Of A Body Of Water by Benjamin Benne.

Ben Benne's play, IN HIS HANDS, premiered on Dec. 5th and 6th at the Langston Hughes Festival of New Films.

Alma by Benjamin Benne was selected  for the 2020 Colorado New Play Summit at the Denver Center for the Performing Arts Theatre Company. 

Benjamin Benne wins Arizona Theatre Company's National Latinx Playwriting Award for his play Alma (or #nowall) 

The Old Globe presents its newest show, Alma by Benjamin Benne, in the New Voices in the Community series: free public performances at libraries across San Diego County, followed by conversations with the playwrights and experts in the community.