Benjamin Benne (he/him) is a currently itinerant 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.
Ben's plays--including Alma (World Premiere '22: Center Theatre Group's Kirk Douglas Theatre in L.A. & American Blues Theater in Chicago; Seattle Premiere '22: ArtsWest Playhouse; Regional Premiere '23: Curious Theatre Company in Denver; Central Square Theater in Cambridge '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)--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.
Ben has been commissioned by South Coast Repertory Theatre and Seattle Repertory Theatre. He is a recipient of Arizona Theatre Company's National Latinx Playwriting Award, Kennedy Center/KCACTF Latinx Playwriting Award, American Blues Theater's Blue Ink Playwriting Award, ASCAP Cole Porter Prize in Playwriting, Robert Chesley/Victor Bumbalo Playwriting Award, Playwrights' Center's McKnight Fellowship in Playwriting and Many Voices Fellowship.
He is represented by Luminosity Management and Paradigm Talent Agency. Select works available to read in full at New Play Exchange.
Ben's plays--including Alma (World Premiere '22: Center Theatre Group's Kirk Douglas Theatre in L.A. & American Blues Theater in Chicago; Seattle Premiere '22: ArtsWest Playhouse; Regional Premiere '23: Curious Theatre Company in Denver; Central Square Theater in Cambridge '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)--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.
Ben has been commissioned by South Coast Repertory Theatre and Seattle Repertory Theatre. He is a recipient of Arizona Theatre Company's National Latinx Playwriting Award, Kennedy Center/KCACTF Latinx Playwriting Award, American Blues Theater's Blue Ink Playwriting Award, ASCAP Cole Porter Prize in Playwriting, Robert Chesley/Victor Bumbalo Playwriting Award, Playwrights' Center's McKnight Fellowship in Playwriting and Many Voices Fellowship.
He is represented by Luminosity Management and Paradigm Talent Agency. Select works available to read in full at New Play Exchange.
