Benjamin Benne ("beh-nay") is a playwright from Los Angeles & Orange County who is currently based in Brooklyn, NY. He is a Page 73 2026 Writers Group member, Playwrights' Center '23-26 Core Writer, and was named part of "LA Vanguardia: The Latino innovators, instigators and power players breaking through barriers" by the Los Angeles Times. He began pursuing playwriting in 2013, following the passing of his father; his work explores intimate, realistic relationships mixed with surreal, fantastic, and numinous elements that spur expansive, existential questions about grief and loss, death and the afterlife, faith and the Divine.
His produced plays include Alma (Center Theatre Group's Kirk Douglas Theatre, American Blues Theater, ArtsWest Playhouse, Curious Theatre Company, Central Square Theater, The Spot Sun Valley, Chance Theater, Passage Theatre Company), In His Hands (Mosaic Theater Company of DC, First Floor Theater), Manning (Portland Stage), Wave After Wave (Actors Theatre of Louisville), and What / Washed Ashore / Astray (Pillsbury House Theatre). Forthcoming productions in 2026 include Manning (West Coast Premiere: Crowded Fire in San Francisco, CA) and at the very bottom of a body of water (World Premiere: Boston Court Pasadena in Los Angeles, CA; LA New Play Project Award Winner). Additionally, his plays have been developed by the Eugene O’Neill Theater Center's National Playwrights Conference, Ojai Playwrights Conference, Great Plains Theatre Festival, Oregon Shakespeare Festival, Williamstown Theatre Festival, The Public, Roundabout Theatre Company, The New Group, Playwrights Realm, Colorado New Play Festival, Denver Center for the Performing Arts, The Old Globe, Two River Theater, New Harmony Project, SPACE on Ryder Farm, and The Lark, among many others.
Ben is a recipient of the Playwrights' Center's Many Voices Fellowship and McKnight Fellowship in Playwriting, Robert Chesley/Victor Bumbalo Playwriting Award, Arizona Theatre Company's National Latinx Playwriting Award, Kennedy Center/KCATF Latinx Playwriting Award, American Blues Theater's Blue Ink Playwriting Award, Portland Stage's Clauder Competition Grand Prize, Ojai Playwrights Conference's Dr. Kerry English Artist Award, and Orange Curtain Review's Award for Best Writing. He's an alum of Parley, Primary Stage's Dorothy Strelsin New American Writers Group, and Chance Theater's Resident Playwright program. He has been commissioned by South Coast Repertory and Seattle Repertory. He received his MFA in Playwriting from the David Geffen/Yale School of Drama, where he was the recipient of the ASCAP Cole Porter Prize in Playwriting and his teachers included Anne Erbe, Pulitzer finalists Amy Herzog and Sarah Ruhl, and Academy Award winner Tarell Alvin McCraney.
He is represented by Luminosity Management and The Gersh Agency. Selected works available to read in full at New Play Exchange.
His produced plays include Alma (Center Theatre Group's Kirk Douglas Theatre, American Blues Theater, ArtsWest Playhouse, Curious Theatre Company, Central Square Theater, The Spot Sun Valley, Chance Theater, Passage Theatre Company), In His Hands (Mosaic Theater Company of DC, First Floor Theater), Manning (Portland Stage), Wave After Wave (Actors Theatre of Louisville), and What / Washed Ashore / Astray (Pillsbury House Theatre). Forthcoming productions in 2026 include Manning (West Coast Premiere: Crowded Fire in San Francisco, CA) and at the very bottom of a body of water (World Premiere: Boston Court Pasadena in Los Angeles, CA; LA New Play Project Award Winner). Additionally, his plays have been developed by the Eugene O’Neill Theater Center's National Playwrights Conference, Ojai Playwrights Conference, Great Plains Theatre Festival, Oregon Shakespeare Festival, Williamstown Theatre Festival, The Public, Roundabout Theatre Company, The New Group, Playwrights Realm, Colorado New Play Festival, Denver Center for the Performing Arts, The Old Globe, Two River Theater, New Harmony Project, SPACE on Ryder Farm, and The Lark, among many others.
Ben is a recipient of the Playwrights' Center's Many Voices Fellowship and McKnight Fellowship in Playwriting, Robert Chesley/Victor Bumbalo Playwriting Award, Arizona Theatre Company's National Latinx Playwriting Award, Kennedy Center/KCATF Latinx Playwriting Award, American Blues Theater's Blue Ink Playwriting Award, Portland Stage's Clauder Competition Grand Prize, Ojai Playwrights Conference's Dr. Kerry English Artist Award, and Orange Curtain Review's Award for Best Writing. He's an alum of Parley, Primary Stage's Dorothy Strelsin New American Writers Group, and Chance Theater's Resident Playwright program. He has been commissioned by South Coast Repertory and Seattle Repertory. He received his MFA in Playwriting from the David Geffen/Yale School of Drama, where he was the recipient of the ASCAP Cole Porter Prize in Playwriting and his teachers included Anne Erbe, Pulitzer finalists Amy Herzog and Sarah Ruhl, and Academy Award winner Tarell Alvin McCraney.
He is represented by Luminosity Management and The Gersh Agency. Selected works available to read in full at New Play Exchange.
