Produced Works
Alma
Winner of Arizona Theatre Company's National Latinx Playwriting Award, Winner of American Blues Theater's Blue Ink Playwriting Award, and Winner of The Orange Curtain Award for Best Writing.
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 Cat Rodríguez]
Developed during a residency at the Eugene O'Neill Theater Center's National Playwrights Conference in 2018, and with support from the Denver Center for the Performing Arts 2020 Colorado New Play Summit, Seattle Repertory Theatre's The Other Season, and The Playwrights' Center's 2016-17 Many Voices Fellowship.
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 Cat Rodríguez]
Developed during a residency at the Eugene O'Neill Theater Center's National Playwrights Conference in 2018, and with support from the Denver Center for the Performing Arts 2020 Colorado New Play Summit, Seattle Repertory Theatre's The Other Season, and The Playwrights' Center's 2016-17 Many Voices Fellowship.
PRODUCTION HISTORY
Academic Production: Yale Cabaret (New Haven, CT), 2019
World Premiere (in cooperation with American Blues Theater): Center Theatre Group's Kirk Douglas Theatre (Los Angeles, CA), 2022
ArtsWest Playhouse (Seattle, WA), 2022
World Premiere: American Blues Theater (Chicago, IL), 2022
Curious Theatre Company (Denver, CO), 2023
Central Square Theater (Cambridge, MA), 2023
The Spot (Ketchum, ID), 2023
Chance Theater (Anaheim, CA), 2024
Passage Theatre Company (Trenton, NJ), 2024
Academic Production: Yale Cabaret (New Haven, CT), 2019
World Premiere (in cooperation with American Blues Theater): Center Theatre Group's Kirk Douglas Theatre (Los Angeles, CA), 2022
ArtsWest Playhouse (Seattle, WA), 2022
World Premiere: American Blues Theater (Chicago, IL), 2022
Curious Theatre Company (Denver, CO), 2023
Central Square Theater (Cambridge, MA), 2023
The Spot (Ketchum, ID), 2023
Chance Theater (Anaheim, CA), 2024
Passage Theatre Company (Trenton, NJ), 2024
at the very bottom of a body of water
Finalist for Williamstown Theatre Festival's L. Arnold Weissberger Award.
Every week, Marina returns to the same fish store, buys a catfish, and makes soup—a quiet, methodical act masking devastating grief. But when her usual fishmonger suddenly vanishes, her fragile routine shatters and Marina is forced to confront the wreckage of her carefully constructed world when something unexpected breaks through: the stirrings of romance and a tidal wave of magic. Paper cranes begin to fly, and Marina enters uncharted, terrifying waters. Is the unraveling of her comfort a curse, or the beginning of something wondrous, wild, and entirely new? [synopsis by Boston Court Pasadena]
Developed in The Lark's Playwrights' Week (NYC) and with Parley, Umbrella Project, Williamstown Theatre Festival's Fridays@3 Reading Series, Chance Theater's Resident Playwright program, and The Playwrights' Center's 2017-18 McKnight Fellowship and Core Writer program.
Every week, Marina returns to the same fish store, buys a catfish, and makes soup—a quiet, methodical act masking devastating grief. But when her usual fishmonger suddenly vanishes, her fragile routine shatters and Marina is forced to confront the wreckage of her carefully constructed world when something unexpected breaks through: the stirrings of romance and a tidal wave of magic. Paper cranes begin to fly, and Marina enters uncharted, terrifying waters. Is the unraveling of her comfort a curse, or the beginning of something wondrous, wild, and entirely new? [synopsis by Boston Court Pasadena]
Developed in The Lark's Playwrights' Week (NYC) and with Parley, Umbrella Project, Williamstown Theatre Festival's Fridays@3 Reading Series, Chance Theater's Resident Playwright program, and The Playwrights' Center's 2017-18 McKnight Fellowship and Core Writer program.
PRODUCTION HISTORY
Academic Production: Princeton University (Princeton, NJ), 2025
Academic Production (forthcoming): UC Irvine (Irvine, CA), 2026
World Premiere (forthcoming): Boston Court Pasadena (Los Angeles, CA), 2026
Academic Production: Princeton University (Princeton, NJ), 2025
Academic Production (forthcoming): UC Irvine (Irvine, CA), 2026
World Premiere (forthcoming): Boston Court Pasadena (Los Angeles, CA), 2026
In His Hands
Recipient of a KCACTF Latinx Playwriting Award and Portland Stage's Clauder Competition Gold Prize.
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 Sarah Lunnie]
Developed with support from Texas Tech University's 2019 WildWind Performance Lab in Lubbock, Texas and The Playwrights' Center's 2017-18 McKnight Fellowship in Playwriting.
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 Sarah Lunnie]
Developed with support from Texas Tech University's 2019 WildWind Performance Lab in Lubbock, Texas and The Playwrights' Center's 2017-18 McKnight Fellowship in Playwriting.
PRODUCTION HISTORY
Academic Production: Yale School of Drama (New Haven, CT), 2019
World Premiere: Mosaic Theater Company (Washington, DC), 2022
First Floor Theater (Chicago IL), 2024
Academic Production: Yale School of Drama (New Haven, CT), 2019
World Premiere: Mosaic Theater Company (Washington, DC), 2022
First Floor Theater (Chicago IL), 2024
Manning
Winner of Portland Stage's Clauder Competition Grand Prize.
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?
Developed with support from the Dorothy Strelsin New American Writers Group at Primary Stages (NYC).
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?
Developed with support from the Dorothy Strelsin New American Writers Group at Primary Stages (NYC).
PRODUCTION HISTORY
Academic Production: Yale School of Drama (New Haven, CT), 2021
World Premiere: Portland Stage (Portland ME), 2024
Academic Production: Yale School of Drama (New Haven, CT), 2021
World Premiere: Portland Stage (Portland ME), 2024
Wave After Wave
(formerly titled this man i call mi primo)
Sean and Nathanael are cousins, born just a few weeks apart in 1988. Every year they visit the same beach in Southern California (first as children, then as adults) to swim in the ocean, eat carne asada, and witness how their lives, their bodies, and the natural world around them have changed year after year. Spanning 10 billion years in the life of the earth, Benjamin Benne’s Seattle Rep 20x30 Commission is a theatrical meditation on human and ecological transformation, intimacy between men, and the cycles of life and death that shape our existence.
[synopsis by dramaturg Paul Adolphsen]
Commissioned by Seattle Repertory Theatre and developed as part of The Other Season, New Mexico State University's High Desert Play Festival, Primary Stage's Dorothy Strelsin New American Group, Colorado New Play Festival, and Great Plains Theatre Commons' New Play Festival.
[synopsis by dramaturg Paul Adolphsen]
Commissioned by Seattle Repertory Theatre and developed as part of The Other Season, New Mexico State University's High Desert Play Festival, Primary Stage's Dorothy Strelsin New American Group, Colorado New Play Festival, and Great Plains Theatre Commons' New Play Festival.
PRODUCTION HISTORY
World Premiere: Actors Theatre (Louisville, KY), 2026
World Premiere: Actors Theatre (Louisville, KY), 2026
What / Washed
Ashore / Astray
This poetic and sensory play follows the reunion of twin sisters Cat and Chris at a cabin on the Pacific Northwest shoreline after it becomes apparent one of them will die within the year. Surrounded by the passage of time and the rhythm of the ocean, What / Washed Ashore / Astray paints a humorous and warm character-driven portrait which tenderly explores grief, loss, memory, and identity. [synopsis by Pillsbury House Theatre]
Developed with support from The Playwrights' Center's 2017-18 McKnight Fellowship in Playwriting and Pillsbury House Theatre (Minneapolis, MN).
Developed with support from The Playwrights' Center's 2017-18 McKnight Fellowship in Playwriting and Pillsbury House Theatre (Minneapolis, MN).
PRODUCTION HISTORY
World Premiere: Pillsbury House + Theatre (Minneapolis, MN), 2023
World Premiere: Pillsbury House + Theatre (Minneapolis, MN), 2023
Unproduced Works
and thou shalt be healed
Winner of Ojai Playwrights Conference's Dr. Kerry English Award.
Siblings Mary and Johnny were raised in the same Christian cult. Now in their 40s, the still religious Mary is having a crisis of faith and is in need of a miracle. Her secular brother offers a controversial solution. When reunited on a remote mountain in New Mexico, surrounded by energy vortexes, rumors of aliens, and a golden eyelash palm pit viper named Daisy, they wonder: Did they ever know the same God?
Developed at the Ojai Playwrights Conference and in Primary Stage's Dorothy Strelsin New American Group.
Siblings Mary and Johnny were raised in the same Christian cult. Now in their 40s, the still religious Mary is having a crisis of faith and is in need of a miracle. Her secular brother offers a controversial solution. When reunited on a remote mountain in New Mexico, surrounded by energy vortexes, rumors of aliens, and a golden eyelash palm pit viper named Daisy, they wonder: Did they ever know the same God?
Developed at the Ojai Playwrights Conference and in Primary Stage's Dorothy Strelsin New American Group.
Fantasma
It’s Christmas Eve in Southern California and Rosie’s family gathers in her newly-renovated kitchen to make chuchitos. She has been preparing the traditional Guatemalan food her whole life. Her grandchildren are eager to learn the recipe and document each measurement. But Rosie’s daughters know their mother’s cooking has more to do with intuition than metrics—and that recording and remembering are entirely different things. This imaginative, bittersweet journey spans nearly two decades as it explores what we keep, what we lose and the cost of letting go.
Commissioned by South Coast Repertory Theatre and developed in NewSCRipts and the Playwrights' Center's PlayLabs.
Commissioned by South Coast Repertory Theatre and developed in NewSCRipts and the Playwrights' Center's PlayLabs.
Los Feliz, or the live-in nanny play
Irene and Emilia quickly connect over common ground: they're both Latina, working mothers, against giving soda to toddlers, and could use a helping hand. When Irene hires Emilia as a live-in nanny, Emilia gains Irene as an ally in her immigration process. Housed under one roof, they become company to each other's needs, wants, and dreams. As their lives intertwine, can they transcend the divergent realities they were born into and now face?
[synopsis by Cat Rodríguez]
Developed by The Playwrights Realm and TheatreSquared's Arkansas New Play Festival.
[synopsis by Cat Rodríguez]
Developed by The Playwrights Realm and TheatreSquared's Arkansas New Play Festival.