There’s always some surreal or poetic aspect between realistic interactions of characters.“ I was told that, “the piece really soars with the poeticism.” That’s something that I have continued to do in my writing. It combined these domestic scenes and poetic monologues which revealed backstory. It explored triangulation with the parents. The nanny was from Guatemala and was essentially raising their children. The play was about a live-in nanny, living with a white couple.
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I wrote a first full length play, and there was a literary manager from South Coast Rep who was invited to see a workshop reading festival where my play was read and she sat down with us and gave feedback. “I got a lot of support from my playwriting teacher. Leah Sainz-Jones and Yolanda Suarez in ArtsWest’s production of Benjamin Benne’s “Alma”. I wrote my first book in 4 th grade about penguins and my teacher sent it into a contest for children’s stories and I got in the top three! I thought I wanted to be an author.” Storytelling was an important component of my church. And I had a playwriting teacher who said bluntly, ‘You’re a good director but you really have a unique voice as a writer.” I thought, ‘Why don’t I write something for those actors I love so much and want to cast?’ That’s where the vision began. “As a director trying to pick plays, I often felt like it was hard to find material for friends of mine who were often women, people of color. I didn’t expect that directing was also sharpening my playwriting. Being a writer made me a better director. It was where I could find creativity and grow and I was taking playwriting and directing and found compatibility between the two in the terminology. And I’m really glad that in my time at Yale, I’ve been able to work on teaching and writing lesson plans and have worked teaching at the Playwright Center, and went to Duke University and did class sessions there. I still enjoy that and I’ve always been interested in working with students. “I was a theater major starting in acting as many do, and then went to theater education and then faculty members told me I was excelling in directing, so I changed my major to directing. His journey into playwriting started as an undergrad at California State University, Fullerton. His themes are often an intersection of domestic relationships and poetic reveries.
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Much of his early playwriting has centered on strong women, influenced by his mother, a previously undocumented immigrant from Guatemala.
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My most intense interest was to catch up on his most recent exploits and also to understand his journey. I had the lovely opportunity to chat with him this week just before opening night at ArtsWest.
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Since leaving Seattle, he’s had some amazing opportunities and experiences, but it was clear back in 2016/17 that he had the talent and the drive necessary to propel himself into success and the writing chops that would open those doors to him.
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It’s the third play Seattle audiences have been able to see, with his early work performed at Annex Theatre, Terra Incognita, and a one-act done by Forward Flux, las mariposas y los muertos. Photo by Chris Larson.īenjamin Benne’s play, Alma, opens May 5 th at ArtsWest.