2008-2009
“Advancing art is easy
Financing it is not”
— Stephen Sondheim,
Sunday in the Park With George
photo by William Cusick
In 2009, even after touring internationally with Temporary Distortion, premiering two short plays I wrote, booking three commercials in a single month, performing in a critically acclaimed show at The Flea, and developing two sprawling theatrical adventures with a fledgling theater company of recent Vassar grads who called themselves Woodshed Collective, I was flat broke.
The non-union commercials paid little and the work with Woodshed and The Flea nothing at all. Still unrepresented, I (barely) got by juggling an array of day jobs: temping, data entry, secretarial and paralegal work, and teaching the SAT.
Most of my acting-related income was coming, surprisingly enough, from my most experimental projects. But Temporary Distortion toured only sporadically, and though I admired Kenneth’s outside-the-box creativity, standing motionlessly inside his theater-boxes while speaking in a near-monotone began to feel limiting.
In November 2008, no longer content to volunteer, I left The Flea Theater, and in June 2009, reluctant to commit to another two years of acting in a box, I dropped the new Temporary Distortion show.
As these relationships faltered, the most important relationship of my life was beginning. In August 2008, I went on my first date with Jess Chayes, and nine months later she directed me in my first show with a young theater collective called The Assembly.
Stacey Collins and Ben in Welcome to Nowhere; Ben and Jessica Pagan on screen above.
WELCOME TO NOWHERE
Production
January 7-January 13, 2008
written and directed by Kenneth Collins, video design by William Cusick
with Stacey Collins, Brian Greer, Lorraine Mattox, and Jessica Pagan
Role: Hunter
Temporary Distortion at P.S. 122
P.S. 122 (now Performance Space New York) was a legendary downtown venue where I'd seen half-a-dozen staggering experimental performances, from Claire Danes' solo dance piece to Elevator Repair Service's No Great Society,
Performing Welcome to Nowhere there was almost as exciting as taking the show to Paris.
Almost.
I HAVE A LOT OF LOVE TO GIVE
Independent Film (Short)
January 15, 2008 (Principal Photography)
written and directed by Ozu Takahari
My last shoot with the mysterious man who calls himself Ozu Takahari.
You can view the full film here.
Lorraine Mattox, Ben Beckley, and Brian Greer in Welcome to Nowhere; Ben on screen above
WELCOME TO NOWHERE
Production (International Tour)
January 20-February 8, 2008
written and directed by Kenneth Collins, video design by William Cusick
with Stacey Collins, Brian Greer, Lorraine Mattox, and Jessica Pagan
Role: Hunter
Temporary Distortion @ The Via/Exit Festival
(Maubeuge, France and Paris, France)
“Through the prism of Paris,” I wrote to a friend, shortly after returning to NYC, “the world seems very old and very lonely and very sad. But at night, when I make my way back to the hotel, there's a quiet, dreamlike calm that pervades the sidewalk cafes and the silent boulevards. New York is brighter and busier, more driven and strident, but I doubt it's possible to find the same kind of stillness here."
Taking Welcome to Nowhere to Paris continued to impact me in unexpected ways. In a single month, not long after coming home, I booked commercials for Virginia Lottery, Dunkin' Donuts, and Verizon Wireless. These quirky, light-hearted spots were the opposite of the brutal, brooding, experimental work I'd been doing with Temporary Distortion, but it didn't really matter.
I’d begun to feel completely confident, and that confidence showed.
MACBETH
MFA Directing Project (Scene)
April 9, 2008
by William Shakespeare, dir. Matt Torney
with Alison Weisgall (Ross)
Role: Macduff
Columbia University, MFA Directing
What guides a true patriot?
Matt contrasted a calculated political animal (Malcolm) with a passionate lover of country (Macduff) — the head with the heart.
director Matt Torney
a photo from the 2012 premiere of The Wife
THE WIFE
Closed Reading
May 1, 2008
by Tommy Smith, dir. May Adrales
with Cooper Daniels, Raniah Day, Nana Mensah, Rachael Richman, and Ronald Washington
Role: Jakob
Flea Theater
Tommy was confident I’d be great as either the reserved Orthodox Jew (Jakob) or the disaffected hipster (Jake).
When the production was finally cast, other actors were cast in both roles. Sometimes being right for two parts means being perfect for neither.
VIRGINIA LOTTERY - "PINK LEMONADE"
Commercial (Regional)
May 13-14, 2008 (principal photography)
"Honey, could you get me a pink lemonade?" was the final line of the spot.
At the audition, I ad-libbed, "Sweetheart, could you get me an orange fizzy?"
I booked it.
DUNKIN' DONUTS - "COULD BE THE COFFEE"
Commercial (National)
May 21, 2008 (principal photography)
Spike TV
By linking their ads to one particular network, like Spike TV or Comedy Central, and calling them “promos,” corporations discovered that they could pay non-union actors a fraction of what they’d pay for a union ad that got wider distribution across multiple networks.
A very small fraction: about 1/200th, in this particular case.
(Unions are important, folks.)
VERIZON WIRELESS - "WORLD'S HAPPIEST CAMPER"
Commercial (National)
May 29, 2008 (principal photography)
Comedy Central
I played a truly demented “camping expert”.
These three Verizon spots were featured on Comedy Central, which was having a ratings bonanza with The Daily Show and The Colbert Report. For the first time in my life, friends and relatives from across the country reached out to say they’d seen me on TV.
The cast of Kaspar Hauser at The Flea
KASPAR HAUSER
Workshop (Musical)
June 11, 2008
musical dir. Kris Kukul, written (music, book, lyrics) and directed by Liz Swados
Flea Theater
A musical based on the true story of a German boy who became an instant celebrity after a childhood spent in complete isolation from society.
Liz Swados' writing is fantastically expressive, and I was disappointed a Temporary Distortion tour that fall prevented me from premiering Kaspar Hauser.
STICKY -
"100% GARY"
Performance
June 19, 2008
written and directed by Vadim Newquist
Blue Box Productions @ The Bowery Poetry Club
Sticky produces ten-minute plays written for a bar, "because anything that can happen can happen in a bar".
This one featured a guy who reveals his deepest secret: that he’s a truly terrible person.
STICKY -
"IF YOU WANT BLOOD, YOU GOT IT"
Performance
June 19, 2008
written and directed by Vadim Newquist
with Vadim Newquist
Sticky
Blue Box Productions @ The Bowery Poetry Club
Vadim and I knocked back one round after another, while working ourselves into a Tarantino-esque frenzy of violence.
THE ANNA AND PHOEBE SHOW
Web Series
July 6, 2008 (Principal Photography)
written by Anna Kerrigan and Phoebe Lithgow
dir. Anna Kerrigan
Role: David
Anna (the filmmaker) and Phoebe (John Lithgow’s daughter) wrote and played versions of themselves (“Anna” and “Phoebe”) in this short-lived series about navigating the strangeness of contemporary Brooklyn.
Anna — I should say “Anna” — says some savage things about my character, but it turns out I’m a pretty nice, normal guy who made the mistake of loaning her some money.
Anna Kerrigan
Dan Cozzens and Ben in Twelve Ophelias
TWELVE OPHELIAS
Production (Musical)
July 11-August 22, 2008
by Caridad Svitch, dir. Teddy Bergman
with Kate Benson, Pepper Binkley, Dan Cozzens (Rude Boy), Jocelyn Kuritsky, and The Jones Street Boys
Role: H.
Woodshed Collective @ McCarren Park Pool
We sang an original score with a live band (The Jones Street Boys) in the enormous McCarren Park Pool, drained of water so it could be used as a performance venue.
A year later, it was filled with water once again.
I played a hillybilly Horatio, a man in love with a prostitute and enamored of his best friend.
THE ODD DOZEN
Independent Film (Short)
July 31, 2008 (Principal Photography)
conceived and written by Tommy Smith
improvised by the ensemble
dir. Reggie Watts
A mockumentary about Reggie Watts directing an experimental production of The Odd Couple, starring twelve Felixes and twelve Oscars.
My character — an actor named Ben Beckley — advocates for us to continue our lives as a collective person, even offstage.
"THE BREAK-UP"
Production (Short)
August 22-23, 2008
by Tommy Smith, dir. Jake Witlen
The Binge Olympiad
Working Man's Clothes
My performance featured the lesser-known hip hop song “Why Am I Plankton?”
THE SISTER
Reading
August 30, 2008
by Eric John Meyer
with Lynn Berg, Audrey Crabtree and Ivanna Cullinan
Role: Bob
The Brick Theater
My first reading of a play by Eric John Meyer.
In 2011, I'd finally premiere The Sister — with a new cast, in a different role, with a new director.
Not until six years after that — the summer after Eric was best man at my wedding — would I play Bob in a production.
The Brick Theater
WELCOME TO NOWHERE
Production (International Tour)
September 10-September 14, 2008
written and directed by Kenneth Collins
video design by William Cusick
with Stacey Collins, Brian Greer, Lorraine Mattox, and Jessica Pagan
Role: Hunter
Temporary Distortion @ Mois Multi (Quebec City, Canada)
Quebec City, an incredibly beautiful city, operates at a slower speed than New York does.
During a 90-minute dinner break from rehearsal, I walked into the first restaurant I could find and ordered a burger. It took 85 minutes to get it.
STICKY -
“THE MIRROR”
Performance (Short)
September 19, 2008
BY BEN BECKLEY, dir. Vadim Newquist
with Julie Ferrell and Vadim Newquist
Blue Box Productions @ The Bowery Poetry Club
The first play I ever had produced.
True to Sticky’s mission, it took place at a bar, “because everything that can happen can happen at a bar.”
A guy twists himself into verbal knots trying to rationalize his well intentioned but fundamentally one-sided attempt to pick up a young woman. He’s so sensitive to what he thinks she may be thinking that he’s unable to really listen to her.
the bar at the Bowery Poetry Club
AMERICANA KAMIKAZE
Production (Excerpt)
September 26, 2008
written and directed by Kenneth Collins
with Yuki Kawahisa, Lorraine Mattox and Ryosuke Yamada
Temporary Distortion @ The Prelude Festival (CUNY University)
An existential meditation on J-Horror films.
I continued rehearsing Americana Kamikaze for the next nine months.
Then in June 2009, with the play's premiere still more than three months away, I reluctantly dropped the project.
Since Temporary Distortion relies heavily on video footage of the actors, Kenneth expects his casts to commit not just to a show's premiere, but to every future touring engagement, wherever and whenever that might occur, for years and years. If I ever missed a single one (as I eventually did, for Welcome to Nowhere), he'd need to either re-shoot all my video or find another actor who looked exactly like me (which he eventually did).
CATO
Production
October 11-October 30, 2008
by Joseph Addison, dir. Jim Simpson
with Jimmy Allen, Christian Baskous, Scott Rad Brown, Reg E. Cathey, Holly Chou, Ross Cowan, Anthony Cochrane, Andre de Shields (Cato), Jake Green, Eric Lockley, Craig Mungavin, Matthew Murumba, Brian O'Neill and Carly Zien
Role: Rebel Leader
Flea Theater
My final show at The Flea.
Cato is an eighteenth-century verse drama extolling stoicism and self-sacrifice in the face of personal and political upheaval. For some reason, it’s not frequently revived.
Our cast included ten Bats (non-union actors expected to work for free) and five professional actors (union actors who received union-stipulated compensation) — the latter group including 2019 Tony-winner Andre de Shields and 2015 Emmy-winner Reg E. Cathey. The Flea’s Artistic Director Jim Simpson told the Bats, "We're paying Andre and Reg E. a few hundred bucks. We’re essentially buying them for a few hundred bucks. By volunteering, you guys are saying something very powerful: you're saying that you can't be bought."
Jim, who is married to Sigourney Weaver, often reminded us he was also a volunteer.
Ben (right) and Andre de Shields (center) with the cast of Cato
"THE SILENT MAJORITY"
Benefit Performance
November 23, 2008
text from James Joyce and Allen Ginsberg, dir. Jess Chayes
The Assembly (as The American Story Project) @ The Bowery Poetry Club
For years, every Assembly benefit featured an original performance created by Jess Chayes.
This one drew on text from James Joyce's A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man and Richard Nixon's "silent majority" speech.
ADVENTURE QUEST
Closed Reading
January 2, 2009
by Richard Lovejoy
Role: Hero
Sneaky Snake Productions
The Hero of Adventure Quest realizes he's trapped inside a video game — and that it's nearing its end. Rich wrote the role for me, but a scheduling conflict with Clementine and the Cyber Ducks prevented me from premiering the show.
Six years later, my Clementine cast member Edward Bauer would play the part at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival.
Rich Lovejoy's rendering of me as a video game hero.
(The beard was surprisingly accurate; the hair and muscles, not so much.)
actor Alexis McGuinness
THE MUMBLINGS
Staged Reading
January 27, 2009
by Dan Kitrosser, dir. May Adrales
with Alexis McGuinness (Jodie)
Role: Allen
American Place Theater
Alexis, a recent Yale MFA grad, was the second Jodie I played opposite.
Beth Hoyt’s take on the role had been comedy as a deflection from tragedy: a bright-eyed, wry persona developed as an escape from trauma.
Alexis, in contrast, was more grounded, her grief heavier and closer to the surface.
THEATRE IS DEAD (AND SO ARE YOU)
Production
January 29-January 31, 2009
by Kiran Rihkye, dir. Jon Stancato
Role: Harvey
Stolen Chair Theater Company @ The Connelly Theater
When a cast member had to leave the show, Stolen Chair auditioned me to take his place. It was my first time taking on a role someone else had created, and I loved the challenge of both adapting myself to an existing production and finding myself in the role.
Four years later, I'd have to find a similar balance as an understudy for Peter and the Starcatcher.
Brian Greer, Stacey Collins, and Ben in Welcome to Nowhere
WELCOME TO NOWHERE
Production (International Tour)
February 17-21, 2009
written and directed by Kenneth Collins
video design by William Cusick
with Stacey Collins, Brian Greer, Lorraine Mattox, and Jessica Pagan
Role: Hunter
Temporary Distortion @ Usine C (Montreal, Canada)
“Avec Welcome to Nowhere (Bullet Hole Road),” wrote Anabelle Nicoud in La Presse, “la compagnie new-yorkaise Temporary Distorsion convoque le road-movie dans un espace original.”
We did indeed.
STICKY -
"ROM-COM ABRIDGED"
Performance (Short)
April 13, 2009
by Jennifer Boggs, directed by Kara Ayn Napolitano
with Samantha Debicki, David Marcus, Ann Rooney and Elizabeth Stewart
Blue Box Productions @ The Bowery Poetry Club
Jennifer Boggs packed every romantic comedy trope imaginable into this ten-minute play, which culminated, inevitably, with a double wedding.
I wouldn't see director Kara Ayn Napolitano again until 2017, when I ended up performing with her husband in a national tour of Small Mouth Sounds.
director Kara Ayn Napolitano
CLEMENTINE AND THE CYBER DUCKS
Production
May 7-May 9, 2009
by Krista Knight, dir. Jess Chayes
with Edward Bauer, Cara Francis, and Emily Perkins
Role: Clive
The Assembly @ The Ontological-Hysteric Theater
A dark riff on "My Darling Clementine", set in California simultaneously during the 1849 Gold Rush and the 1990s dot com bubble.
Clementine marked my first production with Jess Chayes, my then girlfriend and future wife, a profoundly brilliant artist and an amazing human being.
It was also my first play with The Assembly, which would become an artistic home for me. I formally joined the company that fall, and became an artistic director years later.
STICKY -
"ESSENTIAL STRANGENESS"
Performance (Short)
May 7, 2009
BY BEN BECKLEY, dir. Hondo Weiss-Richmond
with Richard Lovejoy and Hollis Witherspoon
Blue Box Productions @ The Bowery Poetry Club
The second short play I wrote for Sticky. Unfortunately, since the performance coincided with opening night for Clementine and the Cyber Ducks, I never got a chance to see it.
A professor and his student meet at a bar. They exchange ideas and clothing. Their relationship (like Milton's poetry) becomes irreducibly ambiguous, their emotions (like Nietzsche's philosophy) fundamentally unsettled.
Rich Lovejoy and Hollis Witherspoon in Essential Strangeness
writer/director Niegel Smith
“THE RED SHOES”
Workshop
May 20, 2009
written and directed by Niegel Smith
with Varin Ayala, Corey Baker (Dad), Michael Chenevert, Shaneeka Harrell (Sam), Brendan MacDonough (The Man With the Music), Ray Rodriguez, and Jill Vallery (Mom)
Role: Doctor
The Public Theater
The need to perform, Niegel told us, may be both inescapably toxic and necessary for salvation.
Adapted from the fairy tale, "The Red Shoes" explored both sides of this dichotomy.
OU EST LE SWIMMING POOL -
"DANCE THE WAY I FEEL"
Music Video
May 30, 2009
Role: Featured Dancer
The British pop band Ou Est Le Swimming Pool created a music video featuring dancers from a wide variety of disciplines, including ballet, pop-locking, club dance, cheerleading, and… whatever it is I did.
The only untrained dancer in the bunch, I jumped around a lot, flailed my arms, and kicked my legs in the air. “That is fucking killer, mate,” one of the band members told me—but I was mostly cut from the final video.
You can see it here.
playwright Nick Mwaluko
S/HE
Staged Reading
June 15, 2009
by Nick Mwaluko, dir. Niegel Smith
Role: Stage Directions
The Public Theater Emerging Writers Group
A first-rate writer, Nick Mwaluko wrote this play about his transition.
Nick was, to my knowledge, the first trans collaborator I ever worked with.
Stage directions don’t generally require a significant emotional investment. This was the exception.
ONEIDA: SERVANTS OF MOTION
Staged Reading
June 19, 2009
by Johnna Adams, dir. Connie de Veer
with Catherine Porter, Lorna Hampson, Christopher Hurt, Aaren Jacksen, and Kathleen Schlemmer
Role: Victor Hawley
Peculiar Works Project @ The Merchant's House Museum
A radical 19th-century Christian sect, New York's Oneida Community believed that through rigorous adherence to the principles of communal living and Christian perfectibility they could bring about heaven on earth. All members shared unskilled labor. "Complex marriage" dictated they share sexual partners as well, and raise their children communally. "Mutual criticism" sessions invited the entire Oneida Community to publicly critique an individual's failings.
When The Assembly began developing a play about 1960s radicals a year later, I was struck by how much the Weather Underground had in common with Oneida: "complex marriage" translated to "smash monogamy" and "mutual criticism" to "criticism self-criticism". Even the idea of Christian perfectibility had its place in Weather ideology — though of course it was revolutionary perfection that the Weathermen were after.
We performed the reading just outside the beautiful Merchant's House Museum in the East Village. You can see pictures of the event here.
Brian Greer below, with Ben onscreen above
WELCOME TO NOWHERE
Production (International Tour)
July 28-August 1, 2009
written and directed by Kenneth Collins
video design by William Cusick
with Stacey Collins, Brian Greer, Lorraine Mattox, and Jessica Pagan
Role: Hunter
Temporary Distortion @ The Salzburg Festival (Salzburg, Austria)
We’d gotten stellar reviews in the U.S., Canada, and France, but when Kenneth asked our translator to translate our major German review at the Salzburg Festival, she told him, “I don’t think you want to know what it says.”
Salzburg, cradled in the Alps where Maria von Trapp escaped from the Nazis, is beautiful. The Sound of Music is in fact a major tourist industry there — from marionette shows to tours of filming locations. A less popular topic is the Nazis themselves, presumably the reason KKK Grand Wizard David Duke feels so at home in Salzburg.
THE CONFIDENCE MAN
Production
August 30-September 26, 2009
by Paul Cohen, based on the novel by Herman Melville
dir. Lauren Keating, Michael Silverstone and Stephen Brackett
Woodshed Collective @ The S.S. Lilac
"The Boat Show", as everyone called it, took place on board the S.S. Lilac, permanently docked on the Hudson River.
Freely adapted from Melville's final novel, the immersive show consisted of dozens of storylines that played out simultaneously in a variety of different locations. Audiences were free to wander wherever they liked.
Reviews: Gothamist, Theatre Is Easy
Dan Cozzens and Ben in The Confidence Man
playwright Jason Grote
civilization (all you can eat)
Closed Reading
September 12, 2009
by Jason Grote
with Lisa Clair, Melissa Miller, and Elizabeth Rich
Role: Mike
Clubbed Thumb
A satire about unrestrained corporate greed and other forms of insanity.
THE SISTER
Reading
September 17, 2009
by Eric John Meyer, dir. Jess Chayes
with Anne Carlisle, Teddy Bergman and Jocelyn Kuritsky
Role: Bob
The Public Theater
Home to A Chorus Line and Shakespeare in the Park — and more recently Fun Home and Hamilton — The Public is a storied place. Jess, who was working there at the time, secured this reading.
Jocelyn and I would play married couples again in Twelve Ophelias, Sunrise, and That Poor Dream.
The Public Theater
actor David Marcus
STICKY -
"PEACE TALK"
Performance (Short)
October 9, 2009
by James McLindon, directed by Jess Chayes
with Dave Marcus
Role: Jack
Blue Box Productions @ The Bowery Poetry Club
I played a Boston bartender who loves the IRA, Dave Marcus a moderate Irishman applying for a job. After a heated argument about Irish politics, I hire the guy. ("People need to fight, as much as they need to talk. Or else, what’s the use of talking?")
Dave and I had fierce political disagreements of our own.
Sticky’s co-founder, he was also the show’s regular MC, launching regularly into political diatribes masquerading as banter.
At first more contrarian than genuinely conservative, his schtick grew increasingly bitter and strident, celebrating torture and the Iraq War, and usually devolving into attacks on his mostly progressive audience, as if Dave were a third-rate standup comic in the middle of a failing set. (Which, in some ways, he was.)
While “Peace Talk” ends happily, our combative friendship didn’t.
THE MATERIAL WORLD
Staged Reading (Musical)
October 31, 2009
by Dan Fishback (music, lyrics and book), directed by Stephen Brackett
with Stephanie Di Maggio, Erin Markey, Audrey Lynn Weston, and Mary Wiseman
In a role later played by my idol Chip Zien, I was an elderly communist still dreaming of worldwide revolution.
writer Dan Fishback
a scene from the 2010 premiere of Quantum Poetics
QUANTUM POETICS
Closed Workshop (regional)
November 6-8, 2009
by Kiran Rikhye and the ensemble, dir. Jon Stancato
with David Gochfeld, Liz Eckert, Ishah Janssen-Faith, Timothy McCown Reynolds, and Noah Schultz
Stolen Chair in Greenwich, CT
How can you theatricalize core principles of quantum physics, Kiran and Jon wondered.
(Turns out, it’s complicated!)