ARTISTIC STATEMENT
My writing is a cocktail of clashing elements. It combines menace and lightheartedness, science and mysticism, sophistication and childishness. A mentor described my plays as an opulent mansion with a wild animal running loose inside – a kinetic mixture of the elegant and the feral. I write about dark side of innovation, about who washes out and who gets left behind. I’m interested in stories about striking it rich and striking out, about changing communities, about wanting to change the world but failing to change human nature. I write with burning political conviction, but with no interest in advancing a political agenda. I want to delight and surprise, and I want the audience to feel deep empathy with the people we are often poised to hate.
BENNETT FISHER
Bennett Fisher is a member of People of Interest, Campo Santo and the Playwright’s Foundation’s Resident Playwright Initiative, as well as a former Artistic Associate and Shank Fellowship Playwright in Residence at Victory Gardens Theater in Chicago. His plays include Candlestick, Damascus
His work has been presented and produced by the House Theater of Chicago, Strawdog Theater Company, Kansas City Repertory, Bay Area Playwrights Festival, La Jolla Playhouse’s WOW Festival, Oregon Contemporary Theater, the Alliance Theater, the Kennedy Center MFA Playwrights Workshop, Florida Repertory Theater, the Martin E. Segel Center, Burbage Theater Company, People of Interest, Campo Santo, Ubuntu Theater Project, Theater Emory, the Unicorn Theater, Sleepwalkers Theater, New Conservatory, the Cutting Ball Theater, Custom Made Theatre Company, and others. Bennett has been commissioned by the House Theater, Theater Emory, Campo Santo, and others. He has developed immersive-theater content for First Person Travel and the “Unreal Garden,” presented at the 2019 E3 Conference.
Bennett’s screenplay version of Damascus was optioned by Bill Mechanic and Pandemonium, and he is currently developing TV projects with Gosh Films and Constantin Films. As an actor, dramaturg, and director, he has collaborated with California Shakespeare Theatre, Stanford Summer Theatre, Just Theater, Crowded Fire, Pear Ave Theatre, Adirondack Shakespeare Company, Marin Shakespeare Company, and many others. He received his MFA from UC San Diego.