Sarah Benson

Sarah Benson
Born1977 or 1978 (age 45–46)[1]
NationalityBritish
EducationKing's College London
Alma materBrooklyn College M.F.A., 2004[1]
Known forTheatre director
Artistic director of Soho Rep
MovementAvant-garde theatre production
AwardsFairview 2019 Drama Desk nomination[2][3]
Vilcek award, 2016, Creative promise in theatre[4]
Futurity 2015, Lucille Lortel award, Best musical[5] Callaway award[6]
Blasted 2009, Obie award[7][8][9] Drama Desk nomination[9]
Websitesohorep.org

Sarah Benson is a British director of avant-garde theatre productions based in New York.[1][5][10][11] As a Director of the Soho Rep, a lower Manhattan-based theatre company with an "audacious taste in plays",[12] she is notable for her "commitment to adventurous new plays with an experimental bent".[4] She has been at the company since 2007, and during her tenure, the company has won numerous Obie awards and Drama Desk nominations.[1][13][14]

While Benson specializes in noncommercial work, in 2019 she directed an advertisement starring Michael C. Hall which aired in the 2019 Super Bowl entitled Skittles Commercial: The Broadway Musical to promote a brand of candy; Forbes described it as the "best Super Bowl ad of the year".[15][16]

When developing a new project, Benson likes to collaborate intensively in the early stages of development with theatrical designers.[17] With actors, she is interested in character and person co-existing in performance rather than character being used exclusively as a mask.[17] Once in rehearsal she stages "really really fast" so she can start "seeing scenes on their feet".[17]

During the worldwide COVID-19 pandemic, when the theatre world was particularly hard hit, Benson and the other directors of Soho Rep, Cynthia Flowers and Meropi Peponides, noticed that many creative people were abandoning the city. They embarked on a plan in September 2020 to put artists on salary.[18]

Benson has also worked with the O'Neill Playwrights Conference, the New York Stage and Film and the New Dramatists.[9] She has mentored students in the theatre programs at New York University and Yale University.[13] She lives in Brooklyn and is a member of the board of trustees of the Brooklyn College Foundation.[19]

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