IDEA

LEADERSHIP: JAMES STILL

Playwright-in-Residence

During his 25 years as playwright-in-residence, IRT audiences have seen all three plays in James’s “Jack Plays” trilogy (The House That Jack Built, Appoggiatura, and Miranda), as well as Looking Over the President’s Shoulder; And Then They Came for Me: Remembering the World of Anne Frank; Amber Waves; The Little Choo-Choo That Thinks She Can; April 4, 1968: Before We Forgot How to Dream; I Love to Eat: Cooking with James Beard; The Velveteen Rabbit; The Heavens Are Hung in Black; Interpreting William; Iron Kisses; The Gentleman from Indiana; Searching for Eden; He Held Me Grand, and The Secret History of the Future. James has directed many productions at the IRT, including A Christmas Carol, Twelve Angry Men, A Doll’s House Part 2, The Originalist, Dial “M” for Murder, The Mystery of Irma Vep, Red, Other Desert Cities, God of Carnage, Becky’s New Car, Rabbit Hole, and Doubt. This season he directs Oedipus. James is a member of the National Theatre Conference in New York, and a Kennedy Center inductee of the College of Fellows of the American Theatre. Other honors include the Eugene and Marilyn Glick Indiana Authors Award for drama for The Jack Plays, the Todd McNerney New Play Prize from the Spoleto Festival, the William Inge Festival’s Otis Guernsey New Voices Award, and the Orlin Corey Medallion from the Children’s Theatre Foundation of America. His plays have been nominated four times for the Pulitzer Prize, and have been developed at Robert Redford’s Sundance, the New Harmony Project, Eugene

IN 2017, SARAH & JOHN LECHLEITER CREATED THE JAMES STILL PLAYWRIGHT-IN-RESIDENCE FUND, PROVIDING SUPPORT FOR THE PLAYWRIGHT-IN-RESIDENCE AS WELL AS THE CREATION OF NEW WORK FOR THE IRT.

O’Neill Playwrights Conference, Seven Devils Playwrights Conference, Colorado New Play Summit, the Lark, Launch Pad at UC–Santa Barbara, Telluride Playwright’s Festival, New Visions/New Voices, and Fresh Ink. Three of his plays have received the Distinguished Play Award from the American Alliance for Theatre & Education. James’s work has been produced throughout the United States, Canada, China, Japan, Europe, South Africa, Australia, and New Zealand. Current projects include his new plays The Cratchits (in America), Plays about Longing, (A) New World, Dinosaur(s), Joy Waves to You from a Distance, and new plays commissioned by Prison Performing Arts (St. Louis) and American Blues (Chicago). James also works in television and film and has been nominated for five Emmys and a Television Critics Association Award; he has twice been a finalist for the Humanitas Prize. He wrote the short film A City of Stories commissioned by the New Harmony Project and recently featured in the Heartland Film Festival’s Indy Shorts. James was a producer and head writer for the TLC series PAZ, the head writer for Maurice Sendak’s Little Bear, and writer for the Bill Cosby series Little Bill. He wrote The Little Bear Movie and The Miffy Movie as well as the feature film The Velocity of Gary. James grew up in Kansas and lives in Los Angeles.

LEADERSHIP:

BENJAMIN HANNA

Associate Artistic Director

Ben is a director, educator, and community engagement specialist whose passion for multigenerational theatre has influenced his work across the country. In all of his myriad roles, Ben is guided by the belief that access to highquality theatre helps build creative, empathetic people and healthy communities. Ben is thrilled to be in his sixth season at Indiana Repertory Theatre, where he has directed Fahrenheit 451, The Book Club Play, Tuesdays with Morrie, This Wonderful Life, A Christmas Carol, The Little Choo-Choo That Thinks She Can, Elephant & Piggie’s “We Are in a Play!,” and The Town Mouse and the Country Mouse. This season he directs Clue. As associate artistic director, Ben manages casting both locally and nationally, helps guide education and community programming, and connects IRT to new artists and ideas. Dedicated to eradicating systems of oppression, he is an advocate for creating and maintaining an anti-racist culture that breaks down historical barriers of access to the theatre. Along with Sarah Bellamy, IRT’s Equity Consultant, he guides IRT’s work to develop thoughtful, sustainable Inclusion, Diversity, Equity, and Access initiatives. Ben is the recipient of a Theatre Communications Group Leadership University Award funded by the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation. The award supported his artistic mentorship at the Children’s Theatre Company in Minneapolis, the nation’s largest theatre for young audiences. Prior to his role at CTC, Ben spent five years in California’s Bay Area, dividing his time between Berkeley Repertory Theatre and the Bay Area Children’s Theatre. In his native Minnesota, Ben was honored to serve on the education staff of Penumbra Theatre Company, the nation’s leading African American theatre, where he helped to expand their education and outreach offerings. His proudest accomplishments during his four years with the company include growing the nationally recognized Summer Institute for Activist Artists into a three-year multidisciplinary social justice theatre training program, developing a multigenerational quilting circle, and helping to create and facilitate a racial equity training program through the company’s RACE workshop series. Ben holds a degree in theatre arts from the University of Minnesota Twin Cities. He grew up on a small rural farm and fell in love with theatre at the age of eleven. He continues to create for his favorite audience: his five nieces and nephews.