 |
|
| Sean Benjamin is a founding member and Artistic Director of Drinking & Writing (www.drinkingandwriting.com), a theater/production company responsible for The Drinking & Writing Festival, Beerfly Alleyfight, The Drinking & Writing Brewery Radio Show on WLUW 88.7 FM, the Drinking & Writing series of stage shows, and The Drinking & Writing Theater at Haymarket Pub & Brewery in Chicago. He was an ensemble member of The Neo-Futurists from 1996 to 2009 and has written hundreds of 2-minute plays for the long-running Neo-Futurist show Too Much Light Makes The Baby Go Blind (30 plays in 60 minutes). Mr. Benjamin has written and performed in The Neo-Futurist productions Devolution, Missing Parts, 43 Plays for 43 Presidents (co-writer), Picked Up (co-writer), Poker Night At The White House (also produced by Dad's Garage Theatre in Atlanta), Drinking & Writing Volumes I-IV (produced in numerous bars and theaters throughout the United States and in Edinburgh, Scotland), The Santa Abductions, SEX!, and BEER (co-written with Steve Mosqueda). He also performed in Noelle Krimm's musical City Girl! And then he married her. He lives in Evanston with his wife and two children. |
|
|
|
|
Comedy/drama/experimental/political/historic
Full-length, 105-115 minutes
5 either (5-158 actors possible: 0-158 females, 0-158 males)
$75.00 per performance; $9.99 per book
43 Plays For 43 Presidents is a chronological, biographical survey of the lives and presidencies of each of the 43 men who have held the office so far. Their mistakes and successes are celebrated by a company of actors who take turns donning a star-spangled coat that symbolizes the presidency. Beginning with George Washington's almost Eden-like perfection, the scenes shift frequently between the comic and the tragic, from Ben Franklin giving Thomas Jefferson a Borscht Belt-style roast, to the frank portrayal of William Henry Harrison's life as an "Indian slayer," and later the grim onset of the Civil War. Act II starts off the twentieth century with the assassination of William McKinley, moves through a Nixon-praising dance number and arrives at a WWF-style wrestling match over the 2000 election, when George W. Bush dons the coat and begins the 43rd play. Audience members consider their role in shaping the history they just witnessed, and are left to ponder where the presidency has gone since its fall from paradise, and where it will go next.
|  |
|
 |
| "HIGHLY RECOMMENDED: They definitely are on to something in this zany, clever, ambitious and often surprisingly moving historical catalogue." |
| --Hedy Weiss, Chicago Sun Times |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
