sept ’18

my play Indeed, friend! is having a workshop production (!)
September 12 – 15 at the Robert Moss Theater, Playwrights Downtown (440 Lafayette)

Playwrights Horizons Theater School & Clubbed Thumb present a workshop production of

Indeed, friend!
by Eliza Bent
directed by Knud Adams

featuring Arjun Biju, Misha Brooks, Guillermo Contreras, Tori Khalil, Allegra Leal, April Matthis and Sangi Varsano.

set & props by Andrew Moerdyk, costumes by Avery Reed, lights by Abby Wang, sound by Renee Yeong, stage manager Lauren Fitzgerald Veit, asst director Jack Serio

September 12 – 15, 2018
Wednesday Sept 12 at 8pm
Thursday Sept 13 at 8pm
Friday Sept 14 at 3pm
Friday Sept 14 at 8pm
Saturday Sept 15 at 3pm
Saturday Sept 15 at 8pm
all performances at the Robert Moss Theater, Playwrights Downtown, 440 Lafayette Street

CLICK HERE FOR TICKETS

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august ’18

A few things!

My play The Beyoncé is happening through Aug 18!

Based on Anton Chekhov’s short story “The Fiancée,”  with a nod to Queen Bey,  The Beyoncé is a sharp and personal coming-of-age conundrum produced by Adjusted Realists. With her wedding around the corner, Nadia is terrified to discover that her heart doesn’t want what it obviously should want: a decent husband and a stable, small town family life. She instead fantasizes about running off to the bright lights of the big city, immersing in counterculture, and leaving her family to fend for their own little existences. Is this a selfish daydream or a full-body call to adventure that must be answered? 

Jeremiah Maestas and Regan Sims. Photo by Mia Isabella Photography.

The Beyoncé
By Eliza Bent
Directed by Stephen Kaliski
Starring Rolls Andre, Andrea Aranguren, Maggie Low*, Jeremiah Maestas,*
Roger Manix, Rachel McPhee*, & Regan Sims
Scenic Design Sam Transleau
Lighting Design Jessica Greenberg
Costume Design William Mellette
Music & Sound Design Andrew Lynch
More info and tickets here!

—

I am directing an original piece with  UYT at Abrons on Aug 16!

We’ve all been on a subway platform waiting for a train that just doesn’t come. But guess what: The New York City Transit Authority has a new president. Can he save our crumbling system? A Light at the End of the Tunnel is a new musical about the state of the MTA. Tickets are free.

A Light at the End of the Tunnel
written and directed by Eliza Bent
featuring the teenagers of Abrons Arts Center’s UYT (Urban Youth Theatre)
Aug 16 at 2:30pm and 7pm at Abrons Arts Center’s Experimental Theatre
More info and tickets here!

 

 

indeed, friend!

Working on Indeed, friend! here at Berkeley Rep’s Ground Floor residency.

Will have a little showing on Sat Jun 16 at 7:30PM at Berekely Rep’s 999 Harrison Ave location.

May 2018

This month I’ll be performing in Rady&Bloom’s DING DONG IT’S THE OCEAN by Alex Borinsky, directed by Jeremy Bloom, with music by Joe White and banners by Brian Rady.

An arts collective gathers to celebrate their director’s birthday; fueled by Moscow Mules, the partygoers sprawl across the apartment, decompressing from their ongoing rehearsal process. They speculate about the end of the world. They dance. They nap. As the night unfolds, the play that they are building – about our planet’s ailing oceans — pervades every conversation, until the party guests find they are performing it. DING DONG IT’S THE OCEAN is a play about what people manage to find in each other when the world feels past saving.

It’s a very special show.

We’re at JACK May 17 – June 3

CAST: Eliza Bent*, Matthew Decostanza, Robert Dowling, Jahna Ferron-Smith, Fernando Gonzalez*, Alice Gorelick, Beth Griffith, Yehuda Hyman*, Jacob Perkins, Brian Rady, Ry Szelong, Heather Thiry, Jing Xu*
*AEA

CREATIVE TEAM:
Set: Robbie Bianco
Lights: Jeanette Yew
Sound: Mark Van Hare
Stage Manager: Michelle Navis
Associate Director: Brian Reager

 

 

 

 

 

 

In June I head off to Berkeley Rep’s Ground Floor residency to work on Indeed, friend! my poetry play.

In July and Aug I’ll be directing a show with teens at the Abrons Arts Center.

Apr 2018

Aloha, Aloha, or When I Was Queen
written and performed by me
directed by Knud Adams
Apr 4 – 21 at Abrons Arts Center

photo credit: Knud Adams make up and styling: Naomi Miyoko Raddatz

In 1996, a young Eliza Bent, along with a friend, created, directed and starred in an amateur historical film for a school project. In it, Bent portrayed Hawaii’s last reigning monarch, Queen Liliuokalani. 22 years later, Bent uses her home movie as a jumping off point to lead audiences on a journey that grapples with personal history, legacy, and cultural appropriation. In the tradition of Spalding Gray, Fran Lebowitz, and David Sedaris, Bent’s humorous cringe-inducing stories chart a Bostonian’s education in race and appropriation.

With textile panel art by Elizabeth Chabot, sound design and original composition by Jerome Ellis, lighting by Kate McGee and make up and styling by Naomi Miyoko Raddatz.

2018

ciao tutti .. here’s what I am up to so far in 2018

JAN
I’m in Louisville at the marvelous Actors Theatre of Louisville performing as a sensible Skink (that’s a lizard) in Anne Washburn and Dave Malloy’s LITTLE BUNNY FOO FOO, (now thru Feb 5) directed by Les Waters. It’s an all-star group of people: Sam Breslin Wright is the titular Bunny, April Matthis is our Blue Fairy, 10 adorable kids play field mice, plus a crew of Gentlemen Toads, a Girl Fairy Chorus, a Catmonster, and a garden gnome.

FEB
I’ll be doing back-to-back residencies at Abrons Arts Center and SPACE on Ryder Farm. At Abrons I’ll be working with Knud Adams on a new piece ALOHA, ALOHA that’ll premiere at Abrons in April and at SPACE I’ll script tinkering and talking walks in the snowy woods.

MAR
Kippy’s back with Season 3 of REAL TALK / KIP TALK Mar 6 and 7 at La Mama directed by Sarah Hughes with live video by David Pym. Rehearsing ALOHA, ALOHA and doing some guest teaching at Boston University.

APR
Premiering ALOHA, ALOHA OR WHEN I WAS QUEEN at Abrons Arts Center (Apr 4 – 21) directed by Knud Adams with visual elements by Elizabeth Chabot, soundscapes by Jerome Ellis and lighting by Kate McGee.

sum sum summer 2017

ciao tutti —

here’s what’s shaking.

season one of Real Talk / Kip Talk is now available for viewing on Vimeo. it was a terrific first season and we are hoping to tape some episodes on the road this coming year….in the meantime, you can watch them with these links:

episode #1
“Entrepreneurship”

episode #2
“The Handwriting Is on the Wall”

epsiode #3
“Activation”

 

this week i’m workshopping Anne Washburn and Dave Malloy’s Little Bunny Foo Foo, directed by Les Waters, which will have a production at Actors Theatre of Louisville this winter. and in august i’ll be workshopping Big Dance Theater‘s Antigenik (based on Antigone) by Anne Carson in Williamstown.

c’est cool!

come fall Knud Adams and I will be revisiting On a Clear Day I Can See to Elba at the Atlantic Theatre Company and look out for a presentation of Bonnie’s Last Flight, directed by Annie Tippe via the New George’s Audrey Residency.