Benny Sato Ambush, most recently from Boston, MA where he formerly served as Senior Distinguished Producing Director in Residence at Emerson College, will begin work with Venice Theatre as Artistic Director in late July of this year. He will continue at least through aactWorldFest, the international community theatre festival hosted by Venice Theatre in June 2022. Ambush became acquainted with Venice Theatre when he served as an adjudicator for the 2014 and 2018 international festivals.
Murray Chase, Producing Executive Director of Venice Theatre says, "Benny is a superb director. While here, he will direct two of our shows, as well as work to secure artistic quality and consistency across the board. He will be instrumental in helping us select our 2022-2023 season, and in finding the next Artistic Director. He will also teach some classes. We know that the community will welcome him as he helps us prepare for the next level of our journey."
Venice Theatre is a 501(c)(3) organization dedicated to making a dramatic impact on all stages of life. The second-largest of 10,000 community theatres in the United States, it is located at 140 Tampa Ave. W. in Venice, FL. Its Jervey Theatre offers seating for 432 patrons and features musicals, plays, concerts and special events. Its Yvonne Pinkerton Theatre seats 90 patrons and is home to the theatre's Stage 2 Series and Cabaret Festival. In addition to providing entertainment to the community, Venice Theatre offers a wide range of education and outreach programs for children and adults.
Ambush is a veteran Stage Directors and Choreographers Society (SDC) director, institutional theatre leader, educator, published commentator and consultant. He has been Artistic Director of three theaters, two of them professional: TheatreVirginia (Richmond, VA) and Oakland Ensemble Theatre (Oakland, CA).
Previously, he was Associate Artistic Director of San Francisco's American Conservatory Theater; Acting Artistic Director of Providence, RI's Rites and Reason Theatre Company; Co-Artistic Director of San Francisco Bay Area Playwrights Festival; PEW Charitable Trust/TCG Director-In-Residence for Manalapan, Florida's Florida Stage; and Associate Artistic Director of Anna Deavere Smith's Institute on the Arts & Civic Dialogue at Harvard University.
He is a seasoned director with numerous professional regional theatres including Old Globe Theatre; Oregon Shakespeare Festival, Portland; South Coast Rep; Alabama Shakespeare Festival; American Conservatory Theater; Merrimack Repertory Theatre, Arizona Theatre Company; Magic Theatre; Geva Theatre; Playwrights Horizon; Ford's Theatre; Triad Stage, American Repertory Theater Institute; Philadelphia Festival Theatre for New Plays; Lincoln Center Theater Institute; Heart of America Shakespeare Festival; Indiana's New Harmony Project; Actors Guild of Lexington, KY; Alaska Theatre of Youth; International Theatre Festival of Chicago; Sacramento Theatre Company; National Black Theatre Festival; Wellfleet Harbor Actors Theatre; Lyric Stage Company of Boston; Gloucester Stage Company; The New Rep; TheatreSquared, The Lost Colony; Underground Railway Theater, Tennessee Williams Theatre Festival, and most recently, Asolo Conservatory for Actor Training.
Ambush says, "I am blessed to artistically helm a theatre for the fourth time in my career - thank you Venice Theatre! My skill set, expertise, and aesthetic were forged, tested, and honed by experiences in multiple regions across the United States. I have personally witnessed the special bond that community members have with the Venice Theatre, now in its eighth decade. Its upcoming hosting of the American Association of Community Theatre's incomparable WorldFest international theatre festival for the fourth time is a standard-bearing triumph. I am excited to join this preeminent producing and presenting venue on South-Central Florida's Gulf Coast and help continue its theatrical magic."
As an educator, Ambush has taught acting and directing to MFA, BFA and BA students for decades in many colleges and universities nationally and internationally. His service to the field includes having been a former Board Member of Theatre Communications Group (TCG), for which he is currently an Emeritus Trustee. He has been a panelist and peer site evaluator for the National Endowment for the Arts (NEA), several State Arts Councils, and the Philadelphia Theatre Initiative. He was a United States Information Agency Cultural Tour Delegate to Kenya and to the former Soviet Union. Currently, he is a Board Member of The National Theatre Conference, a founding Steering Committee Member of The National Alliance of Acting Teachers, a Board Member of Idaho's Seven Devils New Play Foundry, a Board Member of the New Repertory Theatre, Watertown, MA, and an Adjudicator for the American Association of Community Theatre where he served in Germany, Italy, Turkey, Belgium and throughout the U.S.
Ambush has a BA in Theatre Arts and Dramatic Literature from Brown University and an MFA in Directing from the University of California, San Diego. In 2020, he was inducted into the College of Fellows of the American Theatre.
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