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Benny Sato Ambush

2023-2024 Roe Green Visiting Director

Benny Sato Ambush, a veteran professional director, institutional theatre leader, educator, published commentator, and consultant, is the Artistic Director of Venice, FL’s Venice Theatre, the 2nd largest community theatre in America. Formerly, he was Artistic Director of TheatreVirginia (Richmond, VA), Oakland Ensemble Theatre (Oakland, CA), and Rites and Reason Theatre Company (Providence, RI). He served as Associate Artistic Director of San Francisco’s American Conservatory Theater, 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 has directed at numerous professional regional theatres throughout the nation, and taught and directed at many university M.F.A., B.F.A., and B.A. training programs.

He earned an A.B. in Theatre Arts and Dramatic Literature from Brown University, and an M.F.A. in Stage Directing from the University of California, San Diego. Board Membership: College of Fellows of the American Theatre, National Theatre Conference, Seven Devils New Play Foundry. Founding Steering Committee Member - National Alliance of Acting Teachers.

Image: Benny Sato Ambush, Color, Oct 2022, photo by Barbara Banks