Penny Benson
Penny Benson (Puppetry Direction & Design) is a visual and performing artist/puppeteer and actor (AEA) with over 100 performance credits. She and her work have been seen nationally and internationally, from Canada to China. She most recently appeared in her original short Black Birds, Red Hills, in conjunction with Juventas New Music Ensemble at Oberon in Cambridge. Prior to that Penny designed puppets for the Jean’s Playhouse national tour of Christmas Carol, which are currently on display at the Ballard Institute and Museum of Puppetry in Storrs, CT. Her original MFA production, Goblin Market, premiered at Connecticut Repertory Theatre in March 2014, for which she served as playwright, puppet designer/builder, and co-director. Penny toured nationally with Underground Railway Theatre in How Do You Spell Hope and Are You Ready My Sister, designed and built masks and puppets for KRIK KRAK, and collaborated on Arabian Nights, Sila, Harriet Jacobs, Tru Grace, and Galileo. She has also designed and built puppets / masks for WHAT, TYG Productions, and Foreign Landscape Productions. Penny has served as a visiting teaching artist for URT, The Huntington Theatre, UMass Amherst, Babson College, and City Stage, and was a STARS grant Artist in Residence at Boston Day and Evening Academy. Penny continues to design, build, devise and direct theater and puppetry for productions originating in the Boston area.