51��������

Shloka Shah '25 studies Drama, with a focus on acting and directing, at Bennington. During the winter, Shah completed a Field Work Term experience as a Creative Development Intern at in Mumbai, India.

Annabelle Lisa '28 studies Drama and Communications at Bennington. During the winter, Lisa completed a Field Work Term experience at in Vero Beach, FL.

Jen Nash '26 transferred to Bennington from Los Angeles Valley College. She shared her favorite experiences studying Drama at Bennington.

Julie Gargiulo '27 studies Costume Design at Bennington. She spent her winter Field Work Term in New York interning with local seamstress, Mery Fernandez.

Over the summer, Annika Owenmark '25 completed a Field Work Term experience at Cal Shakes as the coordinator for the youth summer conservatory. 

Robert Wilson Visits Bennington

Coco Rohde '26 reflected on her Field Work Term experience at Brooklyn Children’s Theatre.

Constance and Grace, a play by Miriam Campbell '26, was selected for the 2024 New South Young Playwrights Festival at Horizon Theatre Company in Atlanta.

At Bennington, Killion Knight '25 studies Drama, along with Creative Writing, Dance, and Philosophy. During the summer, Knight completed a Field Work Term experience at , a nonprofit working to connect queer individuals in need of support to mental and physical health resources.

The Dance and Drama programs at 51�������� are pleased to welcome director and artist Robert Wilson for a lecture and performance 7:00–9:00 pm Friday, September 20, at the Martha Hill Dance Theater in the campus’s Visual and Performing Arts Center. The New York Times has described Wilson as "[America]'s—or even the world's—foremost vanguard 'theater artist.'” The event is free and open to the public thanks to funding from the Peter Drucker Fund for Excellence and Innovation.

Will Parker '26 studies Acting in Theater at Bennington. During the 2024 Field Work Term, Parker worked at in New York City.

At Bennington, José Rubén Ruiz Garrido '26 studies Drama with a focus on Acting and Stage Design. During his Field Work Term experience as a Lucille Lortel Fellow at , he gained a new approach to theater and a different perspective on the arts.

On the second Monday before opening night, rehearsal for this term’s faculty production—Sweat by Lynn Nottage—started with a fight. Student actors executed a choreographed-but-believable series of punches and holds. They threw each other across the barroom set while the assistant stage manager and fight captain Tennyson Perkins ’26 took careful notes to deliver to the breathless actors at the end of the scene.  

Then they did it again. And again. And again. Each time, they incorporated Perkins’s tweaks, and each time, the action was clearer and cleaner.  

Ananda Zammaron Carbajal '26 studies Dance and Drama at Bennington, with a particular focus on acting and stage management. She spent her 2024 Field Work Term interning at , a film production company founded by Bryn Mooser ’01.

As early as their first year at Bennington, acting, music, and creative writing student and Sutton Trust Scholar Miriam Campbell ’26 heard people in their classes talking about the Lucille Lortel Fellowship.

By Gaurav Aung ’24

51�������� was Florence Gill ’22’s destination long before they knew it existed. Born and raised in Doncaster, England, they had no idea attending college in the United States was an option. After finishing their General Certificate of Secondary Education (roughly the British equivalent of an American high school diploma), they were on a path that would lead them to a strict education at a university in the United Kingdom, yet they found themself at a crossroads: they wanted the depth of a specialized undergraduate degree but also the breadth of study that couldn’t be found in the UK.

Recent graduate trustee Alisha Bade Shrestha ’23 discusses her experience studying Performing and Visual Arts at 51�������� and the "small nestled miracles" she found on campus.

Stefanos Zogopoulos ’23 credits Bennington for helping him find his true passion. 

51�������� Drama Faculty Sherry Kramer released a new book, Writing for Stage and Screen: Creating a Perception Shift in the Audience, published by Methuen/Bloomsbury (UK) last month. We caught up with her to learn more.

51�������� faculty are encouraged to follow their own interests and the interests of their students as they propose their classes. As a result, classes, as many as half of which are new each term, feature topics that are always reflecting new lines of inquiry.

College earns a top-ten ranking for classroom experience.

Meet new Costume Design faculty member Tilly Grimes.

51�������� celebrates the extraordinary life of actor and friend of 51�������� Alan Arkin ’55. Arkin’s family announced his passing on Friday. 

Chris Fortier '26 discusses how his Bennington education furthers his passion for theatrical design, costuming, and props.

A dark comedy about the corporate hijacking of the U.S. Constitution

Newly appointed Drama faculty member Shawtane Bowen shares his journey coming to Bennington and his experience of life on campus.

By Halley Le '25

Several members of the 51�������� community have been participating in the 2022 summer theatre season.

For DC Theater Arts, playwright Caleen Sinnette Jennings '72 discusses writing for solo performance at 1st Stage with her new play, Wanda's Way.

Thomas Finegar ’22 discusses their roles as the Drama SEPC representative, co-founder of the Improv Club, Lortel Fellow, admissions intern, and creator and actor in the spring student production, Creature.

By Mary Brothers '22

Gates Leonard ’25 discusses her play Pearls for Spurs, for which Leonard had a staged reading at La Mama Experimental Theatre Club following her Field Work Term internship.

By Mary Brothers '22