All About Ben

Ben SantaMaria (they/them) is an award-nominated writer for stage and screen. They are a BAFTA Connect member, a 2024-25 Paines Plough and Mercury Theatre mentored writer, the artistic director of their company Flaming Theatre, an experienced theatre director, devisor, producer and workshop leader, and a senior reader (2020-23) and dramaturg for Theatre503.

Ben was born in Brooklyn, grew up mostly in England and is based in Epping, Essex, near London. They’re passionate about creating exciting, challenging and multidimensional images of LGBTQ+ lives that speak to diverse audiences. They also love to roam into unknown territory and write in a range of forms, naturalistic and fantastic, intimate and widescreen.

In 2017-19, Ben directed and produced their critically acclaimed play Really Want to Hurt Me, supported by Arts Council England, Soho Theatre’s Edinburgh Lab and the Jerwood Space. It had a successful Edinburgh Fringe run at Assembly Hall, 4 and 5-star reviews, and was programmed in Soho Theatre’s Soho Rising festival of “rising stars”. The show toured the UK to venues including Theatre503, The Old Red Lion, Sheffield Crucible, Nottingham Playhouse, Theatr Clwyd, Theatre Royal Plymouth and The Marlborough in Brighton. It was shortlisted for the Brighton Fringe Award for Excellence and the playtext was published with ACE support.

Ben’s other plays include Is This Desire? (Theatre503 International Playwriting Award 2023 longlist; Flux Theatre Emerge longlist), Lulla (top 100 plays longlist, Verity Bargate Award 2017), In Need (top 10% longlist, Verity Bargate Award 2020; Full Disclosure Theatre showcase, Southwark Playhouse; Theatre503 Rapid Write Response), Hunters (ScriptSpace reading at The Space), Echo Chamber (ARC Stockton; Sharp Scratches), Knots (Herstory Festival), Deathcamp [Homeland Jingle] (Page to Stage; The Dionysian), Remain (Brave New Word, SLAM; Five Minute Play Festival finalist, LOST Theatre). They co-directed/devised Jarman Garden (Riverside Studios), a finalist for the Oxford Samuel Beckett Theatre Trust Award which Neil Tennant (Pet Shop Boys) called “a beautifully choreographed tour through Derek Jarman’s life and work”.

Films: Demons (BFI NETWORK South East Script Lab 2023 shortlist), Is This Desire? (in development), Develop (BAFTA Connect/Micro Short Films), Spyhole, Symptoms May Include.

Ben was selected for the Criterion Theatre New Writing and Story Development Programmes, Soho Theatre’s Edinburgh Lab, the Mercury Playwrights Programme at the Mercury Theatre Colchester, and the National Theatre Directors’ Course.

Their other directing includes Sublime (Tristan Bates Theatre), After Orlando (Chaskis Theatre, Theatre Royal Stratford/The Vaults), Huis Clos (Camden People’s Theatre), The Balcony (workshop, Young Vic), A Midsummer Night’s Dream (Cambridge Shakespeare Festival), She Wore Herself (The Cockpit), Baal (Blue Elephant Theatre), The Bitter Tears of Petra von Kant (Man in the Moon), The Possibilities (Finborough). Assistant directing includes Edward II for Shakespeare’s Globe, Singh Tangos for Kali Theatre and Gertrude - The Cry for The Wrestling School.

Ben has a BA in Drama and English from Bristol University, an MPhil in Directing from Rose Bruford College and a PhD in English Literature from Sussex University, published as Cruising Culture (Edinburgh University Press). Their writing on queer cinema and music has appeared in the film journal Screen and Lesbian and Gay Studies: A Critical Introduction (Cassell). They’ve run playwriting workshops on tour and taught directing, devising, English and US literature, theatre and film studies at universities in England and the US. Ben was a lecturer in gender and queer studies on the Sexual Dissidence MA at Sussex University, having received a distinction as a student on the programme.

They’ve also worked as a volunteer for LGBTQ+ switchboards and HIV/AIDS support services in Brighton, Bristol and London.