Benjamin Curns
Guest Director/Fight Director
Benjamin has been an Artistic Associate with the American Shakespeare Center since 2001. During his tenure with ASC, he has served in many different capacities. He has toured the country twice as an actor (Bright Heaven of Invention and Excellent Motion tours) and once as the Company Manager for the Beguile the Rich tour. He has additionally appeared as an actor and musician in nine Actors’ Renaissance Seasons and five Summer/Fall Seasons.
ASC directing credits include Romeo and Juliet; Julius Caesar; Much Ado about Nothing (National Tours); Shakespeare On Ice; ‘Diggers (Blackfriars Conference); Henry IV, Part 2; All’s Well That Ends Well; Othello; The Winter’s Tale; The Tempest; Cymbeline (American Shakespeare Center Theatre Camp). Assistant Director credits include The Importance of Being Earnest, The Merry Wives of Windsor, Macbeth, and Love’s Labour’s Lost.
Directing credits outside of ASC include Macbeth (Excellent Motion Shakespeare Company), Arsenic and Old Lace (Wohlfahrt Haus Dinner Theatre), The Boy (Philadelphia Fringe Festival), and a staged reading of King Lear (PlayMakers Repertory Company/Burning Coal Theatre Company).
Benjamin has directed fights for ASC productions of Macbeth, Cyrano DeBergerac, The Comedy of Errors; Romeo and Juliet; Julius Caesar; Cymbeline; and the national touring productions of Romeo and Juliet; Julius Caesar; Henry IV, Part 1; Hamlet; and Othello.
Fight credits outside ASC include Macbeth (Roust Theatre Company); Superior Donuts (with ASC alum Jeremy West), Henry IV (Live Arts); Tyger’s Heart, King John, The Maid’s Tragedy and others (Mary Baldwin University); Disgraced (PlayMakers Repertory Company); As You Like It (UNC Chapel Hill Kenan Theatre Company).
Benjamin is a member of Actor’s Equity Association, a certified Actor/Combatant with the Society
of American Fight Directors, and a black belt in American Freestyle Karate. He received his MFA in
Acting from The University of North Carolina Chapel Hill and his BA in History from SUNY Cortland.
Events featuring Benjamin Curns
Macbeth
April 12 - June 9
From the first words of the play until the title character loses his head, Shakespeare's shortest tragedy is also his most unrelenting examination of the dark side of humanity. Driven to bloody deeds by their lust for power and supernatural predictions, Macbeth and his Lady fight to hold on to their ill-gotten throne, their sanity, and each other by any means necessary.
Romeo and Juliet
Hungry Hearts Tour | April 13 – June 10, 2017
With its ravishing language and uproarious comedy, Romeo and Juliet celebrates love's triumph and its trivialities. Verona's walls embrace the volatility of youth as well as the wisdom and restraint that often escapes young and old alike. Thumb-biting, dance, and swordplay share the stage with sonnets, bawdy wit, and soul-searching speeches in this profoundly human and always surprising treasure.
Julius Caesar
Dangerous Dreams | April 7 – June 11, 2016
In this profoundly moving, breathtaking, and deeply human play, Shakespeare shows us a world on fire; a world turned upside down; a world where some of history's most famous men commit horrific crimes in the name of patriotism and honor. Julius Caesar is a dazzling thrill ride of betrayal, violence, and perhaps most surprisingly – love.
Much Ado About Nothing
Method in Madness Tour | April 8 – June 14, 2015
While the villainous Don John devises a scheme to shatter the nuptials of Claudio and Hero, the young lovers conspire to trick Beatrice and Benedick into admitting their much-denied love. In this powerful comedy full of sparkling wit, Shakespeare gives us the joy of love won and the ache of love lost. He makes us laugh and breaks our hearts, then magically puts them back together again.
Hamlet
Method in Madness Tour | April 8 – June 14, 2015
Hamlet struggles to discern reality from illusion in the rotten state of Denmark as he copes with the loss of his father, his mother's remarriage, and life's biggest questions. For centuries, audiences have seen themselves in the brilliant, troubled prince at the center of this ghost story, comedy, seven-murder revenge thriller, and philosopher's gold mine.
The Comedy of Errors
July 9 – November 28, 2014
In this rollicking farce, Shakespeare elevates Roman comedy to dizzying heights. Two long-separated twins, their two tricky servants (also twins), a jealous wife, and her lovelorn sister romp through Shakespeare’s shortest play. Filled with mistaken identities, slapstick humor, and the fabulous Dr. Pinch, The Comedy of Errors will have the whole family laughing from the first confusion to the last.
Macbeth
June 18 – November 29, 2014
From the first words of the play until the title character loses his head, Shakespeare’s shortest tragedy is also his most unrelenting examination of the dark side of humanity. Driven to bloody deeds by their lust for power, Macbeth and his Lady fight to hold on to their ill-gotten throne, their sanity, and each other by any means necessary.
Cyrano de Bergerac
June 17 – November 30, 2014
Enormous wit, tremendous bravery, and a gargantuan nose. Cyrano is passionately in love with the glorious Roxanne, but believes that she could never love him as he is. He creates poetry to woo his great love on behalf of the beautiful Christian, whom Roxanne imagines she loves. After years of mourning, Cyrano finally learns the answer to the question he could never ask.
The Country Wife
January 4 – April 7, 2013
Harry Horner has a plan. To bed as many of London’s finest lasses as possible, Harry spreads the rumor that he is...unable to perform. Readily gaining entrance to their chambers, Harry’s plan is brilliantly discharged. Meanwhile, the charming, naive, beautiful, but ever-so-lusty country wife, Margery Pinchwife, comes to the city to seek her own pleasures. William Wycherley’s rollicking sex comedy is one of the supreme delights of the Restoration. Deemed too dirty for 18th- and 19th-century audiences, The Country Wife will have Blackfriars audiences revelling in the joys of this deliciously filthy farce.
The Custom of the Country
January 4 – April 7, 2013
In this hilarious and touching tragicomedy, the outrageous “custom” in the title is that the Governor has the right to deflower any new bride in his realm. One couple secretly marries and flees the custom and the country. Meanwhile, the groom’s brother is forced into service in his dream job: head stud at a male brothel. This remarkably modern romp journeys through shipwrecks and lost loves with magic potions, power plays, and repentant rulers on its way to a happy ending where love triumphs over lust.
Henry VIII
January 4 – April 7, 2013
Rich, sexy, virile, powerful. Henry Tudor has everything. Everything except a male heir. Resolved to dissolve his marriage to Katherine of Aragon, Henry attempts to bend the church to his considerable will to grant him what he desires. Shakespeare and Fletcher’s dazzling play concludes the saga of the Kings of England with the story of one of its most fascinating monarchs — and the birth of one of its most glorious, Elizabeth.
The Two Noble Kinsmen
January 4 – April 7, 2013
In The Two Noble Kinsmen, Shakespeare and Fletcher audaciously re-tell Chaucer’s “The Knights’ Tale.” Two princely cousins, imprisoned by Duke Theseus, fall in love with the same woman: Emilia, the Queen of the Amazons’ sister. Prison breaks, county fairs, crazed lovers, dueling friends, and granted wishes ensue in this beautiful and bewitching late romance, perhaps Shakespeare’s final play.
Julius Caesar
January 4 – April 7, 2013
In this profoundly moving, thrilling, and deeply human play, Shakespeare shows us a world on fire; a world spinning out of control; a world where some of history’s most famous men commit horrific crimes in the name of patriotism and honor. Julius Caesar is a dazzling masterpiece of betrayal, violence, and perhaps most surprisingly — love.
King John
September 20 – November 24, 2012
One of Shakespeare’s most exciting plays, King John continues the thrilling story of what happens after the events in The Lion in Winter. John, now king, continues his family’s outrageous game of capture the crown. Mad world. Mad kings. Madly entertaining. Don’t miss this rare chance to see King John and The Lion in Winter performed in repertory with actors playing the same characters who appear in each.
The Lion in Winter
June 19 – November 24, 2012
Epic and intimate. Brilliantly funny and deeply moving. The Lion in Winter plays out the spectacular strategies for power and love between two of England’s most formidable and most human rulers, King Henry II and Queen Eleanor, and their three crown-hungry sons. Telling the story of what happens before Shakespeare’s King John, The Lion in Winter is a modern theatrical masterpiece.
The Two Gentlemen of Verona
July 8 – November 23, 2012
A gleeful look at love and a dramatic examination of friendship, Two Gents has one of Shakespeare’s most engaging comic heroines, one of his funniest clowns, and the best role ever for a dog. Jealous lovers, a cross-dressing heroine, and a daring escape into the forest make this romp simultaneously a familiar and completely surprising trip.
Cymbeline
September 4 – November 25, 2012
In this magical, violent, and beguiling comedy, Imogen — Shakespeare’s brave and virtuous heroine — must endure a series of humiliating trials before all is set right through the astonishing revelations that end the play. Loved for its ravishingly beautiful language and enthralling storytelling, Cymbeline has long been a cult favorite in which Shakespeare forces his characters to take a leap of faith and, when they do, they and the audience discover that miracles can happen even when it seems that all is lost.
The Merchant of Venice
June 20 – November 23, 2012
From Shylock’s unjust Venice to Portia’s golden Belmont, The Merchant of Venice is at once a comic love story and a passionate discourse on justice and mercy. Both entertaining and disturbing, this magnificent comedy will have you asking “who are the heroes and who are the villains?”