BEN WILLIAMS | PERFORMANCE TEXT EDITOR (EMERITUS)

Ben Williams grew up in Culleoka, Tennessee. Since 2003, he has worked in New York City’s downtown theater scene as an actor, sound designer, technical director, and production manager with various collaborators, including Elevator Repair Service and The Wooster Group. As a member of ERS, he has performed at the Sydney Opera House, the American Repertory Theater, the Prague Quadrennial, and dozens of other venues around the world. Awards include the 2012 Obie Award, 2012 Lucille Lortel Award, and 2013 Los Angeles Drama Critics Circle Award, all for sound design. From 2012-2017, he curated B O D Y‘s Performance Text series, featured numerous works of performance text alongside interviews with some of the best dramatic writers of the period. A founding member of minor theater with Julia Jarcho, Ben now edits Category:Other, an award-winning platform for experimental audio. 

Personal Website | minor theater | Category:Other

Performance Texts

Nic Adams

  ICARUS IN THE L.E.S.               — an excerpt —   I used to think That although I was poor And hungry  And hadn’t slept in years That at least I had my body.

Balloon(s) Talk:
Jim Fletcher Interviews Rafael Sanchez

“In a way we can’t help going back. And the past is an ever-present resource. But ultimately as much as you go back, you ask yourself what does that mean to me now? Then there is no irony or nostalgia. Its an engagement with the present that is interesting.”

Daniil Kharms

  FOUR ILLUSTRATIONS OF HOW A NEW CONCEPT ASTOUNDS A PERSON WHO ISN’T READY FOR IT   WRITER: I am a writer! READER: Аnd I think you’re a piece of shit! (The writer stands there several minutes, stunned by this

Jean-Luc Godard

  PHRASES: SIX FILMS   Germany Nine Zero   (an excerpt)     TOPOGRAPHY OF TERROR was haben sie gesucht ideen oder gefühle I don’t know about sensations I would say it was Conrad I think Under Western Eyes our

Ariel Stess

  an excerpt from HEARTBREAK   a new play   _______________________________________________________________________ In this excerpt, the characters are:       Steven: Father     Stell: Wife     Stara: Daughter _______________________________________________________________________ STEVEN So… How is the apartment? STARA You should

Frank Boyd

  an excerpt from THE HOLLER SESSIONS   In performance there are always variations on much of what is written here. This script was formatted to reflect the improvisational nature of The Holler Sessions. Everything takes place in Ray’s small

Kate Benson: Interview

  B O D Y editor Ben Williams interviewed playwright and performer Kate Benson in New York on October 3, 2014. Her play A BEAUTIFUL DAY IN NOVEMBER ON THE BANKS OF THE GREATEST OF THE GREAT LAKES will be

Kate Benson

  an excerpt from A BEAUTIFUL DAY IN NOVEMBER ON THE BANKS OF THE GREATEST OF THE GREAT LAKES         Some Things to Keep in Mind:       This is a play without stage directions.  

Vivienne Walshe

  an excerpt from THIS IS WHERE WE LIVE   CHLOE …Thrush on the window sill. Be that thing, Dad said cough cough, what you’re looking at, or what you can hear, be that thing and you can disappear. You

Okwui Okpokwasili

  an excerpt from   BRONX GOTHIC   Editor’s note: Bronx Gothic is a solo show, written and performed by Okwui Okpokwasili. She describes the text as: “a blueprint, a skeleton for how the whole piece lives in the world

Tina Satter

Tina Satter: Interview

B O D Y editor Ben Williams interviewed playwright and director Tina Satter in New York on January 3, 2014. 

Tina Satter

  an excerpt from HOUSE OF DANCE   “Fermez l’espace! F’ermez la poche du Kangourou! Il y fait chaud.” – Maurice Blanchard, Le Temps de la poesie (Close space! Close the kangaroo’s pouch! It’s warm in there.) CHARACTERS
 Martle, the

Modesto Flako Jimenez

  Editor’s Note: this is an excerpt from an upcoming theatrical performance called GHETTO HORS D’OEUVRES at the BUSHWICK STARR. ____________________________________________________________________ ECONOMIC NOSEBLEED   Economic Nosebleed Cadillac dreamin Round trip he called me Cadillac El puerto stash house. They spoke

Kristen Kosmas – Part 5

  from A CERTAIN QUANTITY OF ACCURATE DESCRIPTIONS plays for the mental theater   Editor’s Note: This is the fifth and final part in a weekly series of texts from a new work by Kristen Kosmas. Read Part 1 here

Kristen Kosmas – Part 4

  from A CERTAIN QUANTITY OF ACCURATE DESCRIPTIONS plays for the mental theater   Editor’s Note: This is the fourth part in a weekly series of texts from a new work by Kristen Kosmas. Check back on Wednesday, Aug 28,

Kristen Kosmas – Part 3

  from A CERTAIN QUANTITY OF ACCURATE DESCRIPTIONS plays for the mental theater   Editor’s Note: This is the third part in a weekly series of texts from a new work by Kristen Kosmas. Check back on Wednesday, Aug 21,

Kristen Kosmas – Part 2

  from A CERTAIN QUANTITY OF ACCURATE DESCRIPTIONS plays for the mental theater   Editor’s Note: This is the second part in a weekly series of texts from a new work by Kristen Kosmas. Check back on Wednesday, Aug 14,

Kristen Kosmas – Part 1

  from A CERTAIN QUANTITY OF ACCURATE DESCRIPTIONS plays for the mental theater   Editor’s Note: This is the first part in a weekly series of texts from a new work by Kristen Kosmas.   Read Part 2 here Read

Kristen Kosmas Interviewed by Sibyl Kempson

  In 2011, Kristen Kosmas interviewed Sibyl Kempson for BOMB magazine. In this interview, B O D Y editor Ben Williams reunites these two friends and kindred spirits in a chance to reverse polarities and return favors. The similarities between

Re: Word: Young Jean Lee

  Young Jean Lee appeared on stage this week alongside Laurie Anderson and Steve Buscemi while flying video drones recorded the audience. See NYC’s River to River Festival.   — The following work originally appeared in the Sept 2012 issue

Erje Ayden

  Editor’s Note: The writer Erje Ayden is one of the most intriguing, and lesser known, figures of the New York City art and literature scene of the 1950s and 60s. Here we present a short non-fiction performance text by

Richard Toth

Excerpt from LILY HARVEST   Summer Scene 2   Sheriff Bill Eidleblute and his deputy, Ed Carberry, sit in their office with their feet up. Bill: All right here’s one for you. This one comes from my mother’s cousin who

Lucy Alibar

CARL THE RAPING GOAT SAVES CHRISTMAS – excerpt from a new work-in-progress Right after my ninth birthday, my Daddy had a tantrum that made him punch a hole in the wall, made his right hand break, made his secretary walk

Edgar Oliver

THREE SHORT PIECES BY EDGAR OLIVER   The Street Sweeper The only thing I ever imagined being when I grew up was a street sweeper. That’s what I would have called him – one of those men who wander about

Christina Masciotti

Say What You Need To – An Interview with Christina Masciotti by Meghan Falvey   Christina Masciotti’s work has been produced for the past ten years in downtown New York, and her most recent play Vision Disturbance was hailed as

Catharine Dill

HOT DUST   This is an excerpt from HOT DUST, an examination of two strains of American religious fervor, both distinguished by charismatic female leaders: 19th Century Spiritualism and the Pentecostalism of the 1920s. HOT DUST compares these two movements

The Royal Osiris Karaoke Ensemble

Excerpt from – EVERYTHING ONE IN THE DISC OF THE SUN   The Royal Osiris Karaoke Ensemble: Tei Blow, Leanne Grimes, and Sean McElroy. All songs written by Tei Blow and Sean McElroy. Found text sources include transcriptions from VHS

Grimly Handsome A new play about crime, desire, and medium-sized animals. Written & Directed by Julia Jarcho performed by Jenny Seastone Stern, Pete Simpson, and Ben Williams

Texts for Julia Jarcho’s Grimly Handsome

GRIMLY HANDSOME is a new play about killers, police detectives, and animals that will premiere in January 2013 in the Other Forces festival at Incubator in New York. Click here to read passages from a novel that exists in this

Douglas Penick

THE FLOWER GATE is a performance piece based on conventions of the Noh theater of Japan. Noh, which means ‘perfected art’ was developed from the work of the great theater genius, Zeami (1363-1443), and is one of the very oldest continuous performing traditions still intact.

Aaron Landsman

PATIENT BOY (excerpt)   ____________________________________________________________________ Performed at Little Theater at Tonic in 2007 And as part of an LMCC space grant in 2010, directed by Mallory Catlett Performed by David Brooks, Victor Morales (Tonic), Jim Findlay (LMCC), and Pete Simpson.

Young Jean Lee

YAGGOO   ____________________________________________________________________ Yaggoo premiered in 2003 at Little Theater at Tonic in New York. It was performed by: Jesse Hawley | WHALER Written, directed, and designed by Young Jean Lee. ____________________________________________________________________ WHALER Let me list all the ways. Let

Erin Courtney

THE ORANGE BALLOON (a.k.a. The Hoarder’s Lament)   Woman Back when I was still married and my boys were young, we had a favorite restaurant. It was called The Orange Balloon. Back then we were good looking and we had

Julia Jarcho

TEXTS FOR “GRIMLY HANDSOME”   GRIMLY HANDSOME is a new play about killers, police detectives, and animals that premiered on January 3rd, 2013, in the Other Forces festival at Incubator in New York. (The show runs until January 20th. Click here