Blog Posts - Becca Ballenger

PUSSY SLUDGE wins the American Playwriting Foundation's Relentless Award!

12/28/2017

I'm utterly thrilled to share that Pussy Sludge, the play I helped develop with Less Than Rent and playwright Gracie Gardner and performed at HERE in February 2017, has won the 2018 Relentless Award presented by the American Playwriting Foundation.

Previous winners include Is God Is by Aleshea Harris (Soho Rep 2018) and The Wolves by Sarah Delappe (LCT 2017)

For the prize, established in honor of the actor Philip Seymour Hoffman after his death in 2014, Ms. Gardner will receive $45,000, and her play will be produced in a reading series across the United States and in Britain. “You read so many plays that are versions of things you’ve read before. This play is unique and fearless. And the undeniability of that struck all the judges,” Mr. Katz said. The prize seeks to promote new American plays, and Pussy Sludge was chosen from over 1,000 submissions and judged blindly by a group of playwrights and theater professionals. According to the foundation’s announcement, the piece is “a tender exploration of questioning authority, suspending shame through intimacy, and very bad advice.”
- New York Times

Appearing on VILLAGE OF THE DAMNED on Discovery ID

11/8/2017

Village of the Damned
a miniseries on
Investigation Discovery

In this special five-part miniseries, I appear as Amber Starr, a Dryden High School cheerleader who finds herself caught in a toxic and abusive relationship that goes from bad to much worse.

Amber's story will appear on two episodes of the series:
"Dryden's Dark Soul" on Tuesday, December 12 at 10/9c
"The Final Fall, Part 1" on Tuesday, December 19 at 10/9c

Twenty years ago, as gossip swirled that a so-called "curse" loomed over Dryden, residents focused on healing through heartbreak while law enforcement worked tirelessly to pursue justice. In a town of 15,000 people where everybody knows each other, residents were left in fear and wondering "who could be next?"

Learn more about the story and the episodes here.

Reading of I'M REVOLTING at the New Ohio

11/5/2017

Reading the lead role of Reggie in Gracie Gardner's newest play,

I'm Revolting
New Ohio Theatre
November 7, 2017
7pm

Directed by Moritz Von Stuelpnagel

Featuring
Brad Bellamy, Patrick K Dooley, Caroline Kaplan, Claire Karpen, Stephanie Jean Lane, Hannah Mitchell, Michaela Morton, David Townsend, Tiffany Villarin, and more.

Produced by Hannah Greene
and Less Than Rent Theatre

On a floor of the Sloan Kettering Outpatient Pavilion, a group of people are waiting to be called into a room one by one. Some of them have skin cancer, some of them are there to give support, but none of them want to be called into the room.

A play about doctors, and medicine, and the space in between the two.

The Climbers at Metropolitan Playhouse

8/9/2017

Portrait by Anna Paola Pizzocaro

The Climbers
by Clyde Fitch

September 8 - October 8, 2017
Metropolitan Playhouse
220 E. 4th St. NYC

After a thoroughly enjoyable run as Belgian orphan Marthe in Metropolitan's 2014 production of The Hero, I'm beyond happy to return to Metropolitan to play a decidedly un-orphaned and altogether insufferable young lady of society, Clara Hunter, in The Climbers. It's a hilarious 1901 play chock-full of tragedy, social-climbing, and flirting with married men. I can't wait.

* * *
Very funny... The excellent company of actors... work effectively as an ensemble and mine the characters for their inherent silliness and pathos without resorting to caricature.
-- Talkin' Broadway

THE SNOWMAKER Reading at NJ Rep

7/26/2017

It's always a joy to return to NJ Rep, especially when I get to play a precocious teenager with attitude.

THE SNOWMAKER
by Aleks Merilo

In the dead of winter, a teenage girl’s estranged father unexpectedly takes her to a cabin in the isolated woods of Montana. She doesn’t know where he has been for the last 10 years. And she doesn’t know who he is searching for at night, when he stares out the window, with a sawed-off shotgun by his side.

New Jersey Rep Monday Night Salon Reading
Monday, July 17 @ 7pm
with Edward O'Blenis, Becca Ballenger, Michael Pollard, and Jared Delaney

STRANGE, AMERICA with Primary Stages

4/19/2017

Back at HERE Arts Center for the second time this year!

I'm thrilled to be the first (of many, I'm sure) to play Rosemary in Edward Precht's excellent new play,
Strange, America. It's a funny, heartfelt, and occasionally spooky tale about being human in a world of monsters. Also a jackalope. Thanks a million to Primary Stages and the Fordham MFA Playwriting Program for the chance to get in on the ground floor with Edward. See you at HERE!

SANCTUARY at Here Arts Center

1/16/2017

What happens when a woman begins to menstruate crude oil?

Pussy Sludge is a tender exploration of questioning authority, suspending shame through intimacy, and very bad advice.

* * *
In a time when so many of us are experiencing fear, sadness, and isolation, I am honored and empowered to be a part of a project that is helping bring us together. Join me and the rest of the SANCTUARY crew as we laugh, grieve, scream, and start the process of fighting back.

February 10 - 12 @ HERE

Pussy Sludge is one small part of SANCTUARY at HERE Arts Center.

HOW LTR STOLE XMAS... again.

11/26/2016

Another year, another Christmas show with Less Than Rent. This year, we'll be moving venues-- join us at SubCulture for the same nonstop eggnog-fueled funny business in a new (read: way better) venue. I'll be appearing alongside my forever-friend/costar RJ Vaillancourt in a sketch by Sinead Daly. You'll like it.

This year, half of all proceeds will go straight to the ACLU, so never fear. You'll be helping fund the revolution no matter how much eggnog you put away.

THE HOUSE ON THE HILL - Reading at NJ Rep

11/6/2016

The House on the Hill
by Amy E. Witting

Monday, November 14
7:00pm

Cousins Alex and Frankie haven't spoken in ten years, since a single devastating moment shattered their lives and families. After a decade of absence, can a new birth help them to heal at last?

In rehearsal, with Rudy Palma, Eleanor Hadley, Elissa Klie, and Sarah Paton.

The House on the Hill is the recipient of the Atlantic Theater Inaugural LAUNCH Commission, the Abingdon Theatre New Play Reading Series, the Kennedy Center ACTF/NNPN program, and was a semi-finalist of the O'Neill National Playwrights Conference.

Bleeding on Broadway - Benefit for HANY

6/12/2016

This June 13, I had the honor of reading alongside legendary character actor Peter McRobbie in Bleeding on Broadway, a benefit for the Hemophilia Association of NY at Playwright's Horizons.

The Nightingale by Kristen Lowman, was a two-hander, directed by Nicola Murphy, alongside Peter McRobbie. Nicola is Irish and Peter is Scottish, but it's me who did the UK accent-- I played Emma, a kind-hearted British waitress.

Peter McRobbie is best known for his extensive film career, which includes Bridge of Spies, The Visit, Inherent Vice, Lincoln, and Brokeback Mountain. He has appeared in dozens of TV shows, most recently playing the role of Father Lantom in Daredevil. McRobbie has appeared on Broadway twelve times: his credits include The Crucible, The Master Builder, Saint Joan, and The Invention of Love.

Peter McRobbie

NY Times on A Midsummer Night's Dream:

"Warm-blooded, frolicsome and splendidly cast, this production at the 47th Street Theater leads with its heart. Nimbly played, the lively young lovers seem as if they could live down the Street...They swoon, and we feel their rapture. They torment one another, and we pity their pain. When something is funny, which is often, the audience bubbles with belly laughter. The quality of mirth here is not strained, not even close, and thank goodness for that."

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