About ben

Ben Stasny is a theatre artist, scholar and educator

Currently working as a Teaching Assistant Professor of Acting/Directing in the School of Music, Theatre, and Dance at Kansas State University.

He holds a PhD in Theatre and Performance Studies from the University of Colorado Boulder, where his dissertation, Yes, And-ing the Climate Crisis, examined facilitation strategies for improvisational activities about climate change.

Ben’s work centers on embodied exploration and collaborative knowledge-making. He has taught acting, improvisation, theatre history, musical theatre, and more at the University of Colorado Boulder, Red Rocks Community College and now at K-State.

He is a certified facilitator of Augusto Boal’s Theatre of the Oppressed and has led workshops in Berlin, London, Chicago, and across Colorado’s Front Range.

As a director, Ben works across the spectrum: musical theatre, classic plays, opera, interdisciplinary environmental theatre, and new work. Ben also tries to get on stage at least once per year as a professional actor.

Academic CV · Theatrical résumé · K-State faculty page

Here is a brief list of some cool things Ben has done over the past 5 years (in no particular order):

  • Created and facilitated original improvisational workshops

  • Co-Produced two Stand-Up Comedy Shows about Climate Change

  • Co-Conceived and Artistic Directed Climate Cabaret, an original show and partnership with Climate Change Theatre Action

  • Directed the closing ceremonies for the 2022 Right Here Right Now Global Climate Summit at the Boulder Theater (promo video, 1:14 min mark)

  • Led improvisational exercises with female-identifying youth and youth of color on authoring arts-science stories of interspecies friendship and survival titled Bird’s Eye View, part of “Side by Side”, a recipient of a $2 million dollar grant funded by the National Science Foundation.

  • Conducted research in London, Lisbon, Berlin, and New York City

  • Presented at various conferences including: American Society for Theatre Research, American Literature Association, American Educational Research Association, Association for Theatre in Higher Education

  • Directed Mamma Mia, Freaky Friday, and Lend Me a Tenor at Fairview High School

  • Directed Treeson: An Eco-Musical, Twelfth Night, Roll With It, Zelda’s Girls, The Lightning Thief, Sunflower, and Hadestown Teen Edition at Parlando School of Musical Arts

  • Directed a staged reading of Savage: The Unconquerable Wanda Savage for the First Storyteller’s Festival hosted by Creative Nations.

Bram Photography

Mirella Frangella