Bethany Dickens

I am a playwright and an actor. My work as a theater artist is rooted in the idea of community. In one sense, I see performance itself as a collaborative effort: a dialogue between the audience and the performers, wherein each side gives and receives. I believe in the power of theatre to raise awareness, change minds, and activate self-reflection in both the viewer and the performer.

This focus on community is also the through-line of my work. For the past five years, I have been preoccupied with how people view, build, and rebuild images of themselves, and how these performed selves interact. In general, I resist cultural stereotypes of relationships and strive to create truthful representations of concepts such as friendship, family, and marriage.

On a broader plane, I have studied institutionalized communities as well, completing an MA in History thesis on training centers and hospitals for the intellectually disabled in Florida. Another of my foci was medieval monasteries and convents. I am fascinated by how individual and collective identity functions within these spaces. In general, my work draws a great deal from historical sources and stories, which enables me to reveal the changing ways Western society has framed and reframed individual and collective identity.

Even as I draw from history, I believe a focus on communities is critical in our current era. With the advent of social media, the way relationships function is changing at a rapid rate, and not necessarily for the better. Despite the increasing connectivity of our world, we find ourselves in what medical researchers have deemed, “an epidemic of loneliness.” Early analyses of recent downward trends in American life expectancy refer to the cause as, “deaths of despair” based in part on weakening social ties. I do not pretend to have an easy solution to these issues. But I believe that theater can inspire people to approach those around them in graceful, empathetic, and truthful ways. I intend to create works that inspire us to rethink relationships honestly, instead of burying our true selves in the hapless pursuit of self-promotion.

Within the broader scope of community and the self, I am currently interested in Christianity as an institution and the personal search for God, truth vs. grace in relationships, white masculinity in the modern era, the fluid nature of human sexuality, changing concepts of adulthood, the stories families tell about themselves, and themes related to two regions I am deeply rooted in: Central and North Florida, and the American Midwest.

I am devoted to traditional structure and believe that, while rules are made to be broken, we can only successfully break the rules we understand. I am actively engaged in producing theater without the 'suspension of disbelief,' directly engaging the audience, and am intrigued by intimate and unique spaces. Given this, I write most of my work to be performed in a flexible array of locations, by a wide range of actors bringing their perspectives to a given role. 

Upcoming Events

• May 11-27 (select dates): "Five Word Recall," full performance, MadLab Theatre, Columbus

• June 3, 2018: Exit Wound, staged reading, Actors Guild of Parkersburg
• June 11-16, 2018: Exit Wound, workshop and partial reading, University of Cincinnati College-Conservatory's Playwrights Workshop

• July 19-August 3rd: Puss in Boots, Actor's Theatre of Columbus