Benny Sato Ambush (he/him)
Adjunct Professor
Benny Sato Ambush, Artistic Director of Venice, FL’s Venice Theatre, is a veteran professional SDC stage director, institutional theatre leader, educator, published commentator, and consultant. Previously, he has been the Artistic Director of Richmond, VA’s TheatreVirginia (LORT C), Oakland, CA’s Oakland Ensemble Theatre (SPT), and Providence, RI’s Rites and Reason Theatre Company (Academic). He served as Associate Artistic Director of San Francisco’s American Conservatory Theater, Co-Artistic Director of San Francisco Bay Area Playwrights Festival, PEW Charitable Trust/TCG Director-In-Residence for Manalapan, Florida’s Florida Stage, and Associate Artistic Director of Anna Deavere Smith’s Institute on the Arts & Civic Dialogue at Harvard University.
He has directed at numerous professional regional theatres nationwide and taught acting and directing at several university training programs (MFA, BFA, BA).
AB in Theatre Arts and Dramatic Literature from Brown University, MFA in Directing from the University of California, San Diego. In 2020, he was inducted into the College of Fellows of the American Theatre.