Dr. Ben Buratta

Summary

Ben Buratta is a theatre maker, director, dramaturg, and researcher. Ben has directed plays and made work in theatres including The Bush, Birmingham Repertory Theatre, Southbank Centre, Contact, and The Royal Court and in settings such as nightclubs, warehouses, community centres, and public spaces. He is founder and Artistic Director of Outbox, a company who collaborate with LGBTQIA+ performers, artists, and communities to make performance. Recent productions include GROOVE (Shoreditch Town Hall and Contact) nominated for three Off-West End awards and And The Rest of Me Floats (Bush Theatre and Birmingham Rep) included in the V&A National Archive of Performance. He regularly works as a dramaturg for both emerging and established theatre makers and companies.

Ben is committed to innovative and inclusive forms of training that put the actor/performer as artist at the centre. Prior to this role, Ben was Course Leader for BA Acting (Collaborative and Devised Theatre) at Royal Central School of Speech and Drama and has extensive directing and teaching experience in the conservatoire sector. Ben regularly consults on and develops change-making policy across the performing arts industries, particularly relating to inclusive casting practices.

Ben’s research is underpinned by their professional practice and makes an intervention into modes of theatre-making, dramaturgical frames, methods of audience engagement, and deeper representation of queer narratives and performers. This work is regularly presented internationally at conferences including IFTR, PSI, and ATHE.

Publications

2020. ‘Dance-Floor Dramaturgy: Unlearning the Shame and Stigma of HIV through Theatre’. Theatre Topics, 30:2, 57-68. DOI:10.1353/tt.2020.0029.

External Practice

2022. GROOVE, Shoreditch Town Hall and Contact Theatre

2020. Artistic Director, BRIGHTER

2019. Director, And The Rest of Me Floats, The Bush Theatre

2017. Director, And The Rest of Me Floats, Rose Lipman Building, Birmingham Rep

2016. Director, Affection, The Glory, Stan’s Café

2015. Director, HOOKUP, Hackney Showroom, Contact Theatre

2014. Producer, Outbox: Snapshots, Arcola Theatre (writers including Alexi Kaye Campbell and Tom Wells)

2013. Director, You Could Move, Arcola, Contact Theatre

2012. Director. Reach Out and Touch Me, Shoreditch Town Hall