Eliza Bent is a playwright and performer whose plays are indeed “bent,” meaning “different from normal; strongly inclined; changed from an originally straight condition.” Bentertainments include solo-ish works Toilet Fire (Time Out New York Critics’ Pick), Aloha, Aloha, or When I Was Queen; plays Indeed, friend!, The Hotel Colors (L Magazine’s best of 2013); adaptations The Beyonce, (Payne Award for Excellence), She of the Voice; and hybrid affairs (Real Talk / Kip Talk, Blue Wizard / Black Wizard (published by Sam French).
Bent’s shows have been developed/ workshopped/ commissioned/ produced at the Abrons Arts Center, Clubbed Thumb, the Bushwick Starr, JACK, the New Ohio, the Atlantic Theatre, and New York Theatre Workshop’s Next Door Series. Residencies include MacDowell Colony, SPACE on Ryder Farm, Lower Manhattan Cultural Council’s Workspace, New Georges, Target Margin, Casa Zia Lina, Pilot Balloon, and Berkeley Rep’s Ground Floor. As an actor, Bent has performed in pint-sized New York theatres, regionally, and toured internationally with the performance ensemble Half Straddle. Bent was a senior editor at American Theatre magazine from 2006-2015. Bent’s writing has appeared in Time Out New York, the Village Voice, HEEB, the Brooklyn Rail, TDF’s online magazine Stages, Emergency INDEX, and ELLE. Bent has a BA in philosophy and an MFA in playwriting from Brooklyn College.