Drama

Bennett Ayres

Bennett is a playwright and museum educator whose work has been produced by Chicago’s City Lit Theater, Franklin College, Wabash College, University of Southern Indiana, Otherworld Theatre of Chicago, Indiana Repertory Theatre, Newfields, Spirit and Place, and the Phoenix Theatre. He is a scholarship recipient for the Kenyon Playwrights Conference and recipient of an Arthur Jordan grant. Bennett is a 2020 Blue Ink finalist for Chicago’s American Blues Theatre, and he currently produces educational theatre.

2026 Drama Winner: And I Will Follow

And I Will Follow explores faith, trauma, progress, and truth amid the backdrop of the real Sam Moser murder case of 1900.