Al Benneian first caught the acting bug in college playing the doomed Oswald in Ibsen’s Ghosts. Favorite roles over the years have included Father Rivard in The Runner Stumbles, Mitch in A Streetcar Named Desire, Bobby Gould in Speed-the-Plow, Malvolio in Twelfth Night, and George Aaronow in Glengarry Glen Ross. He earned a Bachelor of Fine Arts in Acting from Rockford University and a Master of Fine Arts in Acting from Western Illinois University. Al co-founded the Arizona Shakespeare Festival which later spun off into the Southwest Shakespeare Company. At the Studio, Al has played Reverend Jeremiah Brown in Inherit the Wind, Sam in The Cemetery Club, Phil in By the Water, Harry in A Delicate Balance, and Wes in The Perfect Party. Al also writes plays. He recently published a collection of his quirky ten-minute plays entitled In What World? - Twelve Ten-Minute Plays - Jaunts Rather Off the Beaten Track. Several plays from that collection have been featured in the Studio’s Summer Shorts.