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Brenda Withers

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Brenda Withers
OccupationPlaywright, stage actress
NationalityAmerican
Alma materDartmouth College
GenreComedy
Notable worksMatt & Ben

Brenda Withers is an American playwright and actress. Withers grew up in Long Island, New York, and graduated from Dartmouth College in 2000.[1] She is close friends with Mindy Kaling, whom she met when they were both attending Dartmouth. In 2001, Withers and Kaling co-wrote the play Matt & Ben, a play in which Withers and Kaling star as Matt Damon and Ben Affleck, respectively. The play debuted in 2002 at that year's New York International Fringe Festival, where it became a surprise hit and won the "Best in Fringe" award.[1][2][3] It began an Off Broadway run in 2003, which led to it receiving multiple favorable reviews, including from the New Yorker.[4] In one of the show's Off Broadway productions, in a scene in which Kaling was supposed to fake a choreographed punch to Withers's face, Kaling accidentally punched Withers so hard that she broke her nose and had to go to the hospital. After an intermission, the play continued.[3][5] In 2006, Withers appeared in the "Booze Cruise" episode of The Office.[3]

She has also acted in stage productions of Crimes of the Heart, The Philadelphia Story, and Abundance.[6] In 2011, her play The Ding Dongs or What is the Penalty in Portugal? premiered at the Wellfleet Harbor Actors Theatre, where she was a company member and playwright at the time.[1][7] She later co-founded the Harbor Stage Company, a theater in Wellfleet, Massachusetts which she helps to run. In 2016, her play The Kritik premiered there.[8][9]

References

  1. ^ a b c "Central Square Theater Presents MATT AND BEN this Summer". BroadwayWorld.com. 2011-06-09. Archived from the original on 2014-11-16. Retrieved 2021-04-03.
  2. ^ Miller, Steve (2011-07-02). "Taking aim at 'Matt and Ben'". Boston.com. Retrieved 2021-04-03.
  3. ^ a b c Sittenfeld, Curtis (2011-09-23). "A Long Day at 'The Office' With Mindy Kaling". The New York Times Magazine. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved 2021-04-03.
  4. ^ Wulff, Jennifer (April 2012). "Dialed In". Dartmouth Alumni. Retrieved 2021-04-03.
  5. ^ Weber, Bruce (2003-08-09). "Stage Punch Gone Wrong Sends Actress To Hospital". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved 2021-04-03.
  6. ^ Gates, Anita (2013-04-20). "The Frontier Is a Hard Place for Heroines". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved 2021-04-18.
  7. ^ Collins-Hughes, Laura (2011-09-04). "Civility, self-assertion, and family connections". Boston.com. Retrieved 2021-04-03.
  8. ^ "PLUS". BRENDA WITHERS / PLAYWRIGHT. Retrieved 2021-04-03.
  9. ^ Collins-Hughes, Laura (2016-07-26). "In Defense of Candid Reviews, Minus the Nastiness". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved 2021-04-21.


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