- June 15, 2025
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When Benny Sato Ambush got the call from Venice Theatre in January 2021, he only expected to spend a year as artistic director at the nation's second largest community theater.
More than four years later, as steel beams rise from the bowels of the Venice Theatre's mainstage Jervey Theatre and a videographer prepares to shoot the last installment of a documentary about the history of the 76-year-old company, Ambush says it's time to go.
"I was asked to elevate the acting and education at Venice Theatre and I fulfilled that mission," Ambush says. "With the steel rising, it's a good time to move on."
He plans to return to the Boston area, where he worked as a director and theater educator before coming to Venice at the request of Murray Chase. Now restoration supervisor of the Venice Theatre, Chase was executive director from 1995 to June 2023, when he was succeeded by Kristofer Geddie.
In a theater world, where minority representation can sometimes be in short supply, Venice Theatre is unusual to have two Black leaders — Ambush and Geddie — on its management team.
Chase will act as artistic director on an interim basis until he, Geddie and the theater's board of directors find Ambush's replacement.
"Benny’s departure is bittersweet," said Geddie in a statement. "Over time, he has become both a brother and a mentor to me. We know Benny has exciting projects ahead and will no doubt continue to do incredible work. We look forward to welcoming him back as a guest director in future seasons."
Mum's the word about Ambush's next act. "I don't want to jinx anything," he said during a telephone interview where he reflected on a tumultuous tenure marked by the aftermath of COVID-19 and Hurricane Ian, which destroyed the 432-seat Jervey Theatre in September 2022.
The storm left the 90-seat Pinkerton Theatre intact and the Venice Theatre was able to transform its Raymond Center, previously earmarked for education and storage, into a 130-seat theater until the Jervey is restored.
More than once during the interview, Ambush remarked on the sense of hope that seeing "beams of steel rising" has given both the theater and the Gulf Coast town it serves. Another $5 million in funding is needed to complete the $25 million restoration of the Jervey Theatre, which Ambush expects will open during the 2026-27 season.
Ambush came to Venice in 2010 as an adjudicator for WorldFest, an event featuring theater companies from around the globe sponsored by the American Association of Community Theatre and hosted by the Venice Theatre. He served as WorldFest adjudicator again in 2014.
After taking the artistic reins of Venice Theatre, the nation's second largest of 6,000 community theaters as measured by its $4 million budget, Ambush helped produce the 2022 edition of WorldFest.
Asked to name some artistic highlights of his tenure, Ambush pointed to his 2022 production of "To Kill a Mockingbird," where he incorporated the voices of the Black community into the stage version of Harper Lee's classic novel. Other standouts for him were two productions from this season — "Syncopation," about a man looking for a dance partner, and the revival of Molière's 353-year-old comedy, "The Learned Ladies."
The 2024-25 season marked Venice Theatre's 75th anniversary and the theater celebrated the occasion with great fanfare. It revived several productions from its history and continued annual traditions such as staging "A Christmas Carol" and producing Pinky's Players, a show that allows adults with disabilities to participate in community theater.
The diamond anniversary season opened with a revival of Venice Theatre's first production, "The Torch Bearers," a play within a play about the dangers posed by community theater to family life, and ended with the surprise hit, "The Learned Ladies."
But whether it was getting the theater up and running after COVID or working with Chase and Geddie to launch the 2022-23 season after Hurricane Ian, Ambush says none of it would have been possible without the Venice Theatre's 1,600 volunteers.
"We have a professional staff, but community theater is made possible with the help of volunteers," Ambush says. "With the recent proposed cuts to the National Endowment for the Arts, some professional theaters may have to adopt our model."
In a farewell note to students, volunteers and patrons, Ambush wrote, "Part of me wishes to stay forever. At the end of this 75th season, I know that Venice Theatre will forge ahead for another 75 years with new wind in its sails. It is an extraordinary, professionally run, volunteer-reliant, hybrid model, distinct among any theatre I know."
Ambush holds a bachelor's degree in Theatre Arts and Dramatic Literature from Brown University and an MFA in Directing from the University of California, San Diego. In 2020, he was inducted into the College of Fellows of the American Theatre.
During his long career, he has been artistic director of TheatreVirginia in Richmond, Va, Oakland Ensemble Theatre in California and Rites and Reason Theatre Company in Providence, R.I., to name just a few of his many posts.
