Ben Griessmeyer

After graduating from Sheboygan North High School where he earned numerous awards both regionally and nationally, Ben accepted an invitation to join the third class of the University of Minnesota/Guthrie Theater B.F.A. Actor Training Program. There he studied with a wide array of accomplished artists including John Barton, Andrew Wade, Mark Rylance, Thomas Prattki, Scott Freeman, Kenneth Washington, Marcela Lorca, and Kenneth Noel Mitchell, among others. Ben is a founding company member of the hit Provincetown-based theater company, Shakespeare on the Cape. Ben created the role of Don in the world premiere of Tennessee Williams' autobiographical play "The Parade or Approaching the End of Summer". He recently was seen playing Candide in the Leonard Bernstein masterpiece Candide and in the premiere of the new musical Insatiable Hunger, which also starred Lea DeLaria. Favorite credits include the Off-Broadway revival of Tom Jones & Harvey Schmidt's musical, Celebration; William Barfee in The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee (Harwich Junior Theatre); Young Scrooge in A Christmas Carol (Guthrie Theater); Romeo in Romeo and Juliet (SOTC/Guthrie); Celia in As You Like It (SOTC/Guthrie); Agnes in School for Wives (SOTC); Ariel in The Tempest (SOTC); Betty/Edward in Cloud 9 (SOTC); Matt in The Fantasticks (Skylight Opera Theatre); Harlequin in Triumph of Love (Wellfleet Harbor Actors' Theater); Young Man in A Streetcar Named Desire (Provincetown Tennessee Williams Festival); and The Traveling Companion and The Chalky White Substance (New Orleans Tennessee Williams Literary Festival). Ben has also been seen in Moises Kaufman's Gross Indecency, which starred Ryan Landry; Stephen Schwartz's Working; Margaret Edson's Wit starring McNeeley Myers; David Lindsay-Abaire's Wonder of the World; and the Brian Friel masterpiece Philadelphia Here I Come with his partner, Adam Berry. Ben had the pleasure of performing at the induction of Tennessee Williams into the American Poet's Corner at St. John the Divine in New York City alongside Vanessa Redgrave, Olympia Dukakis, John Patrick Shanley, Marian Seldes, Tandy Cronyn, Sylvia Miles, Eli Wallach and Sherry Boone. Ben is a recipient of the prestigious Ruth DeYoung Kohler Award for Artistic Excellence, and has been recognized multiple times as a 'Best Performance' in the Cape Cod Times.