Benny Sato Ambush: is a professional SDC stage director, former Artistic Director of three theatres (two of them professional theatres), educator, consultant, former National Endowment for the Arts (NEA) panelist/site evaluator, and published commentator. For the past nine years, he was Senior Distinguished Producing Director-In-Residence of Emerson Stage, the producing wing of the Department of Performing Arts (PA) at Emerson College, and taught on PA’s acting and directing faculty.
His prior artistic leadership experience includes Acting Artistic Director - Rites and Reason Theatre Company, Providence, RI; Producing Artistic Director - Oakland Ensemble Theatre; Associate Artistic Director - San Francisco's American Conservatory Theater; Co-Artistic Director - San Francisco Bay Area Playwrights Festival; PEW Charitable Trust/TCG Director in Residence - Florida Stage, Manalapan; Producing Artistic Director – TheatreVirginia; Associate Artistic Director - Anna Deavere Smith's Institute on the Arts & Civic Dialogue at Harvard University.