American Trilogy is a collection of three short plays about the American experience—our experience. In M. Benson’s crafted plays, we see ourselves in this evermore fragmented reality.

In The Mill, we witness the inner workings of a two-story cedar mill and the workers’ lives that depend on the mill itself. When Matt LaField, newly retired from the mill and ready to begin his own work, hears that his girlfriend Pam is pregnant, it isn’t long before tension grows and friendships fall apart.

Juvenile Hall follows a group of young girls who play basketball together, go to school together, and grow together in a youth detention center—but they are far from free. Each girl has lived a nightmare, and because of that nightmare, the danger they face, whether free or not, becomes more stark.

Scenes in Buffalo Dance shift from gangster’s hideout to the rectory of a church—perhaps an unconventional choice, but M. Benson allows us to see how hierarchy has a place in the institutions we know, and how those in power stay in power, often by horrific means.

About the Author

M. Benson (bob) paints, writes, and walks by the beach.