BENSON DRIVE PRODUCTIONS ANNOUNCES INAUGURAL BDP EDINBURGH FRINGE ARTISTS IN RESIDENCE PROGRAM
Press Contact:
Rick Miramontez / Kendall Edwards
rick@omdkc.com / kendall@omdkc.com
212 695 7400
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE, PLEASE
BENSON DRIVE PRODUCTIONS
ANNOUNCES INAUGURAL
BDP EDINBURGH FRINGE ARTISTS IN RESIDENCE PROGRAM
THIS AUGUST
US-BASED ARTISTS, SUBMIT NOW!
New York, NY (June 2, 2026) – Benson Drive Productions (George Strus, CEO) is proud to announce their inaugural BDP Edinburgh Fringe Artists in Residence program. This August, the production company will bring three US-based artists who have never been to the Edinburgh Fringe before to the 2026 Festival. Each selected artist will receive travel to/from Scotland and accommodations in Edinburgh, a ticket budget to immerse themselves in the Fringe ecosystem, as well as a $3,000 commission to allow them to create their first Fringe piece throughout the month that will be presented as a Work in Progress showing during the final week of the Fringe.
In a statement, Strus said, “I have had the great fortune of working on projects at both the 2024 and 2025 Edinburgh Fringe Festivals and am thrilled to not only be returning this year with two projects––Steve Burns: Alive and Twitch––but also with three artists in residence who will get to experience the magic that is the Edinburgh Fringe for the first time. After seeing over 150 shows at last year’s Festival, I left Scotland feeling incredibly inspired and hungry to keep creating; it is my hope the three selected artists fall in love with the Fringe like I have.”
For more information and to apply, please visit www.bensondriveprods.com/effair. The deadline to submit is 11:59pm EDT on Sunday, June 14
Benson Drive Productions’ 2026 Edinburgh Fringe Artists in Residence program is supported by Carson Gleberman and Underbelly.
Benson Drive Productions also recently announced their Edinburgh Fringe Festival debut with Steve Burns: Alive running at Underbelly Cowgate from August 5-30, 2026. Directed by Sivan Battat and co-written by Steve Burns and Matthew Freeman, Steve Burns: Alive is performed by Steve Burns, America’s beloved problem-solver on Nickelodeon’s Blue’s Clues from 1996 – 2002. When he left the show, the internet decided his fate: car crashes, drug overdoses, murder conspiracies. Steve Burns was dead… except he wasn’t. In Steve Burns Alive, Burns dissects the bizarre phenomenon of being mourned while alive. This isn’t just his story, it’s an excavation of how parasocial relationships shape reality, digital mythology replaces truth and what happens when millions of strangers grieve a version of you that never existed. What happens when the world thinks you’re dead but you’re very much alive?
After the success of Cecilia Gentili’s Red Ink at the 2025 Edinburgh Festival Fringe, Breaking the Binary Theatre (George Strus, Founding Artistic Director), will be returning this year with Twitch, running at Underbelly Bristo Square from August 5-30, 2026. Written by Liliana Padilla and directed by Jack Ferver, Twitch follows Pam (performer Joslyn DeFreece) searching obsessively for her son after he has gone missing. She has lived in a town where no one trusts each other for infinity – smoking, sipping, waiting – watching shiny ladies on TV, accompanied by a twitch she cannot shake. The town begins to visit her: doctors, start-ups, grifters, psychics, strangers from Craigslist, lost animals. Perhaps Pam is imagining them. Or remembering them. Or rehearsing conversations she never had. In this surreal American town, Pam claws for certainty, a witness and evidence that she was ever chosen. Twitch was first developed in the inaugural Breaking the Binary Theatre Festival.
ABOUT BENSON DRIVE PRODUCTIONS
BENSON DRIVE PRODUCTIONS is a New York-based production company developing projects from the mind of George Strus (they/them), who grew up on Benson Drive dreaming of making theatre. Benson Drive Productions’ New York premiere of Amber Ruffin’s BIGFOOT! was praised by The New York Times as “ecstatically silly and irresistibly charming” – the extended off-Broadway premiere was nominated for Best Musical at the Lucille Lortel, Off-Broadway Alliance, and Drama League Awards. BDP recently produced Trisha Paytas’ Big Broadway Dream starring Trisha Paytas, Sutton Foster, Ben Platt, Joy Woods, and Rachel Zegler, raising over $150,000 for the Entertainment Community Fund; a reading of Mathilde Dratwa’s A Play About David Mamet Writing A Play About Harvey Weinstein directed by Leslye Headland and starring Abbi Jacobson, Billy Eichner, and Helené Yorke, raising over $15,000 for NYCLU; and a developmental run of Kevin Zak’s A Kidman Carol starring Marla Mindelle and Josh Sharp, raising over $3000 for New York Cares. Projects in development include David Wise’s Fight Back, a musical adaptation of The Danish Girl, a revival of Neil Simon’s Rumors and over 15 other projects in various stages of development. Strus’ independent co-producing credits include Stephen Sondheim’s Here We Are (off-Broadway), Illinoise (Broadway – Tony nomination), Oh Mary! (Broadway – Tony nomination), Romeo + Juliet (Broadway), Evita (West End – Olivier nomination), Oh Mary! (West End – Olivier Award) Liberation (Broadway – Tony nomination), Cats The Jellicle Ball (Broadway – Tony nomination), Titanique (Broadway – Tony nomination), Proof (Broadway), and End Of The Rainbow starring Jinkx Monsoon (UK), and Rent (West End). George founded the Obie Award and two-time GLAAD Media Award-winning Breaking the Binary Theatre, was the 2024 recipient of the prestigious Prince Fellowship, is a member of the 2025 Shubert Organization Artistic Circle, and was recently inducted into the Forbes 30 Under 30 Class of 2026 in Hollywood and Entertainment. www.bensondriveprods.com.
# # # #
www.omdkc.com
www.facebook.com/omdkc
www.instagram.com/omdkc/