bio
KEN BENDA graduated in 1977 from the University of Illinois during its Golden Age of Theatre with a Bachelor of Fine Arts degree. He spent the next ten years working with various theatre companies in the Chicago area including the Village Players, West Wind Theatre and the Absolute Theater Company, as well as with Steppenwolf Theater Company at the Apollo Theater in Waiting for Lefty. In 1987, Ken moved to Fort Collins and enrolled at Colorado State University, graduating in 1991 with a Bachelor of Science degree in Zoology. He spent the next ten years working as a biological field technician and conservation advocate. He returned to the stage in 2001, performing in Bas Bleu Theatre’s Dealer’s Choice. He has since appeared with Bas Bleu in The Dead Monkey, Lives of the Saints and Mother Courage and Her Children. Ken has appeared with OpenStage Theatre as the elephant-headed Hindu god Ganesha in A Perfect Ganesh, as the Player in Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead and most recently as de Stogumber in Saint Joan, and with openstage etc in The Weir, Rag and Bone and The Harvey Project. He provided vocal life to various characters in two episodes of Rabbit Hole Radio Theatre’s series Major Arcana and represented OpenStage Theatre in the "Largest Theater Festival in American History" as part of the cast of 365 Plays/365 Days in March 2007. Ken served as the assistant director and stage manager for OpenStage Theatre's world premier production of Rasputin in 2005 and as stage manager for its production of Splitting Infinity in 2007.