The 24 Hour Plays: Bennington A Tribute to Nicky Martin and Spencer Cox '90

February 16, 2023 | Premieres at 8:00 pm

Bennington talent, composed of alumni and friends, will create virtual performances in just 24 hours. Proceeds from the benefit will go towards the Nicky Martin Memorial Scholarship for Performing Arts and the Spencer Cox '90 Field Work Term Fellowship for Student Activists at Bennington College.

About the Nicky Martin Scholarship

The Nicky Martin Memorial Scholarship for Performing Arts at Bennington College is awarded on an annual basis to a continuing (third or fourth year) outstanding student with financial need who has an academic concentration in the performing arts (including theater, dance, music, and film) and who has a demonstrated history of, and a passion for, creative and high caliber work in the performing arts.

The scholarship is named in honor of Nicky (Joel) Martin, the Tony-nominated and Obie Award-winning theater director and beloved former faculty member at Bennington College. Martin was an actor for most of his life and turned to directing when he was in his early 40s. He was at Bennington from the late 1970s to the mid-1980s and inspired a younger generation of directors and actors with whom he continued to work throughout his career at the Huntington Theater Company and the Williamstown Theater Festival. He was nominated for the Lucille Lortel Award for outstanding director of the Lincoln Center Theater production of Observe the Sons of Ulster Marching Towards the Somme, which featured Justin Theroux ’93 and casting by Amy Christopher '89, and was also the Lucille Lortel Award winner for outstanding set design by Alexander Dodge ’93.

About the Spencer Cox '90 FWT Fellowship 

The Spencer Cox '90 FWT Fellowship is awarded on an annual basis to an outstanding Bennington student(s) in their third or fourth year with a passion for social activism and demonstrated commitment to socially conscious action. Recipients are those who bring a fearless spirit and incisive intellect to bear on pressing social issues in the ways that Spencer demonstrated in his lifetime.

Spencer, who died in 2012, was a pivotal member of ACT UP, the direct-action advocacy group with a mission to end AIDS. He played a defining role in the formation of the Treatment Action Group (TAG) to focus on accelerating AIDS treatment research and lent creative intellect and intense focus to help fight one of the most pressing social and public health crises of our time. 

About The 24 Hour Plays®

The 24 Hour Plays® bring together creative communities to produce plays and musicals that are written, rehearsed, and performed in 24 hours. In addition to The 24 Hour Plays on Broadway and The 24 Hour Musicals in New York City, events take place in London, Los Angeles, Dublin, Minneapolis, San Francisco, Germany, Athens, Finland, Mexico City, Florence and Denmark. Through collaborations with the Lymphatic Education & Research Network (LE&RN), The Lillys, Dublin Youth Theatre, Urban Arts Partnership, The Old Vic Theatre, Atlantic Theater Company, Bennington College, University of MN-Duluth, Hennepin Theatre Trust, Cornerstone Theater Company, Rakastajat-teatteri, El77 Centro Cultural Autogestivo, The Orchard Project, The Del Sole Foundation and others, The 24 Hour Plays have raised millions of dollars for charities.

Each summer, The 24 Hour Plays: Nationals partner with the New School for Drama to bring together the best young actors, directors, playwrights and producers for a free professional intensive that culminates in their own production of The 24 Hour Plays. Licensed affiliates have produced their own versions of The 24 Hour Plays in regional and professional theaters, colleges and universities, and just about everywhere you can find a curtain and a stage.

Actors

Writers

Directors

Producers 

Special Guests