A Great Big Miracle: The Story of Hanukkah

A show for the whole family, all about how a smart and curious shepherd kid named Judah grew up into a mighty Macabee and  whomped the Emperor Antiochus. Very silly, very fun, and very historically accurate except for the talking sheep. 

If you know a theater or Jewish group looking for a holiday show, let me know. Staged reading by The Mesaper Theatre, December 2008; staged reading by the Orlando Theater Project, December 2009.

The Midnight Ride of Paul Revere

Breaking Up Is Hard to Do

A (Tooth) Fairy Tale

A musical for kids about a bored boy named Oliver who changes places with the Tooth Fairy. Mayhem and considerable silliness ensue. Book by me, music & lyrics by Rick Hip-Flores. Here's a swell review from the New York Times, and a sample (from the cast recording) , in which the Tooth Fairy longs for the life of a normal lady.

Slut

Fame Forever

Worst-Case Scenario Pocket Guide: New York 

Available in stores from Amazon or directly from Quirk Books. This is my first contribution to this best-selling series, which gives clear-eyed advice for handling dangerous and/or unlikely situations. In this volume, I cover how to survive being attacked by a swarm of pigeons.

Worst-Case Scenario Survival Handbook for Middle School

A (Tooth) Fairy Tale

The Jewish Comedy Thesaurus

Subtitled "3,102 Quips, Quotes and Kvetches," this was the first book I did, and was a really wonderful experience, with the one tiny exception that it was never actually published. Ba-DUM-bum.

Journalistic greatest hits

 I am so excited and delighted and elated (and many other enthusiastic adjectives) to announce that HarperCollins Children's Books will be publishing my middle-grade novel, Ms. Finkleman Rocks, in the fall of next year. (6/22/09)

 The Orlando Theater Project will be presenting A Great Big Miracle, my Hanukkah play, this December. (6/10/09)

If you've heard of Pride and Prejudice and Zombies, the surprise fiction hit of the season, you may have wondered A) if the publisher is planning a follow-up, B) who is writing it, and C) what the title might be.

The answers are A) oh yes, B) me!, and C) I'm not allowed to tell anyone until July 15. (6/04/09)

 Four (whew) new Worst-Case "pocket guides" are coming out in September: Meetings, San Francisco, Cats, and (the one that was the most fun to write), Cars. If you want to know how to drive down stairs, here's the answer: you just do it. (5/24/09).

 It looks like I'll be working on another show for Vital Theatre, this one adapted from the charming new novel  for kids by Douglas Rees, Uncle Pirate. (4/30/09)

Worst-Case Scenario Pocket Guide: New York City is out; get yours today!  (4/15/09)

A multiplicity of new productions of Breaking Up Is Hard to Do are on the calendar, including Wisconsin this spring and Cincinatti in spring 2010.(4/2/09)

The Billy Rose Theatre Collection at the New York Public Library of the Performing Arts is going to add a copy of Breaking Up Is Hard to Do, a fact which just tickles me pink. (2/25/09)

Worst Case: New York and Worst Case: Middle School will both be available within the next few weeks. (2/22/09)

The Ventura County Star has got Neil Sedaka saying some nice things about Breaking Up is Hard to Do, as well as a swell review. (1/16/09)

The next production of Breaking Up Is Hard to Do opens in Thousand Oaks, California on January 9; you can get tickets now. This production is the West Coast premiere, and the cast is terrific.

The Midnight Ride of Paul Revere will be leaving on its latest tour in late January 2009. To bring it to a school near you, contact TheatreWorks USA.

I've been named a Dramatists Guild Fellow for 2008-2009, in partnership with my frequent collaborator, the composer Stephen Sislen. 

As I have in the past, I wrote the script for the 2008 North Shore Animal League America Benefit Gala, which was at Capitale in Manhattan. Great gig, great cause.

Ben Allen H. Winters is a writer who lives in Brooklyn with all the other writers.

I've written a whole bunch of plays and musicals for children and adults; all sorts of magazine and newspaper journalism; and books, including several in the best-selling Worst-Case Scenario Survival Guide series. As an educator, I run creative writing programs at two elementary schools in Manhattan. 

I am represented as a playwright & librettist by Ron Gwiazda at the Abrams Agency; I am represented as a prose writer by Molly Lyons at Joelle Delbourgo Associates; I am represented at the United Nations, like all Americans, by Susan Rice.

Please send me an email or be my friend on Facebook.

The H stands for "hubris".

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