ABOUT BEN

Do you have problems expressing yourself in English?  Maybe you got good grades at school, but have problems understanding native speakers.  Do you stumble trying to express yourself?  Do you feel left out of conversations?  I can help you.

Hello.  I am a teacher and writer.  My book on the work of Stephen Sondheim, Careful the Spell You Cast, How Stephen Sondheim Extended the Range of the American Musical has been published by Bloomsbury. Essays of mine have been published in the Handbook of Sondheim Studies and the Handbook of the British Musical and the Handbook of Shakespeare and Music, all published by Oxford University Press.  I have a PhD in the work of the composer Stephen Sondheim from Goldsmiths College.

I am also a playwright and I have had plays performed at several London venues, including The Arcola, The Canal Cafe, The Brockley Jack, The Vaults and The Questors Theatre.  I have had an audio play and a short film recorded by The Questors.  Some friends of mine from the Richmond Shakespeare Society have performed five monologues I have written. I am looking to work in the field of audio drama and have had an audio play, The Alarmist, performed on Ocean City Radio.

For five years I taught at the Berlitz School in London.  I can teach academic, business and conversational English.  I charge £30 an hour.  Here are some sample exercises of mine: this is the kind of thing I can teach.  I look forward to hearing from you.