Benjamin McFadden
Artistic Director and Theater Practitioner

Can you tell us a little bit about what you do?
I am a theater producer, director, and general practitioner. I am the founding Artistic Director of 14/48 Hollywood: The World’s Quickest Theater Festival (1448hollywood.org) and I am currently directing my adaptation of H.G. Wells’ The Time Machine for the Hollywood Fringe. I think really, when it comes down to it, I love theater. I think theater is truly a place of magic and mystery. It’s one of those things that just comes together with what feels like chewing gum and elbow grease, but when it hums at that higher frequency…it’s a shared storytelling experience beyond anything.

How did you first become interested in the arts?
To answer that question, we must jump in a time machine. I remember my grandfather, whom I called Papa, was doing community theater. I wasn’t allowed to see it as I was barely 8 years old. Then I finally got to go. It was a play called Run for your Wife! It was a farce that I remember almost nothing about, but I do remember how it made me feel: I want to do this. From there, I just continued to seek it out at school or wherever I could. I trained at Cornish College of the Arts and have been a professional actor on stage and screen for almost 20 years now. I didn’t really start producing until I came to LA from Seattle. I had a short lived theater company in Seattle, but now being in LA LA Land – I feel the drive to make the theater I want to see.

How does art enrich a community, and what are some ways people can engage with art in Burbank?
I was listening to one of my favorite podcasts Search Engine and the host made a point that resonated really strongly with me. He was talking about going to clubs to see a specific DJ, which is very much not my world, but he said something along the lines of “it is a crucial part of the human experience to gather in a room and surrender to something greater than yourself.” Again, he was referring to the DJ. I take that as so many things: theater, music performances, even an art gallery. I think, with how addicted we are to our phones and social media, surrender becomes less and less. You see it every day just at the movie theater: someone has their phone out. Surrender takes a personal contract and it’s the best way to absorb the art in front of you. I think it’s important, for the sake of art, to see it on every level. Go see the blockbuster movie and go see the arthouse film, go to the orchestra and the basement grunge show, go see the traveling Broadway shows and support your local fringe theater. Be open to being surprised by something you didn’t expect.

If you could share with our community one thing about art and/or your creative process, what would it be?
I wrote my first draft of The Time Machine during lockdown in 2020 because I was bored. Boredom is something we’re constantly running from, but it’s an important part of my process. Go for a walk without your phone, go for a hike or a run without music. Just you and your thoughts. It’s a wild place to be inside my mind palace, but I have my best ideas in there.

To find out more about Benjamin and his work, visit him online at 1448hollywood.org and https://www.hollywoodfringe.org/projects/11608 (The Time Machine), or follow him on Instagram @1448hollywood @RunBeeMc @TheTimeMachine_2025