The Department of Performance, Play & Design was honored to present a special award for the first time in 2023. Danny Scheie was a professor of Acting at UCSC for thirty years. During that time, he was department chair, he was Artistic Director of Shakespeare Santa Cruz, and he directed countless productions at the school and in the community. He is known for his fearlessness, his outré style, his penchant for gender-fluidity, drag performance, and his general hilariousness and boundary-blasting. He acted and directed in shows all over the world, but he was and remains a beloved favorite in the Bay Area, where he has thrice received the Bay Area Critics Circle Award for Leading Actor. 

To honor his momentous impact on UC Santa Cruz and its students, alumni led by Kevin Beggs have gathered funds to endow a student scholarship in his honor. This is the first time that this award has ever been given, and it is given to a student performer who shows particular acumen and talent, to be given at the end of the student’s time at UC Santa Cruz, and includes an award of $2500 to be spent however the student wishes, to ease their entry to the next stage of their career in the performing arts. It is my great pleasure to announce that the winner of the very first annual Danny Scheie Scholarship is Bene’t Benton. After pursuing many facets of Theater at UCSC, the scope of possibilities within the theatrical world has expanded for Bene’t. While they narrow down their focus during a gap year, they wish to pursue writing their first play as well as applying for graduate school programs.

Congratulations to Bene’t!