author

Rita Benton

b. 1881

Known for lively children’s and religious drama, this early 20th-century playwright turned Bible stories and fantasy themes into stage-friendly plays that were meant to be performed, not just read. Her work has stayed in circulation through library archives and public-domain editions.

1 Audiobook

Shorter Bible Plays

Shorter Bible Plays

by Rita Benton

About the author

Rita Benton was an American playwright born in 1881. Surviving catalog and library records confirm a cluster of books from the 1920s, including The Star-Child, and Other Plays (1921), Shorter Bible Plays (1922), Bible Plays (1922), and The Elf of Discontent and Other Plays (1927).

Her writing seems to have centered on short dramatic pieces for children, schools, churches, and community performance. The titles and front matter of her books show a mix of biblical retellings and imaginative fantasy, with an emphasis on clear staging and performance rights, suggesting she wrote with real productions in mind.

Reliable biographical details beyond her birth year are scarce in the sources I could confirm. One 1921 title page lists a Chicago address for performance inquiries, which places her there at least during that period, but fuller information about her life and career remains hard to verify.