A cast of eight is suggested for the new vignette play “Ten Minutes On a Bench,” but the size of the company (and the choice of scenes) is determined by the producer.
The set for Kenneth Jones’ new romantic comedy Ten Minutes On a Bench couldn’t be simpler: It’s a park bench. In the 17-scene vignette play — available in versions with varied cast sizes and different scene options — that bench becomes a perch for more than 30 characters who are seeking a love match through the title dating app that geolocates nearby outdoor seating for speed-dating opportunities. If the frisky vibe of John Cariani’s popular Almost, Maine is up your alley, this is the play for you.
Ten Minutes On a Bench had its first development in February 2024 in a staged reading process by Ground Up Productions in New York City and has since enjoyed college and amateur developmental productions. This collection was first envisioned as a two-act play for a protean cast of eight performers (4W, 4M) who double and triple to create dozens of characters ranging in age from 20s to 70s. Its original intent was to be a playful, theatrical showcase for the skills of a versatile, charismatic (small-ish) ensemble. This intimate ensemble idea is the preferred format for professional licensing.
However, Ten Minutes On a Bench can be modified to feature an expanded cast of up to 35 actors performing the original 17 scenes in two acts — or fewer scenes (think 10-12) without an intermission. The selection and order of scenes is determined by the producer/director but guided by the order suggested by the author in the script. (Yes, you can pick and choose, but there is some intention to the order.) These allowable modifications are available to professional, amateur, high school and college producers.
In the February 2024 Ground UP festival of new works, an intermissionless version of the play featured a cast of 12. It later appeared in Florida Repertory Theatre’s 2024 PlayLab Festival of New Works May 3 in Ft. Myers, FL, where it was heard in an intermissionless six-actor version. Following revisions, including the addition of new scenes and an act break, Ground Up gave it a fresh reading in Manhattan on June 24, 2024, with a cast of eight (4M, 4W), which remains the suggested and most ideal cast size.
Carolyn Messina and Jorge Valero in the Florida Rep PlayLab reading of “Ten Minutes On a Bench” in spring 2024. (Photo courtesy Florida Rep)
A fully produced workshop staging by Wetumpka Depot Players in Alabama in summer 2024 was a popular quiet test of the material. Since then, the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee theater department presented a full production in spring 2025. From the Ashes Theatre Company in Houston presented it in September 2025. Contra Costa College in San Pablo, CA, produced it in Nov. 21-Dec. 7 with a cast of 15. Bennett Day School in Chicago had students tackling the scenes in a spring 2026 staging. In Saratoga, CA, West Valley College’s Ghostlight program produced a full-length version of the play in July 2026. The theater department at Central Community College in Nebraska will produce it in fall 2026.
Want a perusal copy of the script? E-mail playwright Kenneth Jones and ask for an e-copy. You can also find a draft on New Play Exchange. Licensing is currently handled directly through the playwright.
In the bittersweet romantic comedy, would-be lovers populate unconnected scenes, offering at least eight or as many as 35 performers the chance to play a range of humanity, urges and hurts. Casting should reflect a spectrum of body types, abilities, sexual orientations, races, ethnicities and gender identities. (An additional “character” is the voice of the dating app, which sets up the rules of the world in a prologue and is later heard in the epilogue.)
Here’s how the ensemble comedy Ten Minutes On a Bench is billed:
A dating app called Ten Minutes On a Bench is the latest match-making craze, placing singles on a park bench to find common ground. The clock is ticking, but there’s no limit to the variety of heartfelt and humane conversations between dozens of characters looking for love. A new speed-dating romantic comedy about first impressions, last chances, impulse and caution, conversation and chemistry. Laugh, cheer and cringe witnessing the universal urge to connect. Sometimes, it only takes ten minutes.
Ciaran McCarthy and Rita Cole in the Florida Repertory Theatre reading of “Ten Minutes On a Bench.” (Photo courtesy Florida Rep.)
This is how playwright Kenneth Jones characterizes the play in a script note:
This is a vignette play, a romantic comedy in fragments, a pulse-taking of a cross-section of unrelated lonely people. It’s meant to be alternately funny, rueful, charming, sexy, bittersweet, touching and romantic. Think of it as a buffet, a revue, a short story collection, a box of snapshots.
These are all first dates for these characters. No second dates are depicted. The organizing thread between the pieces is not a recurring character, it’s the app — but also the characters’ shared urge to connect. If you’re looking to follow the arc of one character in an entire evening, this is not that play.
This should be a director’s playground and an actor’s dream. The play is designed for performers who (if double- or triple-casting is employed) can play a range: comic, rueful, delicate, daffy, tragic. If all of the characters are played by individual actors (up to 35 performers!), audiences will walk away with a sense of a varied population of lonely hearts, but also a keen awareness of the variety and depth of your acting pool; it should be a grand showcase for your professional, school or community theater performers.
Kenneth Jones is best known for his breakout play Alabama Story (published by Dramatists Play Service), seen in more than 80 cities around the nation. His comedy Hollywood, Nebraska had a three-state rolling world premiere in 2022-23 and is also licensed by Dramatists Play Service. His other work (check out the three-character Why We Go to Florida) has been produced or developed at Pioneer Theatre Company, Repertory Theatre of St. Louis, Clarence Brown Theatre, Alabama Shakespeare Festival, Peninsula Players, Florida Studio Theatre, Red Mountain Theatre and beyond. Why We Go to Florida is licensed through The Kaufer Group.
Carolyn Messina and David Breitbarth in Florida Rep’s reading of “Ten Minutes On a Bench.” (Photo courtesy Florida Repertory Theatre)
This Playwright Note appears at the top of the script of Ten Minutes On a Bench:
There is an epidemic of loneliness in the human race. Nature eventually urges us to find contact, chemistry and companionship with others. In the early 21st century, some people seek all that through use of technology. The fictional dating service called Ten Minutes On a Bench is not a hookup app for sex; its target is relationship-minded people who want a conversation first. Communication, especially when there’s a ticking clock, is rarely straightforward. Even when you think you’re prepared for the briefest chat, there are surprising sharp turns, dead ends, detours and derailments. This play is a pulse-taking of all kinds of people ready (or not) for relationships. At great risk, they put themselves out in the world in an effort to cure our great epidemic. If a lasting connection doesn’t result, maybe the memory of a misfired exchange or an amiable moment — of grace, kindness, hurt, surprise and laughter — will sustain and inspire the yearners of this play to do better next time, keep looking, keep reaching and keep hoping until they’re no longer alone.
