Ben Yalom is the founder and artistic director emeritus of foolsFURY Theater Company in San Francisco. He has directed many foolsFURY productions including the world premieres of Port Out, Starboard Home, and Monster in the Dark, the US premiere of Fabrice Melquiot’s The Devil on All Sides (which he also translated), Don DeLillo's Valparaiso, the West Coast premiere of Martin Crimp's Attempts on Her Life, and others.
Through foolsFURY, Ben established the FURY Factory, a festival of ensemble and devised theater. The FURY Factory is a West Coast hub for the national ensemble theater movement. Presented every two years, the festival features ground-breaking new works by 20-25 companies from around the country. “FURY Factory redefines live theater” according to the SF Art Monthly. Since it was established in 2005, the festival has presented over 150 works by 100 companies.
With Inverse Theater he directed the controversial musical Bangers’ Flopera in the New York Fringe Festival (“One of the top three musical of the NY Fringe” American Theater Web; “Outstanding New Musical” Talkin Broadway). With Traveling Jewish Theatre he directed Naomi Newman's award-winning one-woman show Fall Down Get Up. Ben has also worked with A.C.T., the Playwrights Foundation, the Magic Theatre, Playground, the Aurora Theatre, and Encore Theatre (San Francisco), The Cell (New York), and Théâtre Ange Magnétique (Paris).
Ben has taught at Stanford University, California College of the Arts, the Lee Strasberg Institute (NYU/Tisch), UC Riverside, CSU Fresno, the La Mama Umbria Director’s Symposium, the National Theater Institute, Vassar College, the Berkeley Rep School of Theater, and elsewhere. He recently designed a new theater program at the United Nations International School in New York, and is currently teaching at Loyola Marymount University.
Ben has a BA in Political Science and Honors in the Humanities from Stanford University. He holds an MFA in Fiction from the Iowa Writers’ Workshop, and his fiction and essays have appeared in magazines nationwide. His translations of Fabrice Melquiot’s The Devil on all Sides and Albatross were recently published by Exit Press. He proudly served five years on the board of the Network of Ensemble Theaters.
Through foolsFURY, Ben established the FURY Factory, a festival of ensemble and devised theater. The FURY Factory is a West Coast hub for the national ensemble theater movement. Presented every two years, the festival features ground-breaking new works by 20-25 companies from around the country. “FURY Factory redefines live theater” according to the SF Art Monthly. Since it was established in 2005, the festival has presented over 150 works by 100 companies.
With Inverse Theater he directed the controversial musical Bangers’ Flopera in the New York Fringe Festival (“One of the top three musical of the NY Fringe” American Theater Web; “Outstanding New Musical” Talkin Broadway). With Traveling Jewish Theatre he directed Naomi Newman's award-winning one-woman show Fall Down Get Up. Ben has also worked with A.C.T., the Playwrights Foundation, the Magic Theatre, Playground, the Aurora Theatre, and Encore Theatre (San Francisco), The Cell (New York), and Théâtre Ange Magnétique (Paris).
Ben has taught at Stanford University, California College of the Arts, the Lee Strasberg Institute (NYU/Tisch), UC Riverside, CSU Fresno, the La Mama Umbria Director’s Symposium, the National Theater Institute, Vassar College, the Berkeley Rep School of Theater, and elsewhere. He recently designed a new theater program at the United Nations International School in New York, and is currently teaching at Loyola Marymount University.
Ben has a BA in Political Science and Honors in the Humanities from Stanford University. He holds an MFA in Fiction from the Iowa Writers’ Workshop, and his fiction and essays have appeared in magazines nationwide. His translations of Fabrice Melquiot’s The Devil on all Sides and Albatross were recently published by Exit Press. He proudly served five years on the board of the Network of Ensemble Theaters.