Dear foolish family,
Today we're announcing that Ben Yalom will step down as our company’s founding artistic director of 22 years. Starting September 1, 2020, he will be succeeded by Debórah Eliezer, foolsFURY’s current co-artistic director.
After moving away from the Bay Area in 2011, Ben has continued to lead our adventurous, physically oriented theater ensemble he founded in 1998. He now lives in San Diego with his wife, Anisa, and his three children, where he is working on several writing projects and collaborating with theaters.
“FoolsFURY has been my creative home and laboratory for over two decades,” said Yalom. “While the decision to move on has been difficult, the company could not be in better hands. Debórah has been a brilliant partner in artistic exploration, and in broadening our audiences’ understanding of what theater can be. Under her leadership, foolsFURY will continue to deepen its relationships with ensemble theater makers around the country and abroad, with an eye to ever greater inclusion of artists of color, women, immigrants and exiles, people with disabilities and members of the LGBTQ+ community."
Debórah has been in an integral part of foolsFURY since joining as a company member in 2005. In 2015, Ben asked Debórah (then serving as Associate Artistic Director) to join him as co-artistic director to lead the charge in producing new works, internship opportunities and public education programs. She epitomizes the spirit in our company’s name: she is a force of nature who understands theater’s "furious" capacity for social critique and social change, and she embodies the warmth, wit and wisdom of the "fool".
“I am grateful for Ben’s visionary leadership, friendship and long-term commitment to collaboration,” said Eliezer. “Ben’s directorial judgment, literary acuity and overall pursuit of artistic excellence have fundamentally contributed to uplifting the model of ensemble theater in the U.S. I’m excited to continue challenging the assumptions of what theater can be.”
So what can you expect from us during this transition?
We're producing a new program (in collaboration with our Guest Festival Director, Claudia Alick), called Build From Here, an online digital convening to shape the future of ensemble theater, September 12 & 13 -- save the date!
Ben is currently working on several writing projects including an essay about foolsFURY's innovations with the Viewpoints technique and Mary Overlie, and a book length manuscript, Innocent Witnesses: Children's Memories of World War II, the last major work by his feminist historian mother, Marilyn Yalom who passed away last fall.
We are very excited to begin this new journey and share it all with you. As with all transitions, change is welcome and necessary. This means, you might get more emails from us than you’re used to, discover changes to our programming, and see many new faces.
Trust that we're still the same fools, full of fervor and ferocity.
Stay furious,
Debórah, Ben, & the rest of us at foolsFURY