Tom Bentley-Fisher
ARTISTIC DIRECTOR, FOUNDER
Tom’s theatre career began as an actor, training with Sanford Meisner and Yat Malmgren. He has been the artistic director of five professional theatres, directed internationally over one hundred productions, and taught in universities and theatre schools throughout North America and Europe. His approach to teaching is based on his many years as a theatre artist, exploring and developing the techniques of Yat Malmgren.
You can view Tom’s experience at tombentleyfisher.com.
Pamela Hollings
YAT VOICE TEACHER, ASSOCIATE ARTIST
Pamela is an Australian theatre maker and educator based in the San Francisco Bay Area. Pamela trained as a director at Australia's premier theatre school, the National Institute of Dramatic Art (NIDA). She first encountered Yat work as a teenage actor in training and has since trained in many other disciplines. Her teaching is always focused on the individual needs of the student. Find out more at pamelahollings.net
Greta Turken
YAT TEACHER, ASSOCIATE ARTIST
Greta has acted in NY theater from The Public/NYSF to Alice Tully Hall to countless Off-Offs … and the Actors Studio. Written theater/performance works include Pulse, Poontango and Anonymous B. (which she showed once at Marsh SF). She played Leslie Lapidus in the film Sophie's Choice. Studied and did theater and film in Paris. Steeped in a range of theater techniques, she has yet to stumble across any more revelatory than the Yat work!
Adam Kotin
YAT TEACHER, ASSOCIATE ARTIST
Adam is a director, producer, actor, and teacher who has trained with Tom in the Yat/Bentley Method since 2015. He is Co-Artistic Director of Dugway Theater, a bicoastal theater ensemble, and his directed and designed work has been seen across the Bay Area and New England. His artistic training spans various physical theatre modalities. Adam holds degrees from Brown University and Pomona College.
Heidi Carlsen
YAT TEACHER, ASSOCIATE ARTIST
Heidi is an actor, director and experimental theater artist who has presented works up and down the West Coast, as well as New York and Poland. She received a Fulbright Fellowship to study movement and voice and integrates her diverse theater and dance training with the Yat/Bentley Method. She is a Feldenkrais® practitioner specializing in working with performing artists. Heidi holds an MFA in directing from CalArts.
Jocelyn Truitt
ASSOCIATE ARTIST
Jocelyn has studied various acting methods around the Bay Area, and has been working with Tom and the Yat/Bentley work since 2016. She is glad to lend both her artistic and administrative skills to YBC! She has worked locally with multiple groups, including African-American Shakespeare Company and 3Girls Theatre Company, and also works as a standardized patient actor and trainer with the Stanford School of Medicine.
Aurora de Blas
ASSOCIATE YAT TEACHER, LOS ANGELES
Celia Aurora de Blas teaches and coaches the Yat-Bentley Method in San Francisco and Los Angeles after having worked closely with Tom Bentley-Fisher as his private student. She finds that yoga principles applied to the Yat-Bentley work support it nicely and you'll find it incorporated into her coaching sessions. Along with teaching, you can find Aurora in Los Angeles performing, doing voice over and creating new-media content.
Sophie Becker
DIGITAL ARCHIVIST
Sophie Becker is a film editor and actress, trained in the Yat-Bentley method since 2016. Her on-camera credits include Netflix’s Unsolved Mysteries and she has appeared on stage as Jessica in Kenneth Lonergan's This is Our Youth and in Caryl Churchill’s Love and Information. Her film and photography have been featured in the New York Times, the San Francisco Tiny Dance Film Festival, and Al-Tiba9. Sophie is a current editing fellow at the American Film Institute.
Lavinia Hollands
YAT TEACHER, ASSOCIATE ARTIST, INTERNATIONAL DIRECTOR
Lavinia trained with Tom and has been Assistant Director on various international productions. She co-founded Constructive Interference theatre company in London and has directed across various UK venues. She specialises in Stanislavski and the Yat Method and teaches at top UK drama schools. She has a degree in Playwrighting and an MA in Actor Training and Coaching from Royal Central School of Speech and Drama. www.laviniahollands.com
Miranda Bentley
YBC TEACHER, ASSISTANT TO THE ARTISTIC DIRECTOR, SOCIAL MEDIA
Miranda trained in New York and Los Angeles in the Meisner Technique. She comes to the YBC work as a teacher with great respect for the inner life of the artist, helping them discover the truth of their inner resources and how to trust themselves in the creative process. Growing up with two parents who were students of Yat Malmgren, this work has shaped her perception and understanding since she was very young. Miranda does not shy away from a spiritual perspective of this work, encouraging a love our humanity in the creative process. Miranda has worked as an actress in Canada, the US, and Europe.
Joshua Waterstone
ASSOCIATE ARTIST, MARKETING
Joshua is a director, actor, fight choreographer, educator and filmmaker who also works in marketing and digital production. Joshua works with The Theatre of Others (Recently performing at COP 28 in Dubai), San Francisco Shakespeare Festival and as faculty with Foothill College Theatre. He has also worked locally with American Conservatory Theatre, Berkeley Repertory School of Theatre, Dragon Productions, Cal Shakes, Shakespearience, foolsFURY, PlayGround and with theatres and colleges in G.A., N.C., N.E. and I.L. Joshua holds a Master of Fine Arts in Directing for Stage and Screen from the Johnny Carson School of Theatre and Film and is a member of the Society of American Fight Directors and an Associate-Member of the Society of Directors and Choreographers. https://waterstonejoshua.wixsite.com