Coach Jonathan Bender Live with Rene Reyes!

Jonathan Bender, MS, MFA - Founder/Principal WholeSpeak founder Jonathan Bender, MS, MFA has been active in public speaking, live performance, and "the performance of everyday life" for over twenty-five years, as well as on a path of personal and spiritual growth since a very young age. Educationally, he began with a BA in Dramatic Art and Anthropology from UC Berkeley, later followed by a Master’s Degree in Performance Studies and Speech Communication from Southern Illinois University, Carbondale, where he specialized in the study of everyday life as performance. Next, his MFA program in Theater: Contemporary Performance at Naropa University specialized in physical, ensemble-developed theater and the creation of new work. There, he trained with such luminaries as Moises Kaufman and the Tectonic Theater Project (renowned for The Laramie Project and I Am My Own Wife), Meredith Monk and The House, and the SITI Company. He has been a performer since the mid-1980's and a theater director since 1989, and his writing has been produced in various theaters since the 1990's. He began working as a speech coach and acting teacher in 1995. In the Belly of the Whale, his solo show on Jewish identity, has toured nationwide, and he is Artistic Director of The Illuminated Theater.Jonathan is also a featured speaker on the Rene Reyes NESBE event this April 27 2013! www.wholespeak.comwww.nesbe.net