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JANET BENTLEY

IN LOVING MEMORY

Jan (they/them) was a director, dramaturg, writer, actor, film editor, sound designer, and composer. They had an MFA in dramaturgy from the University of Iowa, a BA in theatre from the University of South Florida. International debut: The Waiting Room (Co-Director/Sound Designer/Deviser; Ashtar Theatre - Ramallah, Palestine & Co-op Theatre East, NYC). Select New York credits: world premieres of The Dark and Our Fantasia by John Patrick Shanley (Director), (a)loft modulation by Jaymes Jorsling (Asst. Sound Design), Horse (Director/Writer; The Flamboyan), Mr. Chekhov and Mr. Porter (Director/Scenic Designer; Medicine Show), Abu Casem’s Slippers by August Strindberg (Director), Blankets and Bedtime: 3 Restless Plays by Erik Champney (Director/Producer), After Tartuffe by Judy Klass (Director), The Addicts by Ed Malin (Director), The Big Funk by John Patrick Shanley (Live Original Music; NFTC), Incendiary Agents by Jack Karp (Dramaturg/SM; NFTC), "This Round's On Us" (Director/Writer; NFTC – since 2013), and Coventry Carol by James McLindon (Emerging Artists Theatre). Film/TV: Stage Left: A digital documentary series about theatre (Director/Editor/DP/Sound). Janet was a member of Nylon Fusion Theatre Company (NFTC), New York Madness, and New Ambassadors Theatre Co (NATC). Janet was a co-artistic director and founding partner at Roly Poly Productions. 

Mystic Conversations (co-Sound Designer), Room 1214 (co-Projections Designer), War Words (co-Sound Designer), The Lights Are On (Sound Designer), Friends With Amenities (Sound Designer), According to the Chorus (co-Sound Designer), The End of Hester (co-Sound Designer), Calendar Girl (Director), Brecht: Call & Respond (Sound Designer), Everything is Super Great (Sound Designer), Life x 3 (Composer/Sound Designer)

"The sound design by The Roly Polys (Janet Bentley and Andy Evan Cohen) works seamlessly."
- TheatreScene.Net (Mystic Conversations, 2025)

"Janet Bentley and Andy Evan Cohen’s projections are spot-on, from the child’s drawing of a smiling stick figure to the silhouettes of the swaying students."

- OffOffOnline (ROOM 1214, 2024)

"Composer Jan Bentley has provided ethereal, jazzy music which, at times, veers off in a direction dictated by the mathematical constant "e" (an irrational and transcendental number used in logarithmic and exponential functions). In layman's terms e, or 2.718281828459045..., when interpreted on a C-major diatonic scale, is the central theme of the score.
"

- Theatre Is Easy (Life x 3, 2018)
Mystic Conversations

Mystic Conversations

Co-Sound Designer, 2025

ROOM 1214

ROOM 1214

Co-Projection Designer, 2024

The Lights Are On

The Lights Are On

Co-Sound Designer, 2023

Friends With Amenities

Friends With Amenities

Sound Designer, 2023

Brecht: Call & Respond

Brecht: Call & Respond

Sound Designer, 2020

Everything is Super Great

Everything is Super Great

Sound Designer, 2019

Life x 3

Life x 3

Sound Designer, 2018

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New Light Theater Project is a registered 501(c)3 organization. All contributions are tax deductible to the fullest extent allowed by law.

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© 2013 by New Light Theater Project

LAND ACKNOWLEDGMENT

 

We acknowledge the traditional, ancestral, & unceded territory of the Lenape people, commonly called Manhattan, where our work is based.

Learn more about Land Acknowledgment

CONTACT US

 

admin@NewLightTheaterProject.com

3750 Broadway, Suite 63

New York, NY 10032

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