Rina Yerushalmi


Rina Yerushalmi is an Israeli theater director and choreographer. Yerushalmi received an honorary doctorate from the Hebrew University of Jerusalem in 2001 and the Israel Prize in Theatre in 2008, among other awards and recognition.

Biography

Yerushalmi was born March 1, 1939, in Afula, in northern Israel, and was raised in Haifa. Her mother, Haya Yerushalmi, and father, Saul Yerushalmi, immigrated to Israel from Russia in 1920 and 1917, respectively. Her mother was a nurse, and her father was an engineer. Yerushalmi began studying dance at age six. At age 20, after her mandatory service in the Israeli Defense Force, Yerushalmi moved to London, where she studied Laban movement analysis with Kurt Jooss and stage management at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art. Back in Israel, Yerushalmi studied the Lee Strasberg method with Nola Chilton and the Feldenkrais method with Moshe Feldenkrais. Yerushalmi moved to the United States in the late 1960s to pursue her MFA in theater directing at Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.

Early career (1970-1988)

Yerushalmi's final project at Carnegie Mellon, under the mentorship of Professor Leon Katz, was an adaptation of Buchner's Woyzeck. In 1970, after finishing her MFA, Yerushalmi moved to New York City and began working with Ellen Stewart's La MaMa Experimental Theatre Club in the East Village of Manhattan. She was a resident director at La MaMA from 1972 to 1978. Yerushalmi directed a number of productions at La MaMa throughout the 1970s and early 1980s, including: Toy Show ; Ta, Ta, Tatata ; Shekhina: The Bride ; Some Such Things ; Glasshouse ; and Yossele Golem. She also choreographed and performed in An Ecumenical Theatrical Liturgy on the Rights of the Child and performed in Shradanjali at La MaMa.
During this time, she also founded a branch of La MaMa in Tel Aviv, which was active from 1972 to 1974.

Later career (1988-present)

In 1988, Yerushalmi directed a production of Hamlet at the Acco Festival of Alternative Israeli Theatre. Following this production, in 1989, Yerushalmi founded the, for which she continues to serve as artistic director. The theater is dedicated to the performance of classical texts as contemporary theater.
Two of Yerushalmi's major productions with the Itim Theater Ensemble have been the Bible Project Parts I and II and Mythos. The Bible Project consisted of Va-Yomer, Va-Yelech and Va-Yishtahu, Va-Yera.
Yerushalmi currently teaches acting and directing at Tel Aviv University.

Selected works

As director

As choreographer

  • 1979: ''An Ecumenical Theatrical Liturgy on the Rights of the Child''

Awards and recognition