Nisim Aloni
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Nisim Aloni (1926 - 1998) was an Israeli playwright and translator.
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[edit] Life and Works
Nisim Aloni was born in 1926 to a poor family in Florentin, a neighborhood in south Tel Aviv. The neighborhood, with its dynamism, and the autonomy of its children, proved a fruitful setting for Aloni's imagination, who would later use it as a backdrop of his Owl stories.
Upon his marticulation from high school, Aloni enlisted with the Notarot, a Jewish militia operating as an auxiliary police alongside the British. He wrote for the weekly Ba'Machane, and fought in the 1948 Arab-Israeli War. Following his military service, he was appointed to the editorial board of the periodical B'Ayin and literary editor of Ashmoret.
He studied History and French at the Hebrew University in Jerusalem.
In 1953, his first play, Cruelest of Kings, was produced at the national Habima Theater, creating a stir amongst theatre goers. The play focuses on the figure of Jeroboam. Aloni carefully worked his own outlook and his stand on various public issues into the plot. Eight years later, in 1961, Habima Theater produced his play "The King's Clothes", which established him as one of the leading playwrights in Israel.
In 1963, Aloni teamed up with Yosi Banai and Avner Hezkyahu to create the "Seasons Theater", for which Aloni wrote and produced the play The American Princess. From that point onward, Aloni produced all his plays. He also began writing comedic skits for the comedy troupe Hagashash Hachiver, and produced some of their programs, such as Cinema Gashash and Cantata for Schawarma.
Many of his plays involve royalty, such as The King's Clothes, The American Princess, The Bride and the Hunter of Butterflies, Edi King. His other plays include The Gypsies of Jaffa, The Revolution and the Chicken, Lukas the Coward, The Raucous Dying, Napoleon Dead or Alive.
Aloni highly esteemed the actress Hanna Rovina, and wrote a play, Aunt Liza, specifically for her to act the lead part.
He has also published a collection of prose, called Notes of a Stray Cat
Aloni became honorary fellow of the The Sam Spiegel Film and Television School, Jerusalem in 1992. He was awarded the Israel Prize for Theatre in 1996.
[edit] Partial Bibliography
[edit] Plays
- Edi King, a play in two acts (Tel Aviv, 1975)
- Akhzar mi-kol ha-melekh (Tel Aviv, 1968)
- Bigde ha-melekh (Tel Aviv, 2004)
- Dodah Lizah (Tel Aviv, 2000)
- Ha-Kalah ṿe-tsayad ha-parparim (Tel Aviv, 1980)
- Nesikhah ha-Ameriḳaʾit (Tel Aviv, 1963) translated as "The American princess" by Richard Flantz (ISBN 965-255-011-6)
- Napolyon, ḥai o met! (Tel Aviv, 1993)
- Ha-Tsoʻanim shel Yafo (Tel Aviv, 2000)
[edit] Fiction
- Reshimot shel ḥatul reḥov (Tel Aviv, 1996)
[edit] Critical Studies
- ʻAl melakhim, śaḥḳanim ṿe-tsoʻanim : meḥḳarim be-yetsirato ha-teʾaṭronit shel Nisim Aloni edited by Nurit Yaʻari.
