Yehoshua Sobol

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Yehoshua Sobol

Born 1939
Tel Aviv
Occupation Playwright, writer and director

Yehoshua Sobol, also known as Joshua Sobol (יהושע סובול) (Born Tel Aviv, 1939), is an Israeli playwright, writer and director at theatres in Israel and abroad. Yehoshua Sobol is married to Edna, set and costume designer. They have a daughter, Neta, and a son, Yahli.

Contents

[edit] Education and early career

  • 1961 – 1962 Oranim College, Israel, Literature and History
  • 1965 – 1969 The Sorbonne, Paris, A degree in Philosophy
  • 1969 – 1970 Ecole Nationale d’Informatique, Paris, Analyse de Conception

Yehoshua Sobol studied at the Sorbonne, Paris, and graduated with a diploma in philosophy. His first play was performed in 1971 by the Municipal Theatre in Haifa, where Sobol worked from 1984 to 1988 as a playwright and later as assistant artistic director. The performance of his play The Jerusalem syndrome, in January 1988, led to widespread protests across the whole country, whereupon Sobol resigned from his post as artistic director and turned to devoting himself exclusively to writing.

[edit] International Career

Sobol's international career started in 1983, with the Haifa production of his play WEININGER'S NIGHT (The Soul of a Jew) invited to participate in the official part of the Edinburgh Festival.

Between 1983 and 1989 Sobol wrote three related plays: GHETTO, ADAM and UNDERGROUND which constitute together THE GHETTO TRIPTYCH.

GHETTO became world famous shortly after its premiere in Haifa in May 1984. The play won the Israeli David's Harp award for best play. The Israeli opening was followed by Peter Zadek's much acclaimed German premiere of the play in July of the same year. The play and the production were chosen by THEATER HEUTE as best production and best foreign play of the year. The play has been so far translated into more than 20 languages, and has been performed by leading theatres in more than 25 countries throughout the world. Following Nicholas Hytner's production of the English translation by David Lan at the Royal National Theatre of Great Britain in 1989 the play won the Evening Standard and the London Critics award for Best Play of the Year, and was nominated for the Olivier award in the same category.

Since 1995 Sobol cooperated with Viennese director Paulus Manker on a number of projects exploring new forms of the theatrical experience.

In 1995 came the first performance of a work commissioned for the Wiener Festwochen (Vienna Festival), DER VATER (The Father), by Niklas Frank and Yehoshua Sobol, directed by Paulus Manker at the Theater an der Wien, about Niklas Frank‘s father, Hans Frank, who was Hitler’s Governor general in Poland, and was hanged in Nuremberg, in 1946.

In 1996 they have created for the Wiener Festwochen the polydrama Alma based on the life of Alma Mahler-Werfel. It has been playing in Vienna for six successive seasons, and toured to Venice, Lisbon, Los Angeles and Berlin. The scenes of Alma’s life were performed simultaneously on all floors and in all rooms of a former Jugendstil sanatorium near Vienna. The guests were invited to abandon the immobilized position of a spectator in a conventional drama, replace it with the mobile activity of a traveller, and watch a "theatrical journey". They had to choose the events, the path, and the person to follow after each event, thus constructing her or his personal version of the "Polydrama".

In 2000 they created F@LCO - A CYBER SHOW, a multimedia musical about the Austrian pop singer Falco. Staged in the former Varieté theatre Ronacher in Vienna, he audience was offered a choice between a more expensive, passive ticket for the boxes or the balconies where from the spectators can only watch the show from a certain distance, and on the other hand an active, cheaper ticket on the floor, close to the rostrum (in the shape of the internet @) on which the show was performed. This position offered the active spectator the possibility to move around during the show, to dance and to buy drinks during the show at the bars installed under the catwalks.

[edit] Sobol's work

[edit] Playwright

year - play & world premiere

  • 1971 THE DAYS TO COME - Haifa Municipal Theatre
  • 1973 STATUS QUO VADIS - Haifa Municipal Theatre
  • 1974 SYLVESTER 72 - Haifa Municipal Theatre
  • 1975 THE JOKER - Haifa Municipal Theatre
  • 1976 The Night of the Twentieth (Hebrew: ליל העשרים) Haifa Municipal Theatre
  • 1976 NERVES - Haifa Municipal Theatre
  • 1977 TENANTS - Haifa Municipal Theatre
  • 1977 GOG & MAGOG SHOW - Zavta Cultural Club, Tel Aviv
  • 1977 REPENTANCE - Zavta Cultural Club, Tel Aviv
  • 1978 HOMEWARD ANGEL - Habima
  • 1979 WEDDING NIGHT - Habima
  • 1980 THE LAST WORKER - Beit Leissin Theatre, Tel Aviv
  • 1981 WARS OF THE JEWS - Jerusalem Khan Theatre
  • 1982 WEININGER'S NIGHT - Haifa Municipal Theatre
  • 1984 GHETTO (Hebrew: גטו) Haifa Municipal Theatre; FREIE VOLKSBUHNE, Berlin
  • 1984 PASODOBLE - Zavta Cultural Club, Tel Aviv
  • 1985 PALESTINIAN GIRL - Haifa Municipal Theatre
  • 1986 COUNTDOWN - Zavta Cultural Club, Tel Aviv
  • 1987 Jerusalem Syndrome (Hebrew: סינדרום ישרולים) - Haifa Municipal Theatre
  • 1989 ADAM - Habima
  • 1991 UNDERGROUND - YALE REP. NEW HAVEN, USA.
  • 1991 SOLO - DE APPEL - THE HAGUE; Habima
  • 1991 A&B - Dortmund
  • 1991 EYE TO EYE - Mannheim (1994)
  • 1992 RING TWICE - Royal National Theatre, Oslo 1997.
  • 1993 NICE TONI - DUSSELDORFER SCHAUSPIELHAUS, June 1994.
  • 1993 LOVE FOR A PENNY - ISRAELI YIDDISH THEATRE, 1994.
  • 1993 SCHNEIDER AND SHUSTER - BASEL 1994; Gorki Theater, Berlin.
  • 1994 THE MASKED BALL - Haifa Municipal Theatre (2001)
  • 1994 BLOODY NATHAN - Volkstheater Wien, Vienna, 1996.
  • 1995 THE FATHER Wiener Festwochen, 1995.
  • 1995 VILLAGE - Gesher Theatre, Tel Aviv (February 1996)
  • 1996 ALMA - Vienna Festival Week, Vienna (1996)
  • 1996 Honey (Hebrew: דבש) Haifa Municipal Theatre (1997)
  • 1997 MA NI MA MAMA - Zavta Cultural Club, Tel Aviv, Festival of One Act Plays 97.
  • 1997 HOME CINEMA Not yet produced
  • 1998 Strangers (Hebrew: זרים) Habima (1999)
  • 1999 FALCO RONACHER THEATER, Vienna, 1st April 2000
  • 1999 LA TORANA (Not yet produced)
  • 2000 Gebirtig (Hebrew: גבירטיג) based on Mordechai Gebirtig - Yiddishpiel (2000)
  • 2000 17 TOP COMPAGNIETHEATER, Amsterdam 2002
  • 2001 CROCODILES Herzliya Theatre (November 2001)
  • 2002 HOMELESS BEN GURION
  • 2002 iWitness (Hebrew: עד ראייה; lit. "eyewitness") based on the story of Franz Jägerstätter - Cameri Theater (2002)
  • 2002 REAL TIME

[edit] Director

  • GHETTO in Essen and in Bremen, Germany.
  • "GOLDBERG VARIATIONS, by George Tabori, Dortmund, Germany, 1993.
  • ADAM - in Manheim, Germany, 1993.
  • SCHNEIDER AND SHUSTER - Basel Theatre,Switzerland, 1994.
  • NICE TONI - The Khan & The Jerusalem Theatre, September, 1994.
  • GHETTO - Hartke Theatre, Washington D.C., 1995.
  • GENS [A comprehensive version of the Ghetto Triptych] - Weimar 1995.
  • GHETTO - Haifa Municipal Theatre, January 1998.
  • ALMA - Cameri Theatre, Tel Aviv, December 1998.
  • GHETTO - Wesleyan University Theatre, November 2000.
  • THE MERCHANT OF VENICE – Illinois Shakespeare Festival. 2002

[edit] Teaching experience

  • 1972 - 1984 Actors Training School, Seminar Hakibutzim - Lecturer on Aesthetics
  • 1972 - 1984 Beit Zvi Actors Training School - Workshop Director: Writing Drama.
  • 1995 - 2002 Tel Aviv University - Workshop Director: Writing Drama.
  • 1997 - 1998 Ben Gurion University, Beer Sheva - Lectures on Drama; Workshop: Writing Drama.
  • 1996 - 1999 Sam Spiegel Film & TV School, Jerusalem - Script Writing Workshop.
  • 2000 Wesleyan University, Connecticut, USA - Documentary drama
  • 2001 Tel Aviv University, Department of Literature - Lectures on Modern and contemporary Theatre.
  • 2001 - 2002
  • 2003 Bezalel School Of Architecture - Ethics and Art
  • Ben Gurion University Beer Sheva

[edit] Publications

(a partial list)

  • 1999 Alma - A play (Hebrew) - Published by Or - Am, Tel Aviv.
  • 1998 Alma - A play (German) - Published by Paulus Manker, Vienna.
  • 1998 Palestinian Girl (English) - Published by Loki Books, London
  • 1996 Village - A play (Hebrew) - Published by Or - Am, Tel Aviv.
  • 1994 Solo - A play (French & English) - Published by Cierec, Saint Etienne
  • 1991 Solo - A play (Hebrew) - Published by Or - Am, Tel Aviv.
  • 1991 Weininger’s Night - A play - Published by Cahiers Bernard Lazare, Paris
  • 1990 Underground - A play (Hebrew) - Published by Or - Am, Tel Aviv.
  • 1990 Night of the 20th - A play (Hebrew) - Published by Or - Am, Tel Aviv.
  • 1989 Adam - A play (Hebrew) - Published by Or - Am, Tel Aviv.
  • 1989 Ghetto - A play (English) - Published by Nick Hern Books, London.
  • 1988 Weiningers Nacht A play (German) - Published by Paulus Manker, Vienna.
  • 1987 The Jerusalem Syndrome - A play (Hebrew) - Published by Or - Am, Tel Aviv.
  • 1985 The Palestinian Girl - A play (Hebrew) - Published by Or - Am, Tel Aviv.
  • 1984 Ghetto - A play (Hebrew) - Published by Or - Am, Tel Aviv.
  • 1982 Soul of a Jew - A play (Hebrew) - Published by Or - Am, Tel Aviv.
  • 1976 Night of the Twentieth - A play, (Hebrew) – Published by Proza, Tel Aviv.
  • 2000 Silence– A Novel –published by The New Library, Tel Aviv
  • 2001 Schweigen (Silence) – Published by Luchterhand Verlag, Munich.
  • 2002 The Masked Ball - A play (Hebrew) - Published by Or - Am, Tel Aviv.
  • 2002 Swijgen (Silence) – Published by Byblos, Amsterdam.

[edit] Offices in the private section

  • 1984 - 1988 - Artistic Director, Haifa Municipal Theatre, Israel.

[edit] Awards

  • 1976 - NIGHT OF THE TWENTIETH - David’s Harp Award - Best Play of the Year.
  • 1976 - NIGHT OF THE TWENTIETH - David Pinski Award
  • 1979 HOMEWARDS ANGEL - David’s Harp Award - Israel’s Best Play of the Year.
  • 1980 THE LAST WORKER - David’s Harp Award - Israel’s Best Play of the year.
  • 1982 WEININGER’S NIGHT - David’s Harp Award - Israel’s Best Play of the Year.
  • 1983 WEININGER’S NIGHT - Meskin Award for Best Play of the Year.
  • 1984 GHETTO - David’s Harp Award - Israel’s Best Play of the Year.
  • 1985 GHETTO - Theater Heute German Critics’ Choice - Best Foreign Play
  • 1986 THE PALESTINIAN GIRL - Issam Sirtawi Award.
  • 1989 GHETTO - The Evening Standard award for Best Play of the Year. London.
  • 1989 GHETTO - Critics' Circle Theatre Awards - Best New Play.
  • 1990 GHETTO - Laurence Olivier Awards - Award Nomination - Best Play.
  • 1995 GHETTO - Mainichi Art Prize - Best play of the year - Tokyo, Japan.
  • 1996 GHETTO - Yumiuri Shimbun Grand Prize best play of the year, Tokyo, Japan
  • 1996 GHETTO - Yoshiko Yuasa Prize - Best play of the year. Tokyo, Japan.
  • 2001 SILENCE - Sapir Award Nomination - Best Novel of the Year.

[edit] External links

Languages