Ouriel Zohar (born 1952), is an Israeli and French theater director, playwright, poet and translator from French to Hebrew. Professor at the Department of Humanities & Arts at the Technion University, created the Technion theater in 1986. Has been full professor at the University of Paris VIII since 1997 and at HEC Paris since 1995.
Zohar started directing in Paris in 1978. He completed a doctorate on the theme of the collective and Universal (metaphysics) Kibbutz Theatre, presented it at the University of Paris VIII, [1] where he was assistant professor from 1980 to 1985. He has published 150 articles [2] in the field of theater and academic journals in English, French, Slovene language, German language and Hebrew. His university writings are also about Peter Brook, Constantin Stanislavski, Jerzy Grotowski, Augusto Boal, Martin Buber, Aaron David Gordon and Omraam Mikhaël Aïvanhov who profoundly influenced theater.
Until 2017 he has directed 75 plays in Israel, Europe, Canada, Africa and Asia. He has written and directed on stage his 46 original plays in Hebrew, and also plays by Hanoch Levin, Joshua Sobol, S. Ansky etc. He has directed modern plays written by Peter Brook, Birago Diop, Farid al-Din Attar, Jean-Claude Carrière, Sławomir Mrożek, Steven Soderbergh, John Hughes (filmmaker) etc. He has directed classic plays by Molière, Shakespeare, Marivaux, Henrik Ibsen and George Bernard Shaw etc.
His Technion theater takes part in festivals in Europe, Canada and Israel. He teaches stage aesthetics, playwriting and actor performance in Paris, Israel, Minsk and India. He was a dramaturg at the Habima Theatre in 1989–1990 and the Haifa Municipal Theatre in 1995–1997. He has conducted Judeo-Arab collaborative projects by means of art and is among the founders of the Al-Midan Theater in Haifa in 1994. Between 1993 and 1999 he was vice-president of the International Association of University Theatre (IUTA), based in the University of Liège, Belgium, and honorary member [3] in 2005; From 1995 he is a visiting professor at HEC, and from 1997 Full Professor at the University of Paris VIII. In 1993, he directed Season of Migration to the North the novel by Sudanese writer Tayeb Salih, with the participation of Mohammed Bakri, a Palestinian-Israeli actor who has received the award for best actor at the Acco Festival of Alternative Israeli Theatre in Acre. With his actor, Bakri, he directed the "Bakri Monologue" in French, Arabic and Hebrew and appeared with Bakri on stage in Paris, at the Boris Vian Hall Theatre of Paris-Villette, on the national stage of Cergy-Pontoise, Lille, at the Peace Festival in Brussels and in other countries. From 2002 he played the leading role of Prospero in The Tempest in the theater of Béatrice Brout, [4] and the Earl of Northumberland in Richard II , by Shakespeare, and interpreted texts of Victor Hugo and other writers in France.
In 2006 he founded his own theatre company, 'Compagnie Ouriel Zohar' [5] in Paris, with An Enemy of the People by Henrik Ibsen, first performed in Paris, then in Frejus and Besançon, in Liege, Belgium, in Minsk, Belarus, in Valleyfield Canada and Porto Heli, Greece. In 2010 he directed "Seraphita", his adaptation of an 1834 novel by Honoré de Balzac, performed in Paris at the "Theatre de l'Ile Saint-Louis", [6] Brussels, Greece, Republic of Congo, in 2012 performed at the Maison de Balzac in Paris, and also in Switzerland, Israel, Istanbul [7] and "Theatre Darius Milhaud" in Paris. In 2012 his theater went to Saint Petersburg with his play "Invisible Garment". In 2014 his theater went to India with his 2 shows: "Message to Materialistes" and "Seraphita".
His directing in Hebrew of Henrik Ibsen's "An Enemy of the People" was accorded the best actor award at the Festival of Benevento, Italy in 2009. From 2007, after being appointed international judge of international competitions in Europe University Theatre, Paris, Minsk, Moscow, etc., he presented master classes for staging and acting in festivals in Europe. In 2014, in India he gave his workshops "Medical Theater" for everybody, specially in Auroville.
Among his most famous students, Scandar Copti, director and screenwriter of Ajami won 5 Ophir Awards 2009, including the best film award in Israel and was nominated for an Oscar of the Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film in Los Angeles in 2009.
Zohar has published 11 books in Hebrew and 14 in French, 5 in English, one in German and one in French with his wife Martine Zohar: "My life in Israel in the light of the stone pine" [8]
In 2013 was elected as parliament member of The Israeli Palestinian Confederation (IPC) [9]
In 2015 he directed his play "L'Initiation du Ciel" in French, in Switzerland, Brussels, Paris, Aix en Provence and Frejus.
In 2017 he directed his play "Das Unsichtbare Kleidungsstück" (The Invisible Garment) to the German community in Frejus.
In 2018, lecturer at the Moscow State University on the subject: "Robotics, Disadvantages and Benefits". In 2019, lecturer at the University of Texas at Austin on the subject: "Eastern Humor as the Basis of Human Wisdom."
In 2019 he directed his play "Our Father Who" in English, to the English community in the city of Fréjus.
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The Technion – Israel Institute of Technology is a public research university located in Haifa, Israel. Established in 1912 under the dominion of the Ottoman Empire, the Technion is the oldest university in the country. The Technion is ranked as the top university in both Israel and the Middle East, and in the top 100 universities in the world in the Academic Ranking of World Universities of 2019.
Michael Bar-Zohar is an Israeli historian, novelist and politician. He was a member of the Knesset on behalf of the Alignment and Labor Party in the 1980s and early 1990s.
Season of Migration to the North is a classic postcolonial Arabic novel by the Sudanese novelist Tayeb Salih, published in 1966; it is the novel for which he is best known. It was first published in the Beirut journal Hiwâr. The main concern of the novel is with the impact of British colonialism and European modernity on rural African societies in general and Sudanese culture and identity in particular. His novel reflects the conflicts of modern Sudan and depicts the brutal history of European colonialism as shaping the reality of contemporary Sudanese society. Damascus-based Arab Literary Academy named it one of the best novels in Arabic of the twentieth century. Mawsim al-Hijrah ilâ al-Shamâl is considered to be an important turning point in the development of postcolonial narratives that focus on the encounter between East and West.
Amos Gitai is an Israeli filmmaker, who was trained as an architect.
Uri Zohar was an Israeli film director, actor and comedian who left the entertainment world to become an Orthodox rabbi.
Zohar Zisapel, is an Israeli entrepreneur. He co-founded the RAD Group of companies with his brother, Yehuda.
Mike Brant was an Israeli singer and songwriter who achieved fame after moving to France. His most successful hit was "Laisse-moi t'aimer". Brant died by suicide at the height of his career by jumping from a window of an apartment in Paris. He was known for his vocal range going from baritone to high tenor and also a very high and powerful falsetto.
Mohammad Bakri is a Palestinian actor and film director.
Louis Lambert is an 1832 novel by French novelist and playwright Honoré de Balzac (1799–1850), included in the Études philosophiques section of his novel sequence La Comédie humaine. Set mostly in a school at Vendôme, it examines the life and theories of a boy genius fascinated by the Swedish philosopher Emanuel Swedenborg (1688–1772).
The Maison de Balzac is a writer's house museum in the former residence of French novelist Honoré de Balzac (1799–1850). It is located in the 16th arrondissement at 47, rue Raynouard, Paris, France, and open daily except Mondays and holidays; admission to the house is free, but a fee is charged for its temporary exhibitions. The nearest métro and RER stations are Passy and Avenue du Président Kennedy.
Raymond Depardon is a French photographer, photojournalist and documentary filmmaker.
Séraphîta is a French novel by Honoré de Balzac with themes of androgyny. It was published in the Revue de Paris in 1834. In contrast with the realism of most of the author's best known works, the story delves into the fantastic and the supernatural to illustrate philosophical themes.
Les Proscrits is a French short story by Honoré de Balzac, published in 1831 by éditions Gosselin, then in 1846 by Furne, Dubochet, Hetzel in Études philosophiques. He subtitled it an esquisse historique. It forms part of the Livre Mystique, as do Louis Lambert and Séraphîta, and shares several of the themes of Louis Lambert - doctor Sigier's theory that intelligence knows several avatars, from animal intelligence to angels' intelligence, and the idea that angels live among men, which often recurs in Balzacs' descriptions of women.
Désiré Guillaume Édouard Monnais was a French journalist, theater director, playwright and librettist.
Alena (Alona) Yiv is an Israeli actress and director.
Scandar Copti is an Israeli filmmaker, film writer, actor and producer who brings social problem of the Arab society in Israel through video works.
André Diot is a cinematographer and lighting designer of French theatre and film, who played an important role in the emergence of the profession in France. In a long career, he designed the lighting for the 1976 Bayreuth Jahrhundertring, staged by Patrice Chéreau, the opening and closing ceremony of the 1992 Winter Olympics in Albertville, and in 2013 Così fan tutte at the Paris Opera.
Pascal Rambert is a French writer, choreographer, and director for the stage and screen. He was born in 1962.
Genia Berger (1907–2000) was an Israeli artist, born in the Russian Empire.
The Edmond de Rothschild Foundations is an international philanthropic organization launched in 2005 to regroup a number of historic legacies instituted by heirs of the Rothschild banking dynasty, particularly its Paris and Naples branches, as well as some of the family's contemporary philanthropic initiatives. Named in honor of the philanthropist Edmond James de Rothschild (1845–1934) and led today by his direct descendants, the network operates in the areas of the arts, health, entrepreneurship, and the sharing of best practices in philanthropy.
