Rina Yerushalmi

Rina Yerushalmi (; born March 1, 1939) 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 (Angilovich) Yerushalmi, and father, Saul Yerushalmi (originally Yerusalimski), 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. 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 (1970); Ta, Ta, Tatata (1970); Shekhina: The Bride (1971); Some Such Things (1978); Glasshouse (1980); and Yossele Golem (1982). She also choreographed and performed in An Ecumenical Theatrical Liturgy on the Rights of the Child (1979) and performed in Shradanjali (1982) at La MaMa.

During this time, she also founded a branch of La MaMa in Tel Aviv, which was active from 1972 to 1974. The Bible Project consisted of Va-Yomer, Va-Yelech (And He Said, And He Walked) and Va-Yishtahu, Va-Yera (And They Bowed, And He Saw).

Yerushalmi currently teaches acting and directing at Tel Aviv University.

Awards and recognition Margalit Prize, Best Director and Best Production (1990) for Hamlet Ha-Levi Award, Best Director (1992) for Woyzeck 91 Israeli Academy of the Theater, Best Theatrical Creation (1999) for the Bible Project Milo Award (1999) for the Bible Project Michael Landau Prize for the Performing Arts (2005) Israel Prize, Theatre (2008)