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Mr Isaiah Shai Bar Yaacov | The Department of Theatre Studies

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Department Secretary: Orlit Keysar

Office hours: Sunday: 11:30-14:30, Monday-Thursday: 10:00-13:00

Room: 4607

Email: orlitk@savion.huji.ac.il

Tel.: 00-972-2-5883936

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Academic Advisor:

Dr. Olga Levitan

Olga.Levitan@mail.huji.ac.il

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Chair of the Department of Theater Studies

Dr. Diego Rotman

diego.rotman@mail.huji.ac.il

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Mr Isaiah Shai Bar Yaacov

shai bar
Mr
Isaiah
Shai
Bar Yaacov
Room 6307 Office hours: Wednesday 12:15-13:15

 

Shai did his first degree (BFA) at Tel Aviv University in Theatre Arts with a specialization in directing. He took a second degree (MA) at London University (1990) which he received with distinction specializing in the work of avant-garde theatre directors Pina Bausch and Tadeusz Kantor. Since 1992 he teaches at the Hebrew University Theatre Studies Department and he also has taught in the English Department as well as in the Theatre Department at Haifa University and the School for Visual Theatre. His courses range on topics such as theories of directing and acting, masculinity and theatre, Shakespeare and modern re-interpretation of his plays and Israeli drama on the stage (especially Hanoch Levin). Between 1985-1995 Shai worked as an active theatre director in various fringe theatres in Israel and London and participated in the Acre Festival for Alternative Theatre four times. Since 2000 he has been the theatre critic for Yedioth Ahronoth, the largest circulation daily newspaper in Israel, and he also does reviews for Galei Zahal radio station. Shai has published many articles in the daily newspapers in Israel and also performance analyses of individual productions for Sal Tarbut Artzi (the central organization for cultural education in Israel). He has presented papers at academic conferences and published articles on a wide range of topics, such as "Requiem: Hanokh Levin’s Theatre of Death and the Return of the Storyteller”, JTD -Journal of Theatre and Drama, Vol. 7/8, 2001/2 (2006). He has also taken part in organizing several academic conferences at the Hebrew University including a conference on "Multi-culturalism on the Israeli Stage" (2009) and a conference on "Strindberg Beyond Borders" (2012) held in honor of the centennial of the death of the influential Swedish playwright. Shai's research interests are in various fields, such as the relationship between theatrical theory and practice, the Israeli theatre, Shakespeare on the modern stage and representations of masculinity on the modern stage. He has taught many courses in the department, such as "Theories of Directing and Acting", "Introduction to Hebrew and Israeli Theatre", "Criticizing the Critic", "Shakespeare: from Critical Reading to Experimental Staging", "Staging Hanoch Levin".

Personal statement: "Teaching in the Theatre Department gives me a chance to pass on to students the essential connection between theoretical approaches to the theatre and the practical staging possibilities. To my mind only such a combination between the theoretical and the practical can bring about really innovative theatrical work."