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Prof. Yehuda Moraly | 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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Prof. Yehuda Moraly

 

Yehuda (Jean Bernard) Moraly is a professor emeritus at the Department of Theatre Studies in the Hebrew University of Jerusalem. He studied Literature, Philosophy and Theatre at the Sorbonne University in Paris. At the same time, he studied acting at Jacques Lecoq's school and at the school of Pierre Debauche, Jonathan Merzer and Antoine Vitez. Since 1972, he has taught at the Sorbonne, Rio de Janeiro U., Tel Aviv U, Bar Ilan U., and at the Hebrew University from 1982-2012, where he was the head of the Theatre studies department from the years 1998 - 2000 and 2007 - 2012.

His fields of research are: French theatre and cinema, Jewish theatre, theatrical aspects of cinema, Opera and musical theatre and theories on the creative process. His first book, Jean Genet, la vie écrite, Paris, 1988, a biography of Jean Genet, confronted the common perception of Jean Genet as an uncivilized criminal and revealed that Genet was in fact an highly cultured writer whose urge to create dictated all aspects of his life from childhood. The ensuing publication of more comprehensive biographies of Genet has not erased the impact of this new conception, which has become a point of reference for research on Genet's work.

The work of Paul Claudel, the second subject of Moraly's research, seems to be far removed from the first subject but in fact one can find similarities between the work of the devout and conservative Paul Claudel and Genet the anarchist, enemy of the establishment. In Claudel metteur en scène: la frontière entre les deux mondes, Besançon, 1998 ("Claudel as a Director", Besançon, 1998) Moraly opposes Claudel's accepted image as a paragon of arrière-garde theater. The book reveals unknown aspects of Claudel's work: The ballets he created, his theatrical experiments and his search for a new kind of musical theatre.

Le Maître fou, (Nizet, 2009) ("Jean Genet as a theoretician of Theatre", Nizet, 2009) analyzes Genet's theoretical texts dealing with Theatre and Art. These texts, which the research ignored, offer a key for the comprehension of Genet's dramatic work and are a deep reflection about the powers and the limits of artistic creation.

L'oeuvre impossible: Claudel, Genet, Fellini, Paris, 2013 ("Dream Projects - Claudel, Genet, Fellini") deals with the way in which dream projects, (unfinished works) are a key for better understanding the author’s artistic corpus . This theory is illustrated by the works of Claudel, Genet and the film director Federico Fellini. The book was translated into English and published in 2021 as Dream Projects in Theatre, Novels and Films: The Works of Paul Claudel, Jean Genet, and Federico Fellini (Sussex Academic Press, 2021).

Revolution au Paradis ("Revolution in Paradise" - Elkana Publishing, 2014) is dedicated to veiled representations of Jewish characters in French cinema and theatre under German occupation (Children of Paradise, Volpone, The White Truck and others). The book was translated into English and published in 2020 as Revolution in Paradise: Veiled Representations of Jewish Characters in the Cinema of Occupied France (Sussex Academic Press, 2020). The undermining of generally admitted cultural images remains a consistent feature of his research.

Yehuda Moraly is also a playwright. His plays have been produced and published in France, Israel and other countries: Les Catcheuses ("The Wrestlers", Maison de la Culture in Nanterre, 1973), Sissi en enfer ("Sissi in Hell", Maison de la Culture in Rennes, 1975), Cinderella (Champs Elysees Theatre, 1980), Gimpel Tam (Khan Theatre, 1982) Le Tombeau des poupées ("The Cemetery for Dolls" Palais de Chaillot, 1983), Strip (Avant-scene, 1986), Strangling Me, My Love (Simta Theatre, 1990), The Dispute of Barcelona (Jerusalem, 1992), Voices (broadcast as a radio play on the French Culture Channel, 1992, Aspeclaria Theatre, 2006, 2012). In 2009, the magazine Continuum published a one-woman show called Les merveilles du fond des mers ou un chef d'œuvre à gonfler soi-même. ("The wonders in the depths of the sea or A masterpiece that you can blow up by yourself"). Since 2018, Moraly co-directs with Dr. Roy Horowitz a program of staged readings of Jewish plays from Israel and the world, which takes place at the Mikro Theater in Jerusalem. Five plays have already been performed in this program.

During the Corona period Moraly initiated an online theatre project. He presented online his play Last Words - filmed monologues, before an audience from Israel and abroad. The text of the play was published in French under the name Le Grand Tombeau des Beaux-Arts (Orizons, Paris, 2020).