Rina Yerushalmi

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.

Later career (1988-present)

In 1988, Yerushalmi directed a production of Hamlet at the Acco Festival of Alternative Israeli Theatre. Following this production, in 1989, Yerushalmi founded the Itim Theater Ensemble, for which she continues to serve as artistic director. The theater is dedicated to the performance of classical texts as contemporary theater.

Two of Yerushalmi's major productions with the Itim Theater Ensemble have been the Bible Project Parts I and II (1995-2000) and Mythos (2001/2002). 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.