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.
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.
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.
Zohar has published 14 books in Hebrew and 19 in French, 5 in English, one in German and one in French with his deceased wife Martine Zohar: "My life in Israel in the light of the stone pine"[8]
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.
Ouriel Zohar and Barbara HEMAN, Seraphita Seraphitus: L'androgyne, theatrical adaptation based on the novel Seraphita by Honoré de Balzac 2017[26]
Ouriel Zohar, La Clairvoyante (pièce de théâtre), 2016[27]
Ouriel Zohar, L'Initiation du Ciel (pièce de Théâtre), 2016[28]
Ouriel Zohar, Le livre tel que je l'ai reçu de mes amis.., 2016[29]
Ouriel Zohar, The Invisible Garment: How a young man... Editions Amazon.com, 2015,[30] (and also in French 2015)[31] (and also in German 2017)[32]
Martine Zohar et Ouriel Zohar, Ma vie en Israël à la Lumière des pins parasols, aux éditions Persée, France en 2009, et aux éditions Amazon.fr, 2015.[33]
^Ouriel Zohar, "Non-verbal Communication, The Body and Soul Language in Theatre Aesthetics", in Future and Communication, Ed. Prof. J. Rosenhouse, Y. Gitay and D. Porush, International Scholars Publications, pp.75–82, San Francisco-London-Bethesda 1997