Yonatan Esterkin Email & Phone Number

Theater Director, Writer, Speaker, Professor and translator from Tel Aviv, Israel. After years of working as a journalist and theater critic for leading publications in Israel, Esterkin transitioned to directing and teaching both acting technique and theater history at Israel’s top acting schools - Beit Zvi, Nissan Nativ and Yoram Lewinstein. He later continued to a career in directing at the leading repertory public theatres in Israel such as the Haifa Theater (where he also headed the International Relations division and founded the Children Creating Theater program), The Cameri theater of Tel Aviv (Israel’s biggest theater) and the Habima National theatre, as well as The Yiddishpiel theatre, which is a passion project for him, among others. In the last few years his directing career took him to Europe, where he was invited to direct Israeli plays in different public theatres in Slovenia, including the National Theater of Nova Gorica. Two of his awards winning one-man-show directorial works in Slovenia, The Jewish Dog and Child behind the Eyes, were selected to participate in the United Solo Festivals in New York & London. The Child Behinf The Eyes won Best International Show at United Solo Festival in New York. Esterkin is currently based in Los Angeles, where he just finished directing the American production of The Jewish Dog for the Muckenthaler Theater in OC and the comedy “Yaacobi and Leidental” by Israel’s most celebrated playwright, Hanoch Levin, at The Odyssey Theatre. Apart from directing and translating Esterkin gives lecturers and courses about Israeli film and theatre, from social and political perspectives at various institutions including Israel’s Teachers Association, The Media-Tech Center for Innovation and Education in Holon and numerous cultural, higher education and recreational centers across Israel. He has also been invited to give his talk about The Holocaust in the Israeli Theater at the 92nd Y in NY.Esterkin holds a bachelor’s degree in Political science and philosophy from the Open University in Tel Aviv, an MFA in theatre directing and an MA in theatre research, both from The Tel Aviv University. Recipient of the "Sharet" scholarship from the AICF and stipendium for theatre experts in Berlin from the Goethe institute. He represented Israel at Theatre Treffen 2014 and participated in the Hospitanz program of the Gorky Theater in 2015. Esterkin is currently researching the wars of Israel as depicted in Israeli theatre throughout the years, as the theme of his PHD thesis.

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  Tel Aviv University

  Mfa Theatre Ba Political Science And Philosophy