Yoram Gal

{{Short description|Israeli playwright and actor (born 1952)}} {{Use dmy dates|date=February 2016}} {{Infobox person | name = Yoram Gal | native_name = יורם גל | native_name_lang = | image = File:Yoram_Gal_2015_(1).JPG | image_size = 250px | alt = | caption = Yoram Gal in 2015 | birth_name = Yoram Gal | birth_date = {{Birth date and age|df=yes|1952|1|7}} | birth_place = Israel | citizenship = Israeli | occupation = Actor, Theater Director, Painter | spouse = Edna Shavit (1978–1994); Nili Dotan (1996-2013); Tzlila Hurvitz (2016-2020); Christine-Adele Moore (partner 2020-) }} '''Yoram Gal''' (Hebrew: יורם גל; born 7 January 1952) is an international Israeli painter, playwright, director, actor and theater, TV and cinema producer.<ref name=":2">{{Cite web |last=STAFF |first=Rushmie Kalke TELEGRAM & GAZETTE |title=Israeli painter faced hard times |url=https://www.telegram.com/story/news/local/east-valley/2006/08/28/israeli-painter-faced-hard-times/53057849007/ |access-date=2025-09-23 |website=The Worcester Telegram & Gazette |language=en-US}}</ref>

==Biography==

=== Early life === Yoram Gal was born in Jerusalem, son of Ephraim Roytenberg (known as Fima), a Jewish painter born in Harbin, China and who emigrated to Israel in 1949, and Naomi Margalit, born in Jerusalem, a teacher and economist.<ref name=":3">{{Cite web |title=Fima (Efraim Roeytenberg) |url=https://museum.imj.org.il/artcenter/newsite/en/?artist=Fima%20(Roytenberg,%20Ephraim)&list=F |access-date=2025-09-23 |website=museum.imj.org.il}}</ref> His parents divorced when Gal was one year old. When he was six, his mother married Yossef Gal, an economist, and the three moved to the center of Jerusalem. Three years later, his sister Aya, later a psychologist, was born, and when he was 11 the family moved to London, UK, where his stepfather represented the state of Israel as the economic attache's in the embassy. Gal began painting at age 12 when he underwent psychotherapy at the Anna Freud Clinic in London.<ref name=":0">{{Cite web |title=Yoram Gal |url=https://gaiaonmain.com/collections/yoram-gal |access-date=2025-09-23 |website=GAIA on Main Gallery |language=en}}</ref>

=== Early career (1970s) === Gal emerged in the Israeli theater scene in the late 1970s. His first stage play, ''Everyman'' (''כלאדם''), premiered in 1978 at Tel Aviv University’s theater under the direction of Edna Shavit.<ref name=":1" /> That same year, he designed sets and costumes for Hanoch Levin’s ''Rubber Merchants'' (''סוחרי הגומי'') at the Cameri Theatre (Tzavta, June 1978).<ref name=":4">{{Cite web |title=Rubber Merchants (1978) Cameri Theatre program |url=https://searchworks.stanford.edu/view/sc269pd3586 |access-date=2025-11-27 |website=searchworks.stanford.edu}}</ref> Around this time, he began appearing in Israeli television dramas, including ''Kamikaza'' (Israeli Educational Television, 1977) and ''Under a Black Cloud’s Shadow'' (''בצל ענן שחור'', Channel 1, 1980).<ref>{{Cite web |title=Yoram Gal – Festival In the Park |url=https://festivalinthepark.org/yoram-gal/ |access-date=2025-11-27 |website=festivalinthepark.org}}</ref>

=== Theater (1980s–1990s) === Throughout the 1980s, Gal became a leading figure in Israel’s alternative and fringe theater movement.<ref name=":2" /> His absurdist comedy ''Billy-Bull the Great'' (''בילי בול הגדול'') was staged at the 1983 Acco Festival of Alternative Theater, followed by ''The Rooster'' (''התרנגול'', 1989) and ''Jacobo, Ish Goldonia'' (''יעקובו, איש גולדוניה'', 1989). His productions, noted for their visual inventiveness, often featured him as playwright, director, and actor.<ref name=":1" />

During this period, he also appeared in Israeli and international screen productions, including ''Remembrance of Love'' (NBC, 1982, starring Kirk Douglas), ''A Dinner of Herbs'' (BBC, 1988), and ''Friends of Yael'' (Channel 1, 1990).<ref name=":4" />

In the early 1990s, Gal’s traveling theater company staged children’s plays such as ''Where Did the Laughter Go?'' (1988) and ''Anatoly’s Hope'' (1990). He performed his one-man adaptation of Dostoevsky’s ''A Gentle Spirit'' at the 1993 Teatronetto Monodrama Festival and played Harpagon in Molière’s ''The Miser'' (1994–2003), directed by Edna Shavit.<ref name=":5" /> In 2001, Gal and Nili Dotan received the Prime Minister’s Prize for Hebrew Drama (Ben-Gurion Memorial Award) for their play ''The Old Man and I''.<ref name=":6">{{Cite web |date=2021-09-01 |title=Israeli Artist Yoram Gal Comes to Arts, Beats & Eats |url=https://www.thejewishnews.com/culture/arts/israeli-artist-yoram-gal-comes-to-arts-beats-eats/article_19ea6309-49f3-53cb-8998-1339d6dddc7d.html |access-date=2025-11-27 |website=thejewishnews.com |language=en}}</ref>

In 2024 Gal published his novel ''I IMAGINE''.<ref name=":1" />

=== Film career === Gal wrote, directed, and starred in the feature film ''Wild'' (Pra, 1999), produced by Nili Dotan.<ref name=":2" /> The film, an allegorical satire on Israeli life, received widespread critical praise in Israeli media. Irit Shammer of ''Ma’ariv'' (12 October 1999) described it as “like a fresh breath of rain, somewhat wet,” while Uri Klein of ''Haaretz'' (19 October 1999) called it “the Israeli ''Candide''.”<ref name=":3" /><ref>1st prize for best film at AFF, Alternative Film Festival, Picciano, Italy Oct 2001 by Medusa films + Giuseppe Tornatore</ref>

=== Visual art (2000s–Present) === In painting, Gal found catharsis for his soul's storms, and at age 15 he passed the A' Level exams in Art, which enabled him to enter art college.<ref name=":0" /> According to Gal, his teacher advised against it, and told him simply to paint and observe and study works of masters like Van Gogh and Botticelli by himself. He graduated from JFS, the Jewish high school, at age 17, and returned to Israel, where he joined the IDF, ending his three-year service as a lieutenant. In Jerusalem, he exhibited his first one-man show in Beit Mori.<ref name=":1">{{Cite web |title=A Wondrous Conversation with Yoram Gal |url=https://www.arterealizzata.com/interviews/4xgdmegpnyeie9fr65gbzk0ripruiy |access-date=2025-09-23 |website=Arte Realizzata |language=en-US}}</ref> The leading Israeli newspaper Yediot Ahronot published a favorable critique of the show, written by the renowned critic Miriam Tal.<ref>In the Yedioth Ahronoth newspaper, dated 17 August 1973 it says: "…A illustrative drawing talent… sophisticated humor and a slight tendency to surrealism."</ref>

From 1973-1977 Gal studied Theater and Cinema at Tel Aviv University (Hons. BFA).<ref name=":1" />

From 2002 onward, Gal built a global reputation as a painter.<ref name=":2" /> He exhibited in major U.S. juried art festivals, including the Sausalito Art Festival (California, 2003–2011), Art on the Square (Illinois), and the Cottonwood Art Festival (Texas), winning numerous awards.<ref name=":3" />

Internationally, Gal represented Israel at the 2005 Florence Biennale and participated in the Beijing International Art Expo (2011). The Fu Zhou Museum in Nanjing, China, acquired a dozen of his works in 2011, and the I.P. Stanback Museum (South Carolina State University) added his painting ''Jesus the Juicy Jew in Jerusalem'' to its permanent collection in 2012.<ref name=":6" />

In 2015, Gal opened the Yoram Gal Studio in Old Jaffa, where he continues to paint and exhibit. His colorful, expressive works draw from Israeli and Mediterranean landscapes and have been showcased at dozens of art fairs worldwide.<ref>{{Cite book|url=https://www.amazon.ca/The-Secret-of-America-ebook/dp/B002T44IH6|title=The Secret of America|date=29 May 2009|publisher=Yoram Gal}}</ref><ref>"Like a fresh breath of rain, somewhat wet"...irit Shammer, Maariv (newspaper) 12 October 1999, "Wild’ is the Israeli Candid" - Uri Klein, Haaretz newspaper 19 Oct. 1999, "Wild’- something which become cult".. Gigi Orsher Galatz, 20 October 1999, "The local audience gapes open jawed"... Or Korel - Maaviv Newspaper 31 October 1999.</ref>

=== Personal life === In 1978 Gal married his ex theater professor Edna Shavit, and was her two year old son's stepfather. They divorced in 1994. In 1996 he married Nili Dotan, playwright and screenwriter, and in 2000 their son Nimrod was born. They divorced in 2013. In 2016 he married Tzlila Hurvitz, their marriage lasted 4 years.<ref name=":5">{{Cite web |title=Yoram Gal – Festival In the Park |url=https://festivalinthepark.org/yoram-gal/ |access-date=2025-09-23 |website=festivalinthepark.org}}</ref>

==Filmography== ===Theater=== * ''Everyman'', director Edna Shavit, 1978. * ''Hanoch and Sophocles''', director Yoram Gal, 1980. * ''Billy-Bull The Great'', director Edna Shavit, 1983. * ''Outs'', director Yoram Gal, 1984 * ''Isaac the Crybaby and his revenge on the Homeland'', director Aviel Hadari,1985 * ''The Careerist'', director Dorit Yerushalmi, 1987 * ''Bergman'', {{ill|Michael Almaz|he|מיכאל אלמז|lt=Michael Almaz's}} Theater in London, director Yigal Azrati, 1988, in English. * ''The Rooster'', director Edna Shavit, 1989. * ''Jacobo Hero of Goldonia'', director Edna Shavit, 1989.

Gal has written many plays which have not yet been produced, among them ''Psyche'' (1983), ''Spiritolini'' (1989), ''Professor Bergman'' (1982), ''Gabriella'' (1993), ''Hanita sets out on Life'' (1994), ''El Rais Is Coming'' (1994), ''The Egotist'' (1994), ''The Individualist and The Devil'' (1993), ''The Buick and The Caravan'' (1992) and ''Shira from T'' (1990).

====Theater acting==== * ''The Family'' (1976) * ''Everyman'' (1978) * ''Billy-Bull The Great'' (1983) * ''Outs'' (1984) * ''Yehezkel Fireman's Tales'' (1986) * ''Eliezer Ben-Yehuda'' (1982) * ''Herzl - King of the Jews'' (1987) * ''The Miser'' (1994–2003) * ''The Rooster'' (1990) * ''A gentle Spirit'' (1993)

====Plays for children and youth==== * ''Yaki Anaki'', director Agnes Poldash, 1980. * ''The Old Man Walks'', director Edna Shavit, 1986. * ''King of The Jews'', director Edna Shavit, 1988. * ''Where did the Laughter go'', co-directed by Gal/Sover, 1988. * ''Anatoly’s Hope'', co directed by Gal/Sover, 1990. * ''Drugs Lie'', director Arieh Sover, 1990. * ''David’s Violin'', co-directed by Gal/Sover, 1992. * ''Maranos, Shema Israel'', director Yaki Mecherez, 1992. * ''Rutty Heroine of Jerusalem'', director Yoram Gal, 1993. * ''Deddy and Lisa Salamat'', director Yoram Gal, 1994. * ''Let There Be Light'', director Yoram Gal, 1995. * ''Safely'', director Yoram Gal, 1995. * ''Don Quixote'', director Ednan Tarabshe, 1994. * ''The Old Man and I''', 2001. * ''Yotam The Wild One'', director Yoram Gal, 2003.

====Visual design (stage)==== * ''Rubber Merchants'' by Hanoch Levin (1978)

===Cinema and TV=== Wrote and directed the feature film "WILD",

====Directing==== * ''Hanoch and Sophocles'' (1980) * ''Outs'' (1984) * ''The House is going to be empty again'' (1996) * ''The Old Man and I'' (2001) * ''The Game'' (2001)

====TV and film acting==== * ''Under a black cloud's shadow'' (1980) * ''Remembrance of Love'' (1982) * ''A Dinner of Herbs'' (1988) * ''Friends of Yael'' (1990) * ''Kamikaza'' (1977) * ''Black day in Sde Avraham'' (1984) * ''Shmita Year'' (1986) * ''The mirrors Scale'' (1991) * ''The Revolutionary - Life of Jesus'' (1995–96) * ''The Tale of the man who was silent'' (1998) * ''Yes or No''' (2000)

==Notes and references== {{Reflist}}

==External links== * [http://www.yoramgal.co.il/Video.aspx Interviews on American TV Channels] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130927194200/http://yoramgal.co.il/Video.aspx |date=27 September 2013 }}

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{{DEFAULTSORT:Gal, Yoram}} Category:Israeli male stage actors Category:Israeli theatre directors Category:Israeli painters Category:Living people Category:1952 births Category:Tel Aviv University alumni