Shulamit Bat-Dori | |
|---|---|
שולמית בת-דורי | |
 Bat-Dori in 1930 | |
| Born | Shulamit Gutgeld (1904-12-07)7 December 1904 |
| Died | February 1985 (age 80) |
| Burial place | Mishmar HaEmek, Israel |
| Education | B.A., theatre arts,Tel Aviv University |
| Occupation(s) | Kibbutztheatre director and producer, playwright, dance festival director, theatre professor |
| Years active | 1934–1980 |
| Organization | Kibbutz HaArtzi Company |
| Known for | Kibbutz theatre |
| Movement | Hashomer Hatzair |
| Spouse | Reuven Ziv |
| Children | 2 |
| Parent(s) | Joseph and Helene Gutgeld |
| Relatives | Mordechai Bentov (brother) |
Shulamit Bat-Dori (Hebrew:שולמית בת-דורי; 7 December 1904 – February 1985;néeGutgeld)[1] was a Polish-Israeli playwright,kibbutz theatre director and producer, and dance festival director. A member ofHashomer Hatzair and its kibbutz,Mishmar HaEmek, she was involved in the development ofpolitical theatre in Palestine, writing and producing plays that reinforced the ideology of theKibbutz Movement. She was known for her huge, open-air performances that enlisted hundreds of kibbutz members and attracted thousands of viewers. She represented Israel at international conferences and was a professor in the theatre department atTel Aviv University from 1965 to 1974.
Shulamit Gutgeld was born to an assimilated Jewish family inWarsaw. Her father, Joseph Gutgeld, had been raised in a wealthyHaredi home and was married at the age of 16. After having two children, at the age of 21, he gave upOrthodox Judaism, deserted his wife and children, and moved to Warsaw without any means of support. In 1899, he married Helene, an assimilated Jew herself from a financially comfortable family. The couple had two children, Mordechai (born 1900) and Shulamit. Joseph committed suicide in 1922. Helene eventually moved to Israel and died in 1958.[1]
Shulamit was exposed at an early age to classical music, theatre, and dance, and received private tutoring in German and French.[1] After graduating from agymnasium, she entered theUniversity of Warsaw at the age of 16, studying philosophy and psychology.[1]
Her brother, who became known asMordechai Bentov, who studiedlaw at the University of Warsaw, was the leader of the Warsaw branch ofHashomer Hatzair. He encouraged Shulamit to join the organization, and she began producing plays together with younger members. In 1920, Mordechai madealiyah to Mandatory Palestine, and Shulamit followed in 1923. They both became members of KibbutzMishmar HaEmek, a Hashomer Hatzair settlement. Mordechai embarked on a political career, being one of the signatories of thedeclaration of independence in 1948 and aMember of Knesset.[1]
Shulamit initially worked in house painting and drove a tractor inAfula. For the 1 May celebration ofInternational Workers' Day, kibbutz members asked her to stage a play. She wrote the script forBread in three hours. Forty of the eighty members of the kibbutz were involved in the production, which was attended by visiting American novelistWaldo Frank.[1]
Together withYa'akov Hazan, whom she had first met in Warsaw, Shulamit returned to Poland as an emissary for Hashomer Hatzair and worked as a counselor for older girls in the movement's branches.[1]
_-_Kibbutz_Mishmar_Haemek.jpg)
In 1930, she traveled to Europe to study dance underRudolf von Laban and theatre underMax Reinhardt andErwin Piscator. She also learned about "theater for the masses" and political theatre, and became proficient in this genre.[1]
In 1934, she returned to Palestine, now calling herself Shulamit Bat-Dori.[1] She began acting in the Matate Theatre, "a small political cabaret", and then returned to Mishmar HaEmek to found a kibbutz theatre, an unusual concept at the time. While the other members protested that the kibbutz should be focused solely on agriculture, Bat-Dori wished to exploit the artistic form for political purposes. The first production of the Kibbutz HaArtzi Company addressed the problems faced bynew immigrants. Another production,When You, A Simple Man, Set Out on Your Way, aroused such a hostile response from right-wing circles that theBritish Mandate authorities prohibited its performance "on grounds of public safety". Her playThe Trial, based on the1936–39 Arab revolt in Palestine, was also censored by the British; it was staged by theJüdischer Kulturbund in Berlin in May 1938.[1]
Bat-Dori wrote most of her scripts and was a pioneer in "stagecraft and the combination of staging and choreography" which until then were unknown in Palestine.[1] Her vision of kibbutz theatre was to effect "a kind of communal psychoanalysis by concentrating the efforts of an entire community on a real-life, historical topic with a meaning and a message especially suited to a particular time and place".[1] For example, her adaptation ofHoward Fast'sMy Glorious Brothers, staged for the 25th anniversary ofGivat Brenner in 1953, sought to draw a parallel between Israel's recentWar of Independence and the ancientMaccabean Revolt. In this way, it furthered the Kibbutz Movement's ideology of reframing ancient Jewish religious practices and holidays in a modern,secular context, and conveyed the impression of the "social and economic power" of the kibbutz.[2]
As a kibbutz member herself, Bat-Dori could enlist the services of hundreds of kibbutz members from one or more communal settlements for her productions.[1][3] ForMy Glorious Brothers, she assembled a cast and crew of 1,000, including "actors, builders, carpenters, electricians, stage designers, and dressmakers" from Givat Brenner, who collectively invested more than 3,000 work days in the project.[4][5][6] She also took both the action and the audience outdoors, erecting a real village, planting trees, and constructing an outdoor amphitheater on a nearby hillside.[6][5] Other open-air productions saw her "moving hills, uprooting and replanting ancient trees", and using surrounding mountains as a naturalbackdrop.[7] The audiences for these outdoor productions were huge: the Givat Brenner show drew 10,000 viewers, as did Bat-Dori's 1955 outdoor production ofTill Eulenspiegel.[8]
Bat-Dori pursued further theatrical training in the 1960s, including a course withLee Strasberg at theActors Studio in New York in 1960, a course withBertolt Brecht in Berlin in 1961, and a course in technical lighting and sound in France in 1964. She earned a bachelor's degree from the Department of Theatre Arts at theUniversity of Tel Aviv.[9] Despite her professional training, Bat-Dori never worked in professional theatre. Some of her plays, however, were staged at theOhel Theater,Cameri Theater, and The Kibbutz Stage in Israel; others were performed in the United States, Europe, and South Africa.[1] In all, she wrote 13 plays and directed 15.[1]
Bat-Dori also directed two national dance festivals and twofolk dance festivals. She directed the last two national dance festivals staged atKibbutz Dalia, in 1958 and 1968.[10][11] The 1958 production showcased 1,500 dancers, while the 1968 festival brought together 3,000 dancers and 60,000 audience members.[12] For these festivals, Bat-Dori and project directorGurit Kadman encouraged the inclusion of little-known folk dances from theJews of Libya and theJews of the Atlas Mountains.[12][13] Bat-Dori also directed two folk dance festivals that were staged inTel Aviv,Jerusalem, andHaifa in 1961 and 1963 under the nameFrom the Ends of the Earth.[11]
Bat-Dori wrote the screenplay for the Israeli filmDim'at Hanechama Hagedola (Tears of Consolation, 1947).[14]
She was a professor of directing and acting in the theatre department atTel Aviv University from 1965 to 1974.[9] Afterwards, she undertook research on the effects of the "theater of the masses".[1]
In 1980, she published a book of short stories titledKa-zot lo tifraḥ ʻod le-ʻolam (No One Like Her Will Ever Again Blossom).[1][15]
She was a member of the Public Council for Culture and the Arts from 1960 to 1970 and 1974 to 1979, and a member of theMinistry of Foreign Affairs' board of folklore troupes and cultural exchange from 1965 to 1980. She represented Israel at conferences of theInternational Theatre Institute.[9]
In 1939, she married Reuven Ziv; the couple had one son and one daughter. Their son died at age six.[1] Their daughter, Orna Sapir Kam, was the artistic director of the 17th National Youth Theatre FestivalBat Yam in 2011.[16]
Bat-Dori died in February 1985 and was buried at Mishmar HaEmek.[1] Her brother Mordechai had died the month before[17] and was also buried on the kibbutz.[1]
Shulamit Bat-Dori.*Leaman, Oliver, ed. (2003).Companion Encyclopedia of Middle Eastern and North African Film. Routledge.ISBN 1134662521.
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