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Itay
Tiran
director

Itay Tiran, studied classical piano in the Petach Tikva Municipal conservatory and later majored in music at Thelma Yellin High School of the Arts. In 1999 he enrolled in the Beit Zvi Acting School, where his exceptional talent was immediately apparent and gained him many scholarships and awards. 

He proceeded to replace his lifelong focus on music with the world of drama. Upon completing his studies he joined the Cameri Theater of Tel Aviv. His acting parts include: Eilif in Mother Courage, Franz Jägerstätter in Eye Witness, Nicolah in Caviar and Lentils, title roles such as Christian in Festen, Mozart in Amadeus, Kittel in Ghetto, Woyzeck, Cyrano de Bergerac, MephistoRichard III and many others. 

In March 2007, Tiran received great reviews from audiences and media in Washington DC for his performance as Hamlet in the the Tel Aviv Cameri Theater production's World Tour. This award-winning rendition was presented as part of the Shakespeare in Washington Festival of the Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts.

 

Also as actor he collaborated in 2009 with world-renowned German conductor Kurt Masur in Mendelssohn's Midsummer Night's Dream. They performed together with the Israel Philharmonic Orchestra in Tel Aviv moving on to Paris to perform with the Orchestre National de France at the St. Denis Festival and at the Musee D'Orsay. In 2009 Tiran joined the Gropius Ensemble formed by young conductor Daniel Cohen combining modern classical music and theatrical elements, performing pieces like Kafka's Kofadam and A Soldier's Tale by Stravinsky.

 

He played leading roles in award winning films, such as Forgiveness (Mechilot), which was presented at the 2006 Berlin Film Festival and Beaufort, which won the 'Silver Bear' Award for Best Director at the 2007 Berlin Film Festival & was nominated for an Oscar in the Best Foreign Language Category 2008. He also had a lead role in Samuel Maoz's movie Lebanon which won The Golden Lion at Venice 2009.

His directing debut was in 2010 with Georg Büchner's Woyzeck in which he also played the title role and earned him a well-deserved critical acclaim as a theater director. 

In the summer of 2013 Tiran directed and adapted the book Kleiner Mann, Was Nun? by Hans Fallada. The play, beautifully directed, earned him huge critical acclaim as Theater Director, the paper Haaretz even called Tiran the Laurence Olivier of Israeli Theater.

In 2015 he directed the open-air production Le nozze di Figaro at Akko Festival (Israeli Opera).

In 2018 for Theater Regensburg invited him to direct the world première Die Banalität der Liebe, opera telling about the relationship between Hannah Arendt and Martin Heidegger, music by Ella Milch-Sheriff and libretto by Savyon Liebrecht and at the Israeli Opera in Tel Aviv in 2019 he directed Salome.

In September 2019 he opened the season of the Burgtheater directing Vögel (All Birds) by Majdi Mouawad and a year later Mein Kampf by George Tabori. For the 2021 season, at Akademietheater, Moskitos by Lucy Kirkwood and in 2022 he directed Eurotrash by Christoph Kracht.

In 2023 he has been invited to direct Shakespeare's Richard III at Gesher Theatre in Tel Aviv.

 

 

Awards and nominations in theater and film as actor:

Most Promising Actor in Israel Theater in 2003

Best Actor in 2005 for his performance as Hamlet in the Israeli Cameri Theaterproduction

Best Supporting Actor for his role as Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart in Amadeus at the 2009 Israel Theater Awards

He was nominated for Best Actor at the Israeli Film Academy Awards for his roles in Forgiveness and The Debt

Best Actor Award at the 2011 Israeli Theater Awards for MC in Cabaret

Best Actor 2012 Israeli Theater Awards for Richard III

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