Motti Lerner, playwright and screenwriter, was born in Israel in 1949. He teaches "Political Playwriting" at Tel Aviv University. He has been a member of the peace movement in Israel since 1973. He frequently lectures at European and American Universities on playwriting, the Israeli theater, and especially on the Israeli theater and the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

Among his plays are: Kastner, Pangs of the Messiah, Paula, and Pollard, all produced by the Cameri Theatre of Tel Aviv; Exile in Jerusalem and Passing The Love of Women, at Habima National Theatre; Autumn at the Beit Lessin Theatre, Tel Aviv; and Hard Love at the Municipal Theatre in Haifa. His play The Murder of Isaac, about the assassination of Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin, was produced at Germany's Heilbron Theatre in 1999 and will have its American premiere in February, 2006 at Centerstage in Baltimore. He has written screenplays for the films: Loves in Betania, The Kastner Trial, Bus Number 300, Egoz, the 12-episode TV drama The Institute, A Battle in Jerusalem, and The Silence of the Sirens. He is a recipient of the 1985 Meskin Award for Best Play, and the 1995 and 2004 Israel Motion Picture Academy Awards for Best TV Drama. In 1994, he won the Prime Minister's [of Israel] Award for his creative work. Besides in his native Israel, his plays have been produced in the United States, the United Kingdom, Germany, Switzerland, Austria, and Australia. His latest play, Dinner with Dad, will open at the Cameri Theatre in Tel Aviv in December, 2005.

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Motti Lerner

Writer