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Born in 1982, Ruthie is a theatre creator, director, playwright and performer. She is based in London. A graduate (with distinction) of the School of Dramatic Arts of the Kibbutzim College in Tel Aviv and of The Royal Central School of Speech & Drama in London. She performed in Israel, Poland, London and India and won a variety of awards for her works. Ruthie participated as an Israeli representative in the Lincoln Center Directors Lab NYC in 2013 and 2014. In 2015 the Arts council England defined her as a “promising artist” and she received an “exceptional talented visa” for the UK.

QUALIFICATIONS

 2012-2013        Royal Central School of Speech & Drama, London

                           MA Performance Practices & Research (with distinction)

 2005-2008      The school of Dramatic Arts, Kibbutzim college, Tel-Aviv

                          Bachelor of Education (B.Ed) in Directing and Teaching Drama

WRITING AND DIRECTING EXPERIENCE

2019     Babylon Beyond Borders    live streamed performance happening simultaneously in four countries 

Bush Theatre, London|Harlem Stage, New York|Market Theatre Lab, Johannesburg|Pequeno Ato, São Paulo

2017- 2019     Up Next – Artistic Director

                                Bush Theatre, London

 2015      The Princess Doesn’t Eat Cheeseburgers

                The International Fringe Theatre Festival, Acre | Suzan Dellal Centre, Tel-Aviv

2013       I am. I am. I am

                Brink Festival, London

2012       Szpera ’42   Israeli – Polish Co-Production 

                Chorea Theatre, Lodz, Poland

                Delivery To God  Won Dov Goldfong Writing Award

                Women Festival | The Arab-Hebrew Theatre, Jaffa, Israel

                BRM 17^th International Theatre Festival, India

                Grace  Nominated for best play, Fringe Theatre Awards

                Notzar Theatre, Israel

2010       Cheruta (Freedom)

                School of Dramatic Arts, Kibbutzim College, Tel-Aviv

2008       22 Pictures  Won best play prize, the International Fringe Theatre Festival

                The International Fringe Theatre Festival in Acre | Tmuna Theatre, Tel-Aviv, Israel

2007       The Dybbuk  by  S.Ansky

                School of Dramatic Arts, Kibbutzim College, Tel-Aviv

2006       War Collage – Based on Antigone  by Sophocles and Iphigenia in Aulis by Euripides 

                School of Dramatic Arts, Kibbutzim College, Tel-Aviv

 TEACHING EXPERIENCE

 2016- Present      Guest lecturer and tutor, Royal Central School of Speech & Drama, London

 2009- Present      Workshop conductor and lecturer in various countries, including the USA, Germany,      

Poland, London, Israel and India

2009-2012        Acting teacher (BA level), The School of Dramatic Arts – Kibbutzim College, Tel-Aviv

2007-2012        Programme -writer, The Didactic Team, Ramat-Efal, Israel

2010-2011        Drama teacher, Hayovel -Arts High School, Herzelia, Israel

2007-2009        Drama teacher, Muses -Arts High School, Jaffa, Israel

THEATRE FOR THE COMMUNITY

2018       Directing a drama project with mothers at Shepherds’ Bush Family Project & The Bush Theatre, London

2016       Directing a drama project at the refugees’ camp in Calais, France

2012       Directing the film “For Strict Conservation” with Holocaust survivors, Tel-Aviv

2007       Directing a theatre project in the Psychiatric Hospital Abarbanel, Bat-Yam

2003       Working with holocaust survivors in a Psychiatric Hospital, Be’er Ya’akov.

WORKSHOPS & COURSES

2015       Screen acting course, Actors Studio, London

 2013-2014      Member of the Lincoln Center Theater Directors Lab, NYC

2010       Master class with Krzysztof Warlikowski  (Poland) Stage-Centre, Jerusalem

2009       Sacred Dances of Gurdjieff,  Nisarga Ashram, India

2006       Acting With Passion , Nicki Flex (UK), Stage-Centre, Tel-Aviv

2004       Acting diploma, SELA, The Performing Arts Studio, Tel-Aviv

LANGUAGES

                English- Fluent | Hebrew – Native | Yiddish- Intermediate

“Notzar” theatre, Bat-Yam, 2010

Writing and directing by Ruthie Osterman.

The play tells the story of an encounter between a girl and an old woman on the railway tracks on the outskirts of town.

The woman has come to end her life on the tracks and thus gain longed-for peace, and the girl is there looking for the toffees that mark her way home.

For the woman, the railway tracks are a remnant of a childhood memory of abandonment, when her parents threw her from a train window during the war. For the girl, the tracks are where every night she meets a gang of children who abuse her.

The surprising encounter leads to a mutual reflection of the characters until it sometimes seems that they are one and the same. Out of the characters’ need for warmth and love, and their scratching each other’s wound, a brutal world replete with violence and fears, together with a desire for warmth, closeness, and a wish for reformation is revealed to the audience. At the end of the night the two go their separate ways, with each of them making a choice between life and death, and all that remains for them is the force of the human encounter with all that it brings to the surface and enables.

The play was inspired by documentary material dealing with violence and abuse in Israel.

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