Israel Theater Prize ceremony to honor Ya'akov Bodo

Bodo played the title role in Moishe Ventilator, which ran for more than 1,000 performances and was made into a movie.

By HELEN KAYE
Theater Review 88 (photo credit: )
Theater Review 88
(photo credit: )
Veteran Yiddish theater actor Ya'akov 'Yankele' Bodo will receive the 2009 Meir Margalit Lifetime Achievement Prize at this year's Israel Theater Prize ceremony at the Beersheba Performing Arts Center on April 3. Bodo, 78, was born in Romania and came to Israel in 1950. He started his local career in an army entertainment troupe where he served for six years. Back in civilian life, he played the title role in Moishe Ventilator, which ran for more than 1,000 performances and was made into a movie. Since 1992, he has been a member of the YiddiShpiel and stars in most of its plays, including Golden Boys, Dzigan and Schumacher Forever and The Wooden Bowl. With Mazel Tov Yidden, he celebrated 50 years onstage. He also has a one-man show, Only the Soul is Pure, and has appeared in some 14 local movies. Meir Margalit (1906-1974), for whom the prize was named, was one of the comic giants of the Israeli stage and is best remembered for his signature role in The Good Soldier Schweik (1935) and in Ephraim Kishon's The Marriage Contract (Heketuba, 1959). He received the Israel Prize in 1964.