Kottler has made an indelible mark on the development of Israeli theater.
By HELEN KAYE
Actor/director and theater visionary Oded Kottler will receive the Meir Margalit Life Achievement Award at the Israel Theater Prize ceremonies on April 4 at the Gesher Theater. Kottler, 71, has made an indelible mark on the development of Israeli theater. He is the founder of the Players Stage (1970), the Acre Festival (1980) and the avant-garde Neveh Zedek Theater Center (1980). He also ran the Haifa Theater twice (in the 1970s and '90s) and led the Israel Festival from 1985-1990. His latest theater venture was the establishment in Jerusalem of the Laboratory ('Hama'abada'), an incubator for cutting edge creativity. He remains a vocal advocate for original Hebrew-language theater and hasn't once stopped either acting or directing over the years, whether for stage, TV or film. Currently he appears in Beit Lessin's long-running production of 'The History Boys'