Joanne Pearce, associate director and choreographer, was born in England. She is an actress, author, playwright, translator, choreographer and director. Her work as an actress at the West End in London includes Hannah in Arcadia, Jean in The Entertainer, Scilla Todd in Serious Money, Elena in Kean, Lindsey in Life After George, Mrs. Allonby in A Woman of No Importance and others. At the royal Shakespeare Company she performed Ophelia in Hamlet, Olivia in Twelfth Night, Imogen in Cymbeline, Leah in The Dybbuk, Doll Tearsheet in Henry IV, Antigone in The Theban Trilogy, White Witch in The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe and others. Film and TV includes The Doll’s House, Way Upstream, Two Gentlemen of Verona, Comedy of Errors, Measure for Measure and others. She wrote the book for a new musical with the celebrated Chinese singer/songwriter Sa Dingding which premiered in Xian, China. In opera she was associate director and choreographer on Otello (Verdi) at the Vienna Staatsoper and I Capuleti ed i Montecchi (Bellini) at La Scala in Milan. This is her first work at the Israeli Opera.