Deidre Rubenstein (born 1948)
is a Jewish-Australian screen and theatre actress, dramatist and playwright, well known for her performance in Australian soap operas and main stage dramatic roles.
Early life
Rubenstein graduated from the
National Institute of Dramatic Art
The National Institute of Dramatic Art (NIDA) is an Australian educational institution for the performing arts based in Sydney, New South Wales. Founded in 1958, it offers bachelor's, master's and vocational degrees in subjects including acting ...
(NIDA) in 1967.
Career
Television and film
Rubenstein has worked in television comedies, drama, mini-series and TV movies.
In 1970 she appeared in an episode of ''
Homicide
Homicide is an act in which a person causes the death of another person. A homicide requires only a Volition (psychology), volitional act, or an omission, that causes the death of another, and thus a homicide may result from Accident, accidenta ...
''. She played a recurring guest role in ''
Prisoner
A prisoner, also known as an inmate or detainee, is a person who is deprived of liberty against their will. This can be by confinement or captivity in a prison or physical restraint. The term usually applies to one serving a Sentence (law), se ...
'' (1979–80), as terrorist
Janet Dominguez.
She had leading roles in 1990 film ''
Breaking Through'' and 1985 miniseries ''
Palace of Dreams'', the latter for which she won an
Australian Film Institute Award for
Best Actress.
In 2004 Rubenstein played the scheming
Svetlanka Ristic for twelve episodes of the soap opera ''
Neighbours
''Neighbours'' is an Australian television soap opera that has aired since 18 March 1985. It was created by television executive Reg Watson. The Seven Network commissioned the show following the success of Watson's earlier soap '' Sons and ...
''.
She has appeared in further guest roles in 1980 miniseries ''
Water Under The Bridge'', medical dramas ''
G.P.'' and ''
MDA'', ''
Mercury'', comedy series ''
Introducing Gary Petty'', ''
The Secret Life of Us'', ''
Kick
A kick is a physical strike using the leg, in unison usually with an area of the knee or lower using the foot, heel, tibia (shin), ball of the foot, blade of the foot, toes or knee (the latter is also known as a knee strike). This type of ...
'' and police dramas ''
Blue Heelers
''Blue Heelers'' is an Australian police drama series that was produced by Southern Star Group and ran for twelve years on the Seven Network, from 1994 to 2006. Although based around the policing of the town, the series generally depicted th ...
'' and ''
City Homicide''.
Rubenstein also has appeared in Australian feature films ''
Siam Sunset'' (1999), ''
Hey Hey It’s Esther Blueberger'' alongside
Keisha Castle-Hughes and
Essie Davis
Esther "Essie" Davis is an Australian actress and singer, best known for her roles as Phryne Fisher in '' Miss Fisher's Murder Mysteries'' and its film adaptation, '' Miss Fisher & the Crypt of Tears'', and as Amelia Vanek in '' The Babadook''. ...
(2008), ''
Salvation
Salvation (from Latin: ''salvatio'', from ''salva'', 'safe, saved') is the state of being saved or protected from harm or a dire situation. In religion and theology, ''salvation'' generally refers to the deliverance of the soul from sin and its c ...
'' with
Wendy Hughes (2008) and ''Force of Destiny'' alongside
David Wenham
David Wenham (born 21 September 1965) is an Australian actor who has appeared in film, television and theatre. He is known for his roles as Faramir in The Lord of the Rings (film series), ''The Lord of the Rings'' film trilogy, Friar Carl in ' ...
(2015).
Theatre
Rubenstein's career in the theatre includes work with several major Australian companies, including the
Nimrod Theatre Company and
Melbourne Theatre Company
The Melbourne Theatre Company is a theatre company based in Melbourne, Victoria, Australia. Founded in 1953 as the Union Theatre Repertory Company at the Union Theatre at the University of Melbourne, it is the oldest professional theatre com ...
.
In 1993, she had a solo show called ''What's a Girl to Do?'',
where she performed poems written by contemporary Australian female poets.
It was later performed by Rubenstein at
The Stables Theatre in Sydney (1994) and at the 1995
Edinburgh Festival
__NOTOC__
This is a list of Arts festival, arts and cultural festivals regularly taking place in Edinburgh, Scotland.
The city has become known for its festivals since the establishment in 1947 of the Edinburgh International Festival and the ...
.
[Rubenstein (1998). p.iv]
This show inspired her to do another solo show using work commissioned for her, work that was written to be performed live. She was awarded a Victorian Government Women Artist's Grant and commission contemporary writers to produce the performance pieces that were later produced in a book called ''Confidentially Yours''. The first performance was in the
Playbox Theatre Centre, C.U.B
Malthouse
A malt house, malt barn, or maltings, is a building where cereal grain is converted into malt by soaking it in water, allowing it to sprout and then drying it to stop further growth. The malt is used in brewing beer, whisky and in certain foo ...
, Melbourne on 11 February 1998. The writers commissioned to produce the work that became ''
Confidentially Yours'' were
Janis Balodis,
Andrew Bovell,
Nick Enright,
Michael Gurr,
Daniel Keene,
Joanna Murray-Smith and
Debra Oswald.
Andrew Bovell wrote a pair of stories for the show that he later used in the script for the film ''
Lantana
''Lantana'' () is a genus of about 150 species of perennial plant, perennial flowering plants in the verbena family, Verbenaceae. They are native to tropics, tropical regions of the Americas and Africa but exist as an introduced species in num ...
''.
In 2005, Rubenstein performed in ''
Menopause the Musical'', a comedy breaking down the taboos about
menopause
Menopause, also known as the climacteric, is the time when Menstruation, menstrual periods permanently stop, marking the end of the Human reproduction, reproductive stage for the female human. It typically occurs between the ages of 45 and 5 ...
.
with
Caroline Gillmer,
Susan-Ann Walker and
Jane Clifton. Rubenstein as 'The Dubbo Housewife', explored the stereotypes and madness of that time in a woman's life.
In 2015, she played
Gertrude Stein
Gertrude Stein (February 3, 1874 – July 27, 1946) was an American novelist, poet, playwright, and art collector. Born in Allegheny, Pennsylvania (now part of Pittsburgh), and raised in Oakland, California, Stein moved to Paris in 1903, and ...
in the musical ''Loving Repeating - a Musical of Gertrude Stein'' in Melbourne.
Audiobooks
Rubenstein has produced a significant body of work as a narrator of audio books and has won several awards in this field.
Filmography
Film
Television
Theatre
As actor
As crew
[https://ausstage.edu.au/pages/contributor/2703]
Awards and nominations
Bibliography
*
References
External links
*
doollee.com – PlaywrightsNimrod Theatre (Retrieved 8 August 2007)
{{DEFAULTSORT:Rubenstein, Deidre
1948 births
Living people
AACTA Award winners
Australian dramatists and playwrights
Australian film actresses
Australian soap opera actresses
Australian stage actresses
Jewish Australian actresses
20th-century Australian actresses
21st-century Australian actresses