Theatre
Hebrew theatre, unlike literature, did not exist in ancient Hebrew culture, nor did it grow out of the Yiddish theatre so popular in Eastern European Jewish communities up to World War II. It began with the founding in 1917 of a Hebrew theatre, Habimah (The Stage) in Moscow, under the guidance of Russian director Constantin Stanislavsky and with the acting talent of Hanna Rovina (1892-1980), who later became the ‘First Lady of Hebrew Theatre.’ In 1931, the company set up its permanent home in Tel Aviv. In the multicultural Israeli reality today, the Israeli theatre is multilingual, presenting theatre in Hebrew as well as in Arabic, Yiddish, English and Russian. Theatre in Israel is composed of many different elements – contemporary and classical, indigenous and imported, experimental and traditional – with playwrights, actors, directors, and producers of many backgrounds merging the foreign with the local and thereby gradually creating a distinctive Israeli theatre. The theatre scene is very active, with many professional repertory companies and other theatres and dozens of regional and amateur companies performing throughout the country to large and devoted audiences. In recent years, a number of Israeli companies have toured Eastern and Western Europe and the United States, and have participated in international festivals, including the Edinburgh and Berlin Festivals, and appeared in major theatre events in Europe, the United States, and elsewhere.
HaBima – National Theatre of Israel
Every night, when the curtain goes up in the HaBima National Theatre, a dream which began in Moscow in 1913 and came to fruition in Tel Aviv, is reborn as it captivates its audiences time and again. According to the traditions of founders Hannah Rubina, and Aaron Baskin, the HaBima is still devoted to promoting unique theatre – to create and foster a new generation of leading actors and theatre professionals. The HaBima Theatre aspires to reflect the Israeli cultural “mood” since its foundation and to commits to the promotion and perpetuation of the Hebrew language and its culture. The theatre fulfilled the importance of memorializing the State of Israel by committing the design of its identity to posterity, via plays, special events and theatre seminars with the young people and more peripheral communities.
The Cameri Theatre of Tel Aviv
The Cameri, Tel Aviv’s Municipal Theatre was founded in 1944 and is considered as one of the Israel’s biggest theatre. Each year The Cameri stages up to ten new productions, together with twenty productions from previous years that are performed in front of audiences in Tel Aviv, throughout Israel and all over the world. In 2003 The Cameri moved into its new and sophisticated home in the Tel Aviv Performing Arts Center complex, adjacent to the New Israeli Opera, the Municipal Library and the Tel Aviv Museum. The New Cameri Theatre’s five auditoriums constitute a modern, vibrant and active theatrical center. In 2005, The Cameri Theatre was awarded the Israel Prize for Lifetime Achievement and Special Contribution to Society and the State of Israel. The Cameri Theatre is engaged in fostering and developing original Israeli drama and strengthening ties with the finest culture and modern drama in the world.
Khan Theatre
The Khan Theatre is the only producing repertoire-theatre in Jerusalem today and is considered to be one of the leading theatres in the country. The theatre produces 3-4 new shows annually. The repertoire is selected by artistic director Michael Gurevitch, who also writes and directs some of the theatre’s shows. Michael Gurevitch’s works set the Khan Theatre apart because of the special creative process: rehearsals begin without a play, without knowing what the day will bring. All along the way the director and the actors form the story they are working on. They use different exercises, improvisations, brain storming and theatre games. At a certain stage the Set, Costume and Lighting designers and the musician come in to do their job. This is the Khan Theatre’s way of creating a performance as lively as possible, born of the unique encounter between these certain actors and this certain playwright and director at a given time. It is lengthy rehearsal process in which the play and the show are transformed many times. The unique building, the magical garden and the atmosphere of the place dictate an intimate and direct relationship with the audience.
Visit the Khan Theatre’s website
Gesher Theatre
Gesher Theatre (founded in 1991), is situated in a beautiful old building on Jerusalem Blvd in Jaffa, comprises mostly new immigrants from Russia, and is now regarded as an inseparable part of Israeli culture. Yevgeny Arye, Gesher Theatre’s Founder and Artistic Director, was a reputable and successful stage and screen director in Moscow, laureate of many prizes in Russia and elsewhere. Gesher Theatre is one of the only bi-lingual theatres in the world, performing with the same troupe in Russian and in Hebrew alternately. Nowadays most of the productions are staged in Hebrew. The unique quality of the theatre may also be attributed to its artistic conception, which combines the principles of traditional Russian theatre with an original and innovative approach.
Visit Gesher Theatre’s website
Beit Lessin Theatre
Founded in the early 80’s as a modest cultural club of the Histadrut – Israel’s Workers’ Union – today Beit Lessin is one of the country’s largest repertory theatres. Named after an almost forgotten Yiddish author, Beit Lessis presents 10 premieres a year and has over 30,000 devoted subscribers in Tel-Aviv alone, and hundreds of performances throughout the country. In mid 2003, Beit Lessin moved to its new large-scale auditorium in the heart of Tel-Aviv, in addition to its two smaller venues in the city. It has been said that Beit lessin is a theatre that tells its country’s stories. The uniqueness of modern Israel with its social, political and religious conflict; diversity comes alive and is relevant to a public that seeks a communicative, human theatre.
Tzavta
Tzavta theatre, one of the old-timer places for culture and art in Israel, was founded in 1958 by the poet Avraham Shlonsky as a centre for progressive culture. Today Tzavta is considered an important alternative Israeli cultural centre, which serves as a cultural bridge between different sections in the Israeli society; A home for culture, art and political debates.
The Arab-Hebrew Theatre of Jaffa
In ancient Jaffa, in a multi-arched building overlooking the sea, the Arab-Hebrew Theatre creates a unique theatrical language using the building’s challenging structure and Jaffa’s rich fabric of life. The theatre consists of two theatrical groups that produce plays both together and apart in both Hebrew and Arabic. The “Local Theatre” works with Jewish and Arab actors, a tradition its had for 13 years. The Arab Al-Saraya Theatre of Jaffa has brought together Arab artists since it was founded in 1998.
Tmuna Theatre
Tmuna Theatre is a community theatre and performance place, featuring acts that veer towards the fringe and avant garde. The theatre was founded in 1987 by Nava Tzukerman, at first as a place for fringe productions of the ensemble of the theatre. Since 1999 the place has developed into a multidisciplinary centre for dance, music, literature and fine art as well. It exhibits annually more than 550 theatre shows, around 80 dance acts, 50 literature and poetry nights and over 270 music events.
Performance Art Platform
Located in Tel Aviv’s new central bus station, the performance Art Platform is a place for all performance artists in Israel which puts on original productions and exhibitions. The Performance Art Platform is the permanent home of Ensemble 209 – a group of interdisciplinary artists from diverse social and cultural sectors. The place hosts performance artists from abroad including Poland, England, and France etc.
Visit the Performance Art Platform’s website
Hasimta Theatre (The Alley)
Hasimta Theatre (The Alley) is a small, intimate and atmospheric space located in the heart of Old Jaffa. It is the oldest of Israel’s fringe theatres and has been operating continuously for more than 25 years. It attracts artists that are working in theater and music and seek to examine theatrical form and expression outside the box.
The Lab
The Lab- The new centre for the performing arts, was founded in the summer of 2003. Its purpose was to provide a home for artists and creators in the city of Jerusalem and to develop the interdisciplinary relations between the performing arts and advanced technology. The renovation of an old hanger, which was used as a warehouse, created a unique theatrical space with an arena style hall (holding approx. 180 seats). Parallel to creating the space for theatrical events, a bar was opened in which musical concerts take place in an intimate space.
Theatre Company Jerusalem (TCJ)
Theatre Company Jerusalem (TCJ) aspires to create a contemporary theatre inspired by ancient Hebrew and Aramaic writing and song. This Fringe theatre group, over the years, have succeed in reclaiming the woman’s voice in Jewish sources and conveying the organic relationship to the roots, the land, the gender, the history and the mythology through the performing arts. The company performs in Israel and all over the world in Hebrew as well as in English.
Ensemble Itim
Founded in 1989 by theatre director and choreographer Rina Yerushalmi and stage designer Moshe Sternfeld (d. 1994), the Itim Ensemble is one of Israel’s leading experimental theatre group. In this theatre laboratory, long periods of time is devoted to researching, exploring, and experimenting with the performance language that best reflects the symphonic, simultaneous, and complex experience of time. The theater aims to examine social, political, and philosophical questions that dominate cultural discourse and mirror changes in perception about one’s place in the world. (Photo: Gadi Dagon)
The Train Theater
The Train Theater was established in Jerusalem in 1981 as a collaboration of four independent puppeteers: Michael Schuster, Alina Ashbel, Hadass Ophrat and Mario Kotliar. At first, the performances took place in a train wagon brought to the Koret Liberty Bell Park for that purpose. As the years passed the Train Theater became a creative and inspirational source of puppetry in Israel. Many of the plays were created for children but they always included levels directed to the adults in the audience. In time, the Train Theater expanded its fields of activity and established the International Festival of Puppet Theater, The School of Visual Theater and Habamah Theater, (now called HaZira Performance Art). These institutions are dedicated to interdisciplinary experimental work, as well as special projects for both the informal and formal educational system.
Visit The Train Theater’s website
Yiddishpiel
The Yiddish Theatre in Israel
Yiddishpiel – the Yiddish Theatre in Israel was established in 1987 with the mission of restoring to Yiddish, the language that had almost disappeared, its charm, its popularity, and its glory, and to make it the focus of a rich and significant culture that is an important foundation stone in the history of the Jewish nation. The repertoire of the theatre is varied, ranging from the classic works of Sholem Aleichem, Avraham Goldfaden, Sholem Asch and Jacob Gordon, to Itzik Manger, Issaac Bashevis-Singer, and Shai Agnon, and including Efraim Kishon, Yehoshua Sobol, Yosef Bar-Yosef, Moti Averbuch, Aharon Meged, Sami Gruniman and others. In addition, world-class productions are staged including works by Neil Simon, Alexander Galin, Edmond Morris, Herb Gardner, and others.
Acco Theatre Centre
The Acco Theatre Centre was established in 1985 as a multinational theatre centre and has been creating since alternative and fringe theatre works. Based in a multicultural city, the centre is a bridge for dialogue between Arabs and Jews who work and create together.
The Israel Festival
The Israel Festival is a multidisciplinary arts festival held for a few weeks every spring in Israel. Its current center is Jerusalem. The festival was founded in 1961 by Aaron Zvi Propes as a summer music festival taking place in the ancient Roman theatre in Caesarea. The programme was later extended to include many performing arts – classical music, ballet, jazz, theater, visual arts and lectures, and the location was enlarged to include venues all over the country. Since 1982, the country’s capital decided to adopt the Festival as its own. Throughout the festival, audiences are able to enjoy performances by artists from all over the world, as well as premieres of Israeli works and tributes to leading Israeli artists. The public can also attend a large selection of free performances, including street theatre, children’s shows and a nightly jazz club.
Visit The Israel Festival’s website
The “Nalaga’at” Centre
“There is no such place in the world”
The “Nalaga’at” Centre (Hebrew for “do touch”), located at the Jaffa port in Tel Aviv, was founded by the “Nalaga’at” non-profit organization and opened its gates to the public in December 2007. The Centre is comprised of the “Nalaga’at” Theatre, home to the Deaf-blind Acting Ensemble; Cafe Kapish, with its deaf waiters and BlackOut, the pitch-black restaurant with its staff of blind waiters. The “Nalaga’at” Centre currently employs some 70 people, most of whom are deaf, blind or deaf-blind. Thousands of people, from Israel and abroad have already visited the Centre and enjoyed an exceptional artistic experience. The “Nalaga’at” Centre was founded on the basic belief that every human being has the right to contribute to the society he lives in.
HaZira Performance Art Arena
HaZira, an interdisciplinary theatre, was founded in 1988 under the name “Bama” (Stage) as a non-profit organization and included Children theater (Hakaron), Visual theatre school and interdisciplinary theatre (Habama). In 1999 the organization split this trio and established each separately. The HaZira is a place for original and individual productions and for the support of young artists. In its repertoire one can find in-house production as well as outside performances in theatre, dance, music, video and more. Each year, the HaZira holds three festivals in the dance, the art and the music fields.
The Mediatheque Theatre
Established in 2004 as part of the Mediatheque cultural centre in Holon, the Mediathque Theatre is a repertory theatre for children and youth that produces six new productions every year, many of which are based on classic Israeli and international literature, as well as original plays for young audiences. In addition, the theater, in collaboration with the annual Israel Festival in Jerusalem, produces a major international festival for children and young audiences. As part of its global cooperation, the Mediatheque Theater also produces and markets plays designated for international festivals abroad, on an independent basis, as well as with the help of ASSITEJ International (International Association of Theatre for Children and Young People).
Visit The Mediatheque Theatre’s website
Orna Porat Theatre for Children and Youth
The Orna Porat Theatre for Children and Youth is the most established repertoire theatre for young audience. The theatre was founded in 1970 by the actress, Mrs. Orna Porat, winner of the Israel Prize, and Yigal Alon, who at the time was the Minister of Education. The major goal of this theatre is to introduce the theatre art to all the children in Israel and to nurture aesthetic and humane values in them, through encountering with the artistic creation. The theatre based in the Yaron Yerushalmi Hall at the Suzanne Dellal Center in Tel Aviv. The theatre has an educational department that organizes theatre days, encounters, preshow discussions and workshops for youth.
Visit Orna Porat Theatre’s website
The Nephesh Theatre
The Nephesh Theatre was founded in 1978 by Howard Rypp and Gabriel Emanuel and was the only professional Jewish theatre operating in Canada at that time. After staging over 30 theatrical and television productions in Canada, the company base was relocated to Israel. The Nephesh Theatre productions reflect a plurality of beliefs, depicting different communities within Israeli society that must develop a common language and achieve mutual respect. The plays mirror conflicts permeating Israeli society- between religious and secular, the immigrant and veteran Israeli, between Arab & Jew, emphasizing common bonds rather than dwelling on differences.
Ruth Kanner Theatre Group
Ruth Kanner Theatre Group has been engaged, since 1998, in exploring their surroundings, probing covert layers of the local scene and scenery, by searching for a local theatrical language interweaving storytelling, physical theatre and visual imagery. The re-examination of hegemonic Israeli narratives is performed through literary and documentary texts, creating Storytelling Theatre. The group has been focusing mainly on stage rendering of Hebrew texts – literary works, products of the investigation of traditional Hebrew and Jewish cultures and documentary materials.
Shakespeare Jerusalem
Shakespeare Jerusalem is a not-for-profit performing arts organization dedicated to staging Israeli productions of Shakespeare’s works in the original language. The additional goal of the company is to help introduce Shakespeare to a new generation through educational enrichment programs and artist-training workshops.
Visit The Shakespeare Jerusalem’s website
Be’er Sheva Theatre
Be’er Sheva Theatre is considered as a major cultural anchor in the southern part of Israel – the Negev. The theatre was founded in 1973 with a vision of establishing a pioneering cultural experience in the Israeli Negev, and today produces five theatre productions each season that can be seen on stages in its new design residence and around the country.
Visit Be’er Sheva Theatre’s website
The Jerusalem Centre for the Performing Arts
The Jerusalem Centre for the Performing Arts, located in one of the most beautiful residential neighborhoods in the centre of the city, is the largest and most active cultural center in the area. The Jerusalem Centre is a non-profit public institution, whose goal is to offer high quality and widely varied cultural activities to Israeli audiences, as well as guests from abroad. While it has no dramatic, dance or musical repertory companies of its own, the Centre plays host to top local and foreign productions. It offers plays in the best tradition of Israel’s repertory companies, from large- scale and chamber productions to one-man shows, features both original and translated experimental theatre. In addition, More than 150 orchestral and chamber-music concerts and recitals are given each year at the Centre, as well as modern and classical dance performances.
Givatayim Theatre
Located in the heart of Givatayim, the Givatayim Theatre is an elegant building which was awarded the 1996 Rechter Prize for Architecture and has been highly praised for its impressive architectural structure. The theatre includes three halls that host various cultural events, plays, music concerts, jazz performances, dance performances, etc. In addition to the Theatre’s halls activities, the galleries/foyers hold exhibitions by Israeli and International artists.
Visit Givatayim Theatre’s website
Herzliya Performing Arts Centre
In an architecturally unique venue, the Herzliya Centre for Performing Arts opened in 2003, and is considered one the most important and leading cultural centres in Israel. The centre hosts local and international theatre, dance, music and other entertainment shows for audience from all ages.
Acco Festival for Alternative Theatre
The centre isn’t always in the middle.
Acco, a peripheral city with an historical past and multicultural present is the city that was chosen years ago to host the Acco Festival of Alternative Israeli theatre, most of all because it’s inspirational atmosphere. Very quickly it became a unique Israeli center for alternative events, winning acclaim across the country and beyond. The Festival has become a lodestone attracting creative artists from across society’s spectrum, who seek to engage in extraordinary artistic experimentation. This is an interdisciplinary, multicultural event by nature, emphasizing the performing arts. The Acco Festival at its best reflects unique creative processes in its level of form and content and in its encounter between disciplines, cultures, and societal sectors; it encourages an artistic melting pot.
Theatronetto Theatre Festival
The Theatronetto theatre festival focuses on monologues, which, in a sense is the rawest form of theatre. This idea is part of what lead to the festival’s name – “theatron-netto” (which means “theater-net”, referring to the antonym of “gross”). Some of the finest actors in Israel have performed on the festival’s stage and have managed to promote the difficult form of monologue in Israeli theatre. Traditionally the festival used to take place in Habima theatre and included only Israeli plays, but it has moved to the alleys of Old Jaffa and now includes foreign plays as well.
The International Puppet Theatre & Film Festival
Since 1995, the International Puppet Festival has been taking place each July in the City of Holon. Organized by Israel Puppet Centre, the festival initiates and hosts about 30 performances by resident and international artists, conferences, exhibitions, and an opening street procession, workshops for professionals and amateurs; a one-day conference on Applying Puppets in Therapy; exhibitions at the Centre museum and galleries and a special “Puppetry on the Screen” display. A festive happening, including a colorful fair, outdoors workshops, stalls, performance stages, and a huge outdoor café is held around the unique Israeli Puppet Centre complex. Since 2006, the festival offers a special stage to puppets in the filmed media: feature films with puppets, documentaries about puppeteers, and television programs and advertisements using puppets.
She Festival
Established by Dorit Nitai Neman to commemorate International Women’s Day, the She Festival sees our gem of a theatre transform into an extreme and exciting promenade space. 8 female performers from all genres, backgrounds and cultures tell stories through song, dance, movement and vocalization, celebrating the current diversity of women in the Israeli arts.
More information about the festival
Masrahid Festival – Arabic Monodrama Festival
Masrahid is a very special festival held in Acco´s Old City annually. The festival was initiated and is produced by the Acco Theatre Centre. It is the first theatre festival in the Arabic language that reflects the broad spectrum of Palestinian Israelis working in theatre arts.
The International Street Theatre Festival
The voices of theatre in the streets of Bat-Yam
The annual Bat-Yam festival is taking place during the Jewish holiday of Sukkoth. each year a theme is being chosen for the festival . All performances will connect to the year’s theme and present an impressive variety of musical styles, vocal and instrumental ensembles, music machines and more. The festival focuses on integrating the music with circus arts, acrobatics and dance, as well as music that uses the urban environment and motivates street theatre.
Fairytales’ Magic – in Memory of Yaron Yerushalmi
Fairytales’ Magic is a big summer celebration of dance, theatre, music and singing that combine families’ theatre projects, as well as an outdoor carnival of fun, dance and music. This annual event is held with much success in The Suzanne Dellal Centre.
The International Festival of Puppet Theatre
The Train Theatre initiated the Festival in 1983. Since 2001 the Festival has become an annual event, taking place every August in Jerusalem. The Festival selects performances based on variety, quality and relevance, and have hosted many artists known for their contribution to the field of puppetry and Visual Theatre around the world. During the years, the Festival has become the primal source of creation and inspiration in the field of Puppet Theatre in Israel. This year, the festival will be held on August 8-13, 2010.
Haifa International Children’s Theatre Festival
The Haifa International Children’s Theatre Festival has become a tradition that occurs annually, during the Passover Holiday. The Festival attracts crowds from all over Israel and enjoys great popularity. The rich program includes colorful outdoor and street performances, special activities and workshops for children. Stage performances take place in the halls of Haifa Theatre while the street performances take place in the large complex, adjacent to the theatre.