Artists decide where it’s kosher to perform

September 7, 2010 - 8:44 PM by · Leave a Comment
Filed under: A New Reality, coexistence, General, Israeliness, Life, Music, Politics, Pop Culture 

The Ariel cultural center - in the eye of the storm

Call it the theater of the absurd, and Israel is the main stage.

It started at the end of August when a group of Israeli actors, directors and playwrights signed a public document announcing that they’ll refuse to participate in plans by the country’s national theater, the Habima, and other leading theaters like the Cameri to put on their productions at a new cultural center that’s slated to open in the West Bank city of Ariel.

Among the signatories were well-known Israelis like Amos Oz, David Grossman and playwright Anat Gov. The petition caused an uproar, antagonizing even middle of the road Israelis, who consider Ariel to be a ‘consensus’ settlement, one that will likely remain part of Israel in any future deal to create a Palestinian state.

Government officials then responded by threatening to cut off funding for the theaters if they acquiesced to the petitioners’ demands. Last week, some Hollywood names jumped on the bandwagon in support of the boycott – including Vanessa Redgrave, Julianne Moore, Cynthia Nixon, Ed Asner, Wallace Shawn, and Mandy Patinkin. Their statement praises the Israeli theater artists who have “refused to allow their work to be used to normalize a cruel occupation which they know to be wrong, which violates international law and which is impeding the hope for a just and lasting peace for Israelis and Palestinians alike.”

Well, ok, there’s nothing like a little hyperbole to make an overwrought point. But in response to the lunacy coming from the artists on both sides of the pond, a group of right-wing activists attempted to create their own facts on Monday night.

MK Michael Ben Ari (National Union) and two accomplices disrupted a performance at the Cameri Theater to protest the “actors’ letter” and were ejected from the hall by security staff.

According to Ynet, the activists were present during a performance of “Oh God,” written by Gov and directed by Edna Mazya. Itamar Ben Gvir, Ben Ari and another ticket-holder disrupted the performance by calling “You’re racists” at actors Oded Teomi and Sara von Schwarze.

Teomi, one of the Cameri’s veteran actors, tried to tell the hecklers that he was not a signatory to the letter, but to no avail. The shouting increased, and other voices in the audience could be heard calling for order. After some minutes, Teomi said defiantly, “Because of your behavior, maybe we should consider whether there is anything to perform to in Ariel.”

The theater’s security staff, who were warned in advance when ushers noticed potential provocation, took the three outside to applause from the rest of the audience. The performance then continued.

In more lines being drawn in the sand, today, popular singer Eyal Golan announced plans to inaugurate the new venue in Ariel.

“The residents of Ariel are an inseparable part of Israel,” Golan told Ynet, adding that he found recent statements by actors to the contrary “regrettable.”

“Music is meant to serve as a bridge among people and make them happy. I would be happy to be the one inaugurating the cultural center,” he said.

What happened to the days when the goals of music and theater were to bring people together?

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Mitch Albom takes over Israel

May 22, 2010 - 7:55 PM by · 2 Comments
Filed under: A New Reality, General, History and Culture, Israeliness, Pop Culture, Profiles 

Mitch Albom in Jerusalem (Photo: Brian Negin)

Welcome to Tel Albom.

Celebrated US author Mitch Albom was in town earlier this month, and for a few days, it seems like he was everywhere. The Detroit, Michigan writer of Tuesdays With Morrie and the new Have A Little Faith The writer, was here as a guest of the wonderful Israeli nonprofit organization Tishkofet, that provides support to patients who have serious illnesses (and their families and caregivers).

But in addition to speaking for the organization at the Begin Heritage Center in Jerusalem, he was also led around the country for a nonstop menu of receptions, two performances of the play ‘Tuesdays With Morrie’ in Hebrew, at the Cameri Theater in Tel Aviv and in Haifa, a meeting with President Shimon Peres, and an appearance at a Conservatvie (Masorti) synagogue in Jerusalem whose membership includes Orah Lipsky, the daughter of the subject of Have a Little Faith – the late Rabbi Albert Lewis of Cherry Hill, New Jersey. Talk about a busy week!

Albom has seen himself portrayed onstage enough times that it doesn’t fluster him much anymore. There have been more than 200 productions of the play, based on Albom’s wildly successful 1997 book about his encounters with his old college sociology professor, Morrie Schwartz, who was suffering from a terminal disease. And lots of actors have played the two characters in the play – Schwartz and Albom – since Hank Azaria and Jack Lemmon, respectively, pioneered the roles in the popular Oprah Winfrey-produced TV movie in 1999.

But the Cameri production, which has been running since December in conjunction with the Haifa Community Theater, contained a first, Albom explained to a rapt audience at the Jerusalem synagogue a few nights after attending a gala performance in his honor. Veteran actors Yossi Gerber as Morrie and Yiftah Klein as Albom were just fine in their roles. But Albom was surprised to discover a third character had been introduced into his script – his wife, Janine. Only instead of Janine (which is pronounced like the Palestinian city of JeniN) the Cameri production gave her the name Rahel.

“They wrote in a character that plays my wife and they call her Rahel!” said Albom, telling the story with mock outrage. “If you’re going to write in a character, they should use the right name. So if you go see the play, when they say Rahel, shout out ‘Janine!’”

Albom also said his wife’s name became an issue when he introduced her to Peres. “Janine?” he repeated. “Her name is Janine?”

In Israel, apparently, Janine can be a dirty word.

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Nostalgia Sunday – The “Fashion Show” exhibit

November 16, 2008 - 6:07 PM by · 1 Comment
Filed under: Art, General, History and Culture, Nostalgia Sunday, Pop Culture 

Costume: Italian Straw Hat - Gila Lahat
An unusual and important exhibition opened this past week at the Jerusalem Theater. “Fashion Show” is a retrospective of costumes from the Hebrew-language stage, dating from 1922 to the present day. Some of the costumes are original, others were recreated from sketches and photographs.

This is the first exhibition of its kind in Israel and was a huge collaborative labor of love between the theaters, AMBI – the local branch of OISTAT (the international union of theater professionals), archives, museums, designers, researchers and private collectors. There are works by visual artists who sometimes contributed to the stage — Nahum Gutman, Natan Altman, Yossele Bergner, Moshe Mokady and David Sharir to name a few — as well as those costume designers less-known to audiences abroad.

Costume: Hanna Rovina in The Dybbuk

Here, for example, is the dress worn by legendary HaBima actress Hanna Rovina, in “The Dybbuk”. In her time, Rovina — “First Lady of Hebrew Theater” — and HaBima were so identified with the play that her character, Lea’leh, in long tresses and flowing white gown, became the theater’s logo for awhile.

Costume: She Stoops to Conquer - Lydia Pincus-GaniThis dress from “She Stoops to Conquer” is by Lydia Pincus-Gani, one of the country’s foremost stage and costume designers in the 1960s and 1970s.

I studied with Lydia at Tel Aviv University in the 1980s, and she was not one to be trifled with. We’d slave for weeks over a maquette (a scale model of a stage set) and bring it, shaking and trembling, for Lydia to review. She’d stare at it, hunched over, centimeters of slow-burning ash dangling precariously at the end of a cigarette hovering above delicate bits of carton and balsa wood…

And then… flick! Somehow, most of the soot made it onto the floor. “What is this kakamayka?”, she’d ask, referring derisively to some nonsensical balustrade or extraneous stairway. (For bulky objects there was “What is this plonter?). Those who made it through the first year of her reign of terror benefited by being made her assistant on various shows at HaBima or the Cameri, and some of her students became the designers whose work is now on display.

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