Foto Friday – Puppet Festival

July 18, 2009 - 10:59 PM by Rachel Neiman · 1 Comment
Filed under: Art, Foto Friday, General, Travel 

Sometimes, a set of photos comes across one’s desk that is so arresting, little introduction is needed. I might be prejudiced — as a graduate of the Eleanor Boylan puppetry summer camp in Newton, Mass (1970 and 71) — but judging from the photos, the program for the 12th International Puppetry Festival looks just great. Details below but first, see these:

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The festival mascot.

TeivatHaksamim2

Traditional Indian puppets meet video in “The Magic Box”, a co-production between Israel’s Teatroni and the Holon Theater Center.

kibel_02

Award-winning Italian puppeteer Laura Kibel and her one-woman show, “Gone With The Feet”.

HazayarVeHazipor3 צילום גיורא שלומי

Above, a dramatization of Max Velthuijs’ fantasy, “The Painter and the Bird” (Photo: Giora Shlomi). Below, an exhibition of wooden puppets from the Czech Republic. (Photo: Jan Rosner)

התערוכה נוצר בעץ צילום יאן ראוזנר

Also on exhibit: puppets from the show “Avenue Q”. The festival will run from July 22-25 at the Holon Theater Center, 13 Remez St. Holon — a suburb of Tel Aviv that is cleverly reinventing itself as Israel’s capital of niche museums and the arts — and tickets are reasonably priced for adults (NIS 50 to 70) and kids (NIS 25-50). Activity workshops available for kids, too. To order: 972 3 502 1555.

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Rockin’ Redband

August 11, 2008 - 11:35 AM by David · 4 Comments
Filed under: General, Israeliness, Music, Pop Culture 

One of the delights of Israeli culture is the mash up that occurs when English-speaking immigrants have kids and raise them as Israelis. A friend once said that these Sabra children often wind up with the best of both worlds – the confidence and improvisational skills of Israelis, and the manners and  sensibilities of their Anglo heritage. Of course, sometimes they get the worst of both worlds, and sometimes…  well, there’s Redband.

The latest hit summer TV series on HOT VOD (sort of like a low-rent HBO),  Redband is an R-rated comedic car crash ‘mockumentary’ featuring life-sized puppets portraying the most thick-brained rock stars this side of Spinal Tap. The puppets, the creation of three children of Anglo immigrants, switch with ease from English to Hebrew, and prove they can talk filthily in either language with equal aplomb.

The show’s offensive like South Park, and just as hilarious, especially when band leader Red Orbach  skewers the guest of each episode, an in-the-flesh Israeli pop star like Aviv Gefen, Shalom Hanoch and Mosh Ben-Ari.

Ari Feffer, Micha Duman and Ami Wiesel are the Israeli Americans behind the puppets. They all grew up with a love of 60s music and hippie culture thanks to their American parents, and despite having gone through the army and attended film school at Tel Aviv University, they still feel more comfortable within the milieu of American culture and slang. And Redband shows that they learned exactly what to make fun of from the excesses of the rock & roll lifestyle which Red and his band mates Poncho and Lefty emerged from.

It’s fun to watch an Israeli TV show that’s almost all in English, but with hip Tel Aviv slang and inside Israeli jokes thrown in at will. Redband blurs the lines even further between Israeli and American culture, and in doing so,  are making people on both sides laugh until it hurts.

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