Picture of the week: Acco festival back on track

October 7, 2009 - 11:17 AM by Nicky · 1 Comment
Filed under: Art, Picture of the Week, coexistence 

pic of the week dressing cropThis time last year, rioting over Yom Kippur led to a temporary postponement of the much-loved Acco Festival – an alternative theater festival that spills out onto the streets of the old Crusader city every Succot.

The festival was held eventually in December , but much was written about how the rioting between Jews and Arabs had damaged the fabric of a city where coexistence is the norm, not the exception.

One year on, and the festival, an event devoted to coexistence, is back in its usual time slot and last year’s unexpected outbreak of violence is being put to rest.

Now in its 30th season, visitors to the run-down, but beautiful World Heritage city, have been enjoying some 450 performances from theater groups across Israel and the rest of the world, including a show that follows six Acco residents who took part in last year’s riots.

Picture by Shay Levy/ Flash 90.

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Nostalgia Sunday on Tuesday – Adloyada

March 10, 2009 - 11:34 PM by Rachel Neiman · Leave a Comment
Filed under: Art, General, History and Culture, Holidays, Israeliness, Nostalgia Sunday, Pop Culture 

agadat_queen_estherApologies for the delay in posting; this was due to circumstances far beyond my control. Whew. Okay. A moment before the Purim holiday ends, let’s take a look at days gone by, in particular the Adloyada parade.

“Adloyada” is a bastardization of the phrase “ad lo yada” or “unable to differentiate”, referring to the Purim tradition of drinking until one is unable to tell the difference between evil Haman and good Mordechai. The parade was instituted in 1912, in Tel Aviv, the first modern Jewish city, by a teacher at the Herzliya Gymnasium high school and became the stomping ground for Hevre Trask (”the noisy folks”), a band of merrymaking bohemians.

In the 1920s, the event had its profile raised by dancer-choreographer and bon vivant Baruch Agadati. Here he is, the crown prince of of Tel Aviv night life in the 1920s, pictured with Zippora Zabari, winner of the “Queen Esther” beauty contest for 1928.

And another Purim lovely:

And here’s a picture of the parade itself, which was famous for its floats.
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It had the support of Mayor Meir Dizengoff. This costume parodied his well-known penchant for riding around town on a horse.
dizengoff_on_horse

At the end of the 1920s, a committee of artists, poets, architects and theater people was established with the stated goal of giving the Adloyada a higher educational and artistic tone, and it became something of an establishment tool.

adloyada_2

Adloyada floats never shied away from politics, such as the 1926 coffin burying the British Mandate, and the 1934 anti-Nazism float. The event ceased activity in 1936 but after it was reestablished in the 1950s, the topical subjects continued. Here’s Egypt’s Gamal Abdul Nasser and David Ben-Gurion, acting out a prime ministerial summit that never happened in reality… as far as we know…

adloyada_bg_nasser

The Adloyada shut down, once again, in the 1970s and was revived, once again in the early 1980s by the Sheinkin avant garde, led by a stellar performance artist, the late Danny Zakheim. This time, the tone was different and probably more like that of the original Adloyada of the 1920s – a punk street fair bacchanal that went on for days. Here’s Mayor Shlomo Lahat venturing into unknown territory.

chich_float

There are a few parades today calling themselves Adloyada. Holon – a sleepy suburb with ambitions to become Israel’s new center of the visual arts – has apparently been deemed the location for the national Adloyada. But the real deal has been and always will be Tel Aviv. It’s only a matter of time before the Adloyada comes back home.

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The hills are alive

July 10, 2008 - 4:58 PM by Jessica · Leave a Comment
Filed under: General, Immigrant Moments, Israeliness, Music 

Living in Jerusalem, and with more than my fair share of family and friends who are amateur actors, it’s not surprising that I would end up attending a generous smattering of local English language community theater. I’ve smiled through JEST performances of You’re a Good Man, Charlie Brown and Prairie Lights; considered Mercaz Hamagshimim Center Stage versions of The Vagina Monologues and Tick Tick Boom!; appreciated local Gilbert and Sullivan productions and clapped for the Hebrew University players and their annual shows.

It’s never Broadway, but then again, even Broadway doesn’t always satisfy. And there’s something to be said for seeing your loved ones on stage, singing their hearts out, acting their lines, performing for the community at large.

sound of music.jpg
But last night, I was truly astounded by a great production of The Sound of Music, produced by Yisra’el Lutnick and directed by Kim Glassman (who, in the small world that is Jerusalem, is the sister of a former camper of mine). It’s hard not to love any version of this old favorite, particularly when you can sing along to every song (”She climbs a tree and scrapes her knee,”) and even know most of the dialogue by heart. Yet this was an example of appropriate staging, fine choreography, good, strong voices and simple but significant sets that helped ’set’ the stage for Austria, circa 1938, and all by a semi-professional cast and crew, performed at the Jerusalem Theater.

And while the play was written by Americans, set in Austria and performed by American, Canadian, Israeli, British and South African actors, the final test was in the typically Israeli applause, which is in a uniform beat, rather than the more individual clapping that you come across in the States or Europe. When you hear that kind of applause, it’s the sign of an Israeli audience expressing their appreciation for what they’ve just seen and heard. Kudos.

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