The International Festival of Puppet Theater is celebrating its 20th edition, warming up with a pre-festival street party in honor of the Train Theater’s 30th anniversary on August 12, 2011! Giant puppets and Train Theater artists will join Monica Sex, Efrat Gosh, Eric Berman and other at the Jaffa Parking Lot on 66 Jaffa Street from 13:00 – 18:00.
The festival showcases contemporary and traditional puppet theatre, featuring leading Israeli artists and hosting theatres from Peru, France, Belgium, Germany, Italy, Holland, Bulgaria, Czechoslovakia and the US, from August 14 – 19, 2011. A complete list of shows and timetable are available in English on the festival website. Ticket prices are from 30NIS – 90NIS. For further information and advance booking, call: 02-5618514.
Some festival highlights:
The festival celebrates the 30th anniversary of the Train Theater, with the project Table Tales in the Nahlaot neighborhood. Performances will take place in different Nahlaot locations – on the street, in private homes and even in the synagogue, with the audience walking along with the Train Theater guides from venue to venue. Look for #37 “Footloose Walk” and #38 “How to Cook a Show” on the festival website.
The Train Theater will present three premiere performances:
#24 Kav Nekooda – A dot, a line, a triangle and a square are the heroes of this story. Together they create a magical theatre that speaks in the language of animation. Inspired by the masters of modern art, sequences of abstract compositions appear to tell a simple story of identity and relationship with a human touch. In this theatre of dreams, shapes seem to move on their own, like the pieces of a secret puzzle. Everything is alive. Anything is possible. The dot and the line discover one another in an ever-changing celebration of imagination. In the heart of every child, there is an invisible ocean. Our story is a little boat to sail away on.
Concept, design and direction: Alina Ashbel
Manipulation: Shani Wisman, Hila Cohen-Nitzan / Alina Ashbel
Artistic consultation: Marit Benisrael
Music: Nadav Vikinski
Lighting design: Shahar Marom
Recommended for the whole family from age three. The performance is 50 minutes long and takes place at the Khan Theater, Stage 2, Wednesday 17.8 at 16:00, 18:00; Thursday 18.8 at 11:00, 16:00.
#15 Rose-Bud – You are invited to peep into the world of the Sleeping Beauty, and take part in a meeting between the illustrated book (Amalia) and the story-teller (Naomi).
The show is dedicated to sister Edna, a true fairy
Design and illustration: Amalia Hoffman
Adaptation and story-telling: Naomi Yoeli
Custom design: Einat Amir, Hagit Karkovski
Musical guidance: Mika Dani
Third eye: Marit Benisrael
Special thanks to Michal Porat
Recommended for the whole family from age 4. The performance is 45 minutes long and takes place at The Train Theater, Monday 15.8 at 16:00, 18:00; Tuesday 16.8 at 11:00; Wednesday 17.8 at 11:00.
#35 The Dream Trackers – Beginners Course – A beginner dream tracker must move in a very unique way… without the dream noticing him. Because… If the dream senses that there is someone around, it disappears at once. You should also study unique steps; in order to be at all places at simultaneously at all places at once. A dream tracker must learn how to manipulate a dreams detector–That is the only way one can learn to distinguish between a real dream and a meaningless dream, between a daydream and a dream in “Aspamia”. You cannot learn it at once. You must be very skillful… In order to become a dream tracker, you must go through a short course with us. The course will take place in the dreamy alleys of Yemin Moshe neighborhood in Jerusalem, and will provide skills of tracking and identification of dreams with modern trackers equipment.
At its end, you will receive a graduate diploma of dream tracking beginner’s course!
Not suitable for children in strollers. It is recommended to bring a hat and water.
Direction and design: Amit Drori
Writing: Shmil Maayan
Performance and Manipulation: Jack Shvili, Avraham Cohen
Customs Design: Valia Piratinoff
Recommended for the whole family from age 4. The performance is approximately two hours long, the meeting point is the Yemin Moshe Windmill on Heinrich Heine Street,
Sunday 14.8 at 17:30; Monday 15.8 at 17:30; Tuesday 16.8 at 17:30; Wednesday 17.8 at 17:30; Thursday 18.8 at 17:30.
Sabra – a program of works created emerging Israeli artists will present several intriguing visual theatre pieces for adults:
#29 Paper Cut by Yael Rasooly – A lonely secretary escapes her dreary reality by bringing to life black & white photos from old film magazines. There she is a glamorous movie star from the 1940’s and finds her ideal love at last. But as the story unravels, her romantic tale becomes a Hitchcock nightmare! An award winning performance of paper and object theater. Creation and performance: Yael Rasooly; Writing: Yael Rasooly, Lior Lerman; Design: Yaara Nirel, Lior Lerman; Sound design: Binya Reches; Lighting design: Adam Yakin. 50 minutes. The Train Theater, Sunday 14.8 at 23:00.
#30 Elizabeth by Hazira – performance art arena – A Survival journey of a two-dimensional woman in a 3D world. Nonsense, horror and trash meet in an apartment that has a will of its own. Visual theater, Objects Theater and Masks.
Writing and performance: Meital Raz, Itay Weiser; Design: Dembinsky Foundation;
Building design: Gil Lavi, Meital Raz, Keren Dembinsky; Builders: Oded Rimon, Itamar Mendes-Flohr; Lighting: Keren Dembinsky, Itay Weiser. 45 Minutes.
Nurit Katzir Jerusalem Theater Center, Monday 15.8 at 21:00.
#31 The Earthquake in Chile by Patricia O’Donovan based on a story by Heinrich Von Kleist. A Show of Comics, Voice and Sound. A young man is locked in prison. The woman he loves is condemned to death for becoming pregnant out of wedlock. And then the earthquake happens…!!! Heinrich von Kleist (1777 –1811) was a German poet, dramatist, novelist and short story writer. Design and artistic performance: Patricia O’Donovan; Text: Heinrich Von Kleist with dialogues by Patricia O’Donovan; Music: Daniel Slobosky; Stage and lighting: Mario Keizman; Hebrew translation of Kleist: Schocken Publishing House Tel Aviv, 1982. 45 Minutes. The Train Theater, Tuesday 16.8 at 22:00.
#32 Jonathan and the Blue Table – Two object theater pieces on a table by The Golden Delicious Ensemble.
The Blue Table – Pictures from the life of the huge squid, the wild swan, the blue whale, and a garden snail. Creating a wild and lively world through synthetic means with a comic and magical perspective.
Jonathan – Love, hate, jealousy, lust, and sex – all in an opus that tells the tale of Jonathan’s life, a green apple, son of red apple parent, who strikes out on a journey to find himself crossing seas and continents In order to find that the apple does not fall far from the tree. This is an unruly object theater piece for apples, a set of knives, a cutting board and a table.
Performance: Ari Teprberg, Inbal Yomtovian; Sound – Jonathan: Gilad Vaknin; Sound – The Blue Table: Dan Karger; Lighting Design: Anna Wild, Asi Gotesman; Table: Ily Whinston. 50 Minutes. The Train Theater, Tuesday 17.8 at 22:00.
#33 Flora’s Dance by Avital Dvory – Flora, an elderly widow, is visiting her husband’s grave.This annual ritual brings up memories of love that was gone and a dance that has almost disappeared.A theatre of motion, puppets and three puppeteers at different phases of the same character. Concept and direction: Avital Dvory ; Puppeteers and collaborators: Orit Leibovitch- Novich, Ifat Vayner, Moria Ben Avot; Puppet design and making: Orit Leibovitch- Novich; Space and costumes design: Yaara Zadok; Lighting: Asi Gotesman; Music: Boris Martzinovsky; Artistic advisor: Ilan Savir; Stage management & executive production: Smadi Harpak.
50 Minutes. The Khan Theater – Stage 2, Thursday 18.8 at 23:00.
#34 Pandora by artists from the School of Visual Theater, Jerusalem. Pandora’s Box evening invites the audience to meet the contemporary generation of young artistic Puppet Theater artists. The works presented: Poem No. 3 – The Hedghog by Jacqueline Pearl, Small Change by Ari Teperberg, Traces by Moran Duvshani, Tiny Utopia by Li Lorian, Woman in a Room by Noam Sandel. Artistic Direction: Roni Mosenson-Nelken, Amit Drori. For Adults and Youth. 90 Minutes. The School of Visual Theater, Thursday 18.8 at 21:30.
Eduardo Hübscher is the festival director and Dalia Yaffe-Maayan, Director General of the Train Association, is the festival’s artistic director. The festival is produced by the Train Theater and Ariel Municipal Company with the support of the Ministry of Culture and Sport, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs Kashtum, the Jerusalem Municipality, the Jerusalem Foundation, The Israel Lottery Council for the Arts, Sarah Kutchinsky Endowment, Centre Culturel Francais Roman Gary.
