The Sounds of Childhood Festival returns to Holon during the Sukkot holiday from September 26 – 28, 2010 with three days of musical fun and performances the entire family can enjoy. Opening the festival is Beethoven’s 5th Meets David Daor with the Ra’anana Symphony Orchestra conducted by festival artistic director Gil Shohat in a benefit performance for the Children’s department of the Wolfson Medical Center. The program will include selections from Beethoven, Bach and, alongside Andrew Lloyd Weber and the poignant David Daor/Matti Caspi song “Shmor al HaOlam Yeled” (Take Care of the World, Child).
Poetry goes to the circus with the HaMila (Hebrew: the word) Theatre. Poet Natan Alterman’s collection of poems Tzror Niflaot HaKirkas (the wonders of the circus) becomes a musical circus performance directed by Roy Biran. Celebrating the centenary of Alterman’s birth in music, song and dance, the performance is for children aged 4 and up.
More contemporary clowning as a respectable lady who is almost always right, meets a confused waiter who is almost always wrong in The First Lady of the Land of Taiti (Hebrew for ‘I was wrong’). Rhymes, jazz and humor present the positive potential of mistakes for children ages 4 and up.
The Wolf Will Live with the Lamb is a musical comedy directed and choreographed by the talented Gilad Kimhi, written by Hamutal Ben Zeev – Efron, with music by Dory Ben Zeev. Zeevik the wolf and Talia the lamb frolic in this comedy that teaches tolerance and accepting others. For ages 3 – 8.
Classical pleasures are in store as the The Israeli Opera performs Humperdinck’s Hansel and Gretel in Hebrew, conducted by David Sebba, directed by Niv Hoffman, with the singers of the Israeli Opera Studio. The Haifa Symphony Orchestra conducted by Gil Shohat will perform Pictures at an Exhibition by Mussorgsky accompanied by a screening of an animated film by Dudu Shalita. These performances are each about an hour long, and are appropriate for children aged 5 and up.
The Fresco dance company will take you on a magic carpet ride with 1001 Nights a contemporary dance theatre adaptation of the magical legend. A collaboration between choreographer Yoram Karmi and director Maor Zagori, the performance is inspired by the timeless legend of Scheherazade the gifted storyteller who saved her life by spinning humorous and suspenseful tales of Sinbad the sailor, Ali Baba and the forty thieves and the emperor and his nightingale.
The Kolben Dance Company with the Matmon Theatre will premiere Who Took My Cheese a dance theatre performance based on three of Aesop’s fables: the Raven and the Fox, the Cricket and the Ant, and the Lion and the Mouse.
The festival remembers Gilad Shalit with a performance of When the Shark and the Fish First Met. The play is based on a story written by Gilad Shalit when he was 11 years old, and won the prize for Best Play at the Haifa Children’s Theatre Festival.
The Holon Theatre Plaza will be a center of activity throughout the three days of the festival with free outdoor performances, workshops and other activities for children, co-sponsored by the Hop Television Channel.
It all happens here: Holon Theatre, 11 Kugel Boulevard, Holon. Tickets and information: www.hth.co.il, 03-5023001/2/3. Sounds of Childhood is the initiative of the Holon Municipality with the Holon Theatre directed by Guy Telem. Gil Shohat is the festival’s artistic director and it is produced by Michal Aharoni.
