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Friday March 23, 2007

Eclectic Israeli theater hits its stride

by wendy elliman
israel press service

Two dozen men and women are gathered. Some are seated, some doodle, others pace.

They are there to brainstorm, and the atmosphere is electric with ideas. A tall man suddenly breaks into an improvisation to illustrate his point. Two people co-opt a third in a brief theater-game to emphasize their view. Ideas are seized, examined, expanded or discarded.

This is a rehearsal in progress at Jerusalem’s Khan Theater. The play, as yet, has no name. Nor does it have a set, costumes or lighting. In fact, it doesn’t even have a script. But the core ensemble of 22 actors, led by playwright and artistic director Michael Gurevich, are implementing, once again, the prize-winning dramatic formula they have developed.

They have won a string of awards — for direction, acting, translation, choreography, costume design, lighting and, most recently, Israel’s prestigious Emet Prize.

“Our rehearsals take longer than the traditional kind, but the creative teamwork we use is our path to new dramatic solutions,” says Gurevich. “It’s this which enables us to generate unique and vivid productions.”

Their unorthodox approach fits seamlessly with the Khan Theater’s unorthodox setting. Its permanent stage is an early 19th-century inn which, once the pilgrims left, was successively used as a beer cellar, carpentry workshop and ammunitions dump. Surviving both the Jordanian guns of June 1967 and a scheduled demolition thereafter, it was renovated into Jerusalem’s only creative repertory theater, the first significant cultural project of then-mayor Teddy Kollek’s newly formed Jerusalem Foundation.

The foundation, along with the Khan, is now celebrating its 40th anniversary.

“Its reputation is as one of the best theaters in Israel, consistently producing thought-provoking and high-quality performances,” says Yaki Har-Tal, director of the Khan, and previously, for 25 years, deputy director of the Jerusalem Foundation.

Restoring the crumbling Khan of 1967 fitted with Kollek’s vision of giving new cultural content to Jerusalem’s ancient buildings. With money from the Gestetner Family Fund, the old inn was renovated into a modern theater. Its picturesque arches and courtyards were preserved, while 230 seats and the computerized sound and light systems of a modern theater were inconspicuously added.

The restored building, according to Har-Tal, has helped create a theatergoing experience for Jerusalemites characterized by direct contact with the audience and interaction with the community.

“There’s a unique and intimate atmosphere between audience and acting ensemble at the Khan,” he says. “The physical setting and the close bonds between director, playwright and actors combine into a personal and direct relationship with audiences.”

Audiences comprise most groups from Jerusalem’s confusion of cultures, and with the help of the Jerusalem Foundation the theater also reaches out to specific populations.

“We subsidize workshops, theater days and performances for schools, for the elderly and for special-needs populations,” says Danny Mimran, Jerusalem Foundation director and a member of the Khan’s board. “We also support lectures, workshops, poetry readings, seminars, panel discussions and meetings with playwrights and actors for the public. In this way, the Khan brings the community closer to the theater world and to the messages of its plays.”

Long appreciated for its high artistic quality, the theater is finally achieving economic success as well. The Khan has for the past four years balanced its budget — a feat that eluded the theater group since its opening 40 years ago, Har-Tal explains with obvious satisfaction.

“As much as the theater was known for acclaimed productions, it was also known for its debts,” he says. “In the past few years, however, we’ve found the right balance between the size of the company (18 to 22 actors), the number of annual productions (three or four) and the economic potential of our public.”

The popularity of “The Winners,” a satire co-adapted by Gurevich, was unexpected. The play is about an impoverished theater that has experienced countless financial flops and decides it is time for a hit that will earn money and popularity. For its comeback, the theater plans a musical about Israel — but clashes instead with Israel’s impossible reality.

Another acclaimed Khan production is “Town of the Little People,” based on a collection of Sholem Aleichem stories. Its theme is social and national displacement, exile and bereavement, as it examines the remembering and forgetting of Jewish culture destroyed in the Holocaust and buried with the realization of Zionism.

Plays like these are performed at the Khan alongside works by Agnon and Shakespeare, Jean Anouilh and Howard Barker, as well as original Israeli works (some written especially for the company) and translated evergreens, such as plays by Ibsen, Chekov and Pirandello. Gurevitch writes many of the Khan productions and selects all those performed, giving each the Khan ensemble’s individual spin.

“We’re a different kind of theater,” he says. “We maintain our own particular identity. This is expressed in what we perform and how we perform it.”

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