Wednesday, March 20, 2019
The Development Of Israeli Theater–A Brief Overview
The Theatre Times: In comparison with West European theater, Hebrew theater is young: only a century separates the Moscow première of the first professional Hebrew production on October 8th, 1918, and any of over 50 current theater events that can be attended nightly in Tel Aviv, Israel’s theater capital. The almost total lack of theater traditions in Judaism, other than the inherent theatricality in religious services, until the turn of the 20th century and the ensuing quantitative as well as qualitative proliferation of shows, demonstrates a strong link between Israeli reality and universal theatricality.
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3 comments:
The history behind the existence, or rather non-existence, of Israeli theater is fascinating. Hebrew law is incredibly strict and while the Torah doesn’t explicitly say that theater is sinning, its interesting to see how the interpretations of certain laws translated into the negative views against theater. Clearly, with all of the tragedies and wars of Israel, there are many stories to tell now that can be told through theater. The actual existence of the country is an amazing story within itself and I think that theater is the perfect platform to communicate through. I’m so glad that more high schools are starting theater programs to give young Jewish storytellers a platform to tell the world about their country and to also create anything they want. There’s no reason why theater shouldn’t be as big in Israel as it is in other countries.
My favorite article of the week. I love learning something new in these articles. I was raised Jewish and I never knew that Jewish law has frowned upon theater performances and forbade observant Jews to frequent them. What an interesting concept! The fact that this law was formed because of the idea against idol worship is really interesting as well. Jewish theatre is such a young artform. And looking at Jewish history, it makes sense as to why theatre is not as prevalent in the timeline. Like the fact that the Greeks were thriving in Greece, they were able to experience leisure activities and have theatrical performances versus the Jews were focused on rebuilding the Temple in Jerusalem as well as experiencing conflicts with the Roman Empire constantly. Also, the idea that theatre is linked to escapism and the illumination of a world unlike reality is true but also not true. Like Jewish theatre has not flourished because of the belief that theatre cannot represent reality.
I found this article to be really fascinating. Like Ella, I was also raised Jewish and I really had no idea that observant Jews used to look down on theater. I think it is fascinating that theater was equated with idolatry and that is why it was looked down on. I was not that surprised, however, because when I read the title, I immediately tried to think of any Hebrew theater that I knew of. Of course, I could not think of any, which was a little upsetting, given my Jewish background. I felt like I should know of some Hebrew theater but I know now that Hebrew theater is relatively new and still developing. I was glad to reach the end of the article and discover that it is becoming more popular and is becoming more developed, because Jewish culture is so rich with material and I think would translate well onstage. I hope to hear about more Hebrew theater in the future as I think it is something that has a lot of potential.
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