Hebrew      

PEACE CHILD ISRAEL  

 

November 23, 2010

 

Melisse Lewine-Boskovich

Peace Child Israel

 

Dear Melisse

 

RE:  Cooperation Between Habima and Peace Child Israel

 

1.     The Habima National Theatre sees itself as the theatre that represents the general public in Israel.  Until now, the capacities of the Habima Theatre to reach  the Arab-Israeli community has been limited and aside from having a few Arab actors who work full time in theatre, the connection between Habima and the Arab sector is nearly non-existent.

 

2.     As a national theatre, and as part of our agenda, we believe in culture and art as an effective way to bond between cultures and as a wonderful tool for dialogue between the different societal textures in Israel.  Therefore the Arab-Jewish dialogue is extremely important to us.  In the framework of our repertoire we produce plays that deal with this complex relationship.  Among others, recently we mounted:  "Third Generation", "Railway to Damascus", Trauma Victims", Kochav Yair", "1001 Nights"  and "His Whole Life in Front of Him", scripts, all of which (some more than others)  deal with this relationship.

 

3.     The contact with PCI began with a cooperative event last July,

(http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aGIagsU8_rk) in which we hosted the "Du-Drama Festival", for which Habima actors provided master classes for the youngsters and together everyone attended "Railway to Damascus" after a discussion with the artistic director of the theatre, Ilan Ronen.  The event went over extremely well, and the reverb was excellent.

 

4.      We see this as the beginning of a cooperative relationship

 

5.      Peace Child Israel is aligned with the "I believe" [vision] of Habima and therefore, such cooperation is natural and holds high potential for success. 

 

6.     During our meeting with Melisse Lewine-Boskovich, we developed the first multi-year program with the following possibilities for cooperation:

 

a)   Special performances of "Third Generation" including discussions after the play in February 2011.

b)  Hosting of the "Du-Drama Festival", in a similar format as last year

c)   Production of the play "A Sobol Summer", sponsored by Habima.  Later, and with return to the new building, the cooperation will be explored further in detail

d)  Production of  "Still Here" with Habima;  the details of the project will be further explored in the future.

 

7.      We are totally committed to the idea that theatre can contribute to the closing of gaps and therefore we see Peace Child Israel as a wonderful partner for joint activities in the future.

 

8.     The new Habima building will allow us to find even more and new options and directions for cooperation. 

 

Best regards,

 

Gadi Bar-Oz

Director of Special Projects

 

CC:    Ilan Ronen, Artistic Director

          Ruti Ton, Artistic Department Director

 

[Translation from the original Hebrew]

 

 

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