The Karov Theatre - the week after Yom Ha Shoah, IDF Memorial Day and the build towards independence...

It is a bitty time of year in Israel. First we have Pesach - a two-week holiday, then the weeks following are consumed with memory and looking backward, forward and at the present in the light and darkness behind the fun that is Tel Aviv and Israel.

I have just submitted an application to the Paideia Project Incubator in Sweden...an institute sponsored by the European Jewish Cultural Fund to link Israel with European Diaspora. On behalf of the Karov Liron and I could go and learn how to take things further with our international applications and initiatives.

PK (or Project Kanafayim - The Wings Project) comprises the following ventures for a 2-3 year series:
- She London - a twin mini-festival at the New End Theatre, Hampstead, providing a collaborative platform and creative education for female performers and practitioners in Israel and the UK.
- The Man From There (Paris production and workshop) - a revival of the Holocaust play in the French capital next Yom Ha Shoah.
- The Karov at InFoMaT, Athens (International Festival Of Making Theatre) - an opportunity for Dorit to teach a variety of European directors, actors and drama students about the importance of Israeli community theatre beyond its immediate location.
- Communism As Taught To The Mentally Ill and Hotel Europe in a special Eastern European teaching tour in community centres, schools, fringe theatres and institutes of higher education.
- Wings Internship and Education program - an accompanying opportunity to each project for two young Diaspora to work alongside the Karov in their home community, to build a unique perspective on international arts and Israel.

So fingers crossed. If I don't get the Paideia thing, Liron, Linor and I will hopefully go to Edinburgh for August. I want so badly to show them the playground on the Meadows and all the other stuff.

Last night the program took us to a memorial ceremony at a naval base in Haifa. It was the perfect place for it by the sea and it was incredible to see the navy kids and older people as well as the Army. It was a very difficult day thought-wise, that is all I can say really in writing. There were 2 silences, one in the night and one at 11 this morning.
Tonight there are parties everywhere to build up to Independence Day tomorrow. I will be again I think in Kikar Rabin with the Brazillian contingent. Moaan told me today she also is learning Spanish. I must work more on the Ivrit-Espanol swap-love with Liron as it is so much fun and I learn a lot from her. I wonder if it is connected to the fact that we both have teacher mothers.

Anyhow, I would really like your thoughts on the Wings Project and if anyone has any ideas to add. Gems of Mazal is coming on grand. I have a business plan to do before Thursday which is a huge old document but I like doing them because I am a freak. xx

Shapira Shapira Shapira

The Shapira Festival, 06/04...ESI YOFI.

Yesterday we set out from the Karov to the Shapira neighbourhood, 3 minutes' walk South of the Tachana Merkazit but longer with:
- the Karovmobile (not a car, a wooden box-office type contraption on wheels)
- Rafi "Doktor Cultura" Adi
- Linor "naughty schoolgirl (complete with satchel, handbell and hair-ribbon)" Kruzuk
- Me with corset, rabbit ears etc, and
- Liron

Shapira is the new old Nevesedek where there are lots of kids everywhere and small front rooms and grocers turned into public galleries and hang-out spots for the "festival". For the first couple of hours we were the only attraction, singing, dancing and re-enacting the spontaneous "Clinica Cultura" with Rafi the Rofe (doctor). Passers-by - children and adults and pets etc - were all really interested in the Karov and open to the on and off-street Karovian antics on offer. More so than in England. It was a Royal Mile just for us.

Yesterday I didn't have much koach having been up so early to take my dad to the airport et al so my bestest part of the day was playing with the children. There were three huge metal punch bags on chains hanging from a tree and you could bash them into each-other to make a noise. The neighbourhood provides wooden sticks with which to hit the metal punchbags and lo pasabamos bomba!

We stayed to promote the Karov in Shapira for four hours and had beer and cigarettes. Here were the three most beautiful things about it, I thought:

1. Rafi gave out sweets, all the the children as well as the interested adults, and everyone took them.
2. If you smoke and drink whilst promoting at a festival in Shapira it is not seen as derogatory or lazy or immature in relation to your cause. Rather it reflects an affinity which is even more attractive to locals.
3. Today I had an amazing conversation with Linor (naughty schoolgirl) who is the longest serving Karov persona except Nico and she lives in Shapira and said that to see it in festival mode and linked with her work enforced her love of living there.

For those of you living in Israel, we have a membership deal of 4 plays for 100NIS (about 15pounds). You can find more info here or post a comment and I'll get back to you.

Last night I cooked dinner and talked lots with F about the difference between North and South Tel Aviv - how South TA for me is the Israel of the future with its cultural diversity and laid-back welcome so inherent on days like yesterday.

There were a lot of art-recycling projects. Linor's favourite was the one with burnt chairs, reinstalled to become free-moving mechanisms which drew on a white wall with their charcoal remnants. I really liked the dismantled massive cardboard boxes and white paint next to where we were. So many children were going crazy and the way their freedom and inhibition came out in the patterns and sculpture-type things they made was just amazing.

Shapira looks a lot like an Israeli Kennington but without the yuppy wank. If I stay here beyond June I will def live there.