HaBima - On the World Stage

The HaBima Theater was accepted into the Union of the Theatres of Europe (UTE) alongside the world's leading theaters, including:" The British Royal Shakespeare Company, Sweden’s Royal Dramaten, Piccolo in Milan, Katona Theatre in Budapest, the Maly Theatre in St. Petersburg, the Bulandra Theatre in Bucharest, as well as known directors, Georgio Streler, Lev Dodin, Robert Lepage, Luca Ronconi, Andrzej Wajda and Declan Donlon.

Membership in the UTE is honor and privilege for Israel’s National Theater, the only member not on the European continent, tying Israeli theater to the center of artistic Europe.

This is the beginning of a new era in the theater - a period of international activity, cooperation with the world's most prominent theaters, the exchange of plays and directors, co-production, participation in festivals, and hosting other member theaters from the Union.

World Tours June 2009: The Barak Obama Inaugural Speech Project- The HaBima Theater was invited to Stockholm, Sweden to participate in a unique project, which brought together actors from nine different countries, each performing their version of Barak Obama’s inaugural speech. HaBima sent actor Yigal Sadeh and director Hanan Snir and Yigal’s interpretation received very enthusiastic responses. April 2009: Black Box – the Play by Hanan Snir based on the book by Amos Oz, was performed by the Schauspielhaus Theatre in Dusseldorf, Germany. March 2009: The play The Third Generation by Yael Ronen Amit Epstein directed by Yael Ronen was performed by the Schaubühne Theater in Berlin. Reality Check – An Encounter between Tel Aviv and Düsseldorf A project in which 4 young German playwrights and four young Israeli playwrights wrote short plays about identity. At the end of the project the HaBima and the Schauspielhaus will each produce a show made up of these plays and will focus on each of the countries’ identity’s and the connection between them. The Israeli playwrights participating in the project are: Tal Schiff, Dana Ididsis, Noa Lazar, and Yariv Gotlieb, and Dramaturge: Shlomi Moshkovitz. Deddy Baron will direct the show in Israel and Emilie Neimeyer, the artistic director of the Dusseldorf er Schauspielhaus, will direct the Dusseldorf production. December 2008: The premiere of Bat Yam – Tykocin in Israel in honor of “Polish Year in Israel”. November 2008: The premiere of Bat Yam – Tykocin at the International Dialogue Festival in Wroclaw, Poland – a co-production with the Wrocławski Teatr Wsp›łczesny in Wroclaw. Two plays presented in one evening - Polish and Israeli actors and artists together, in both Hebrew and Polish. Both productions explore the complex and charged relationship between Jews and Poles during and after World War II, as they are experienced by the younger generation of both countries. November 2008: The play Pshuta (Denuded) wins third place at ARMMONO, the One Man Show International Festival, in Kiel, Germany. October 2008: A visit from the director of the British National Theater, Sir Nicholas Hytner with English playwright David Hare to progress the joint project of The HaBima, the National Theater and the Palestinian Theater. October 2008: HaBima is at the Parma Festival in Italy. The plays War, directed by Ilan Ronen, Pshuta (Denuded) and The Third Generation participated in the festival. September 2008: Pshuta (Denuded) by Miki Peleg leaves for Taiwan. September 2008: HaBima’s International Festival of Stage Performances in Tel Aviv under the auspices of the Union of the Theatres of Europe (UTE) for theater managers, festival directors and other theater artists from Europe who came especially for the festival. September 2008: The play The Investigation by Peter Weiss of the Teatro Due in Parma, Italy, arrives in Israel. The play is based on the famous Nuremberg trials, with an exciting, unusual and impressive performance by Italian actors. August 2008: performances of Antigone at the International Festival of Ancient Greek Drama in Cyprus. . Pictured: From Antigone June 2008: The show The Third Generation by Yael Ronen and Amit Epstein, under the direction of Yael Ronen, is performed in the Theater Der Welt Festival in Halle, Germany. A collaboration between the HaBima Theater and the German Schaubhne Theater. This special project, where both Jewish and Arab actors from HaBima perform with actors from the Schaubhne tries to explore the intricate and complex relationship between Germans, Israelis and Palestinians. The project investigates the connecting roots of the three nations and their reincarnations throughout the years by focusing on today’s personal and relevant points of view through the eyes of the third generation. The project allows the artists a fresh examination of the years 1938-1948, when the narratives of the three peoples were established emphasizing the permeability of concepts such as memory, guilt and sacrifice, with regard to the lives of the third generation and the construction of a personal and national identity. June 2008: HaBima hosts renowned Polish director Krzysztof Warlikowski with the play Dybbuk at the Israel Festival. The play took part at the opening of the celebrations of HaBima’s 90th anniversary and saluted the Yevgeny Vakhtangov’s legendary Dybbuk in honor of “Polish Year in Israel”. June 2008: The HaBima and the Cameri Theater visit Japan for the first time with 2006 play-of-the-year Antigone at the prestigious Spring Festival in Shizuoka, Japan.

March 2008: The British Political Theater Festival – the Israeli version of the festival held at the Royal National Theater in the United Kingdom – where Israeli political playswere read. The HaBima and the Royal National Theater collaborate in support of Bi Arts and the British Council. The British Political Theater Festival in contemporary Hebrew – the HaBima Theater hosts the artistic management of the British National Theater, headed by the theater's artistic director, Sir Nicholas Hytner. Five staged readings, meetings with guest playwrights. Pictured: (from right to left) Odelia Friedman, Benny Tzarfati, Nicholas Hytner, Ilan Ronen, Jim Betri and Julia Smith (the British Council).

2007

April 2007

September 2007:

The program includes: Elegant Yiddish sketches, excerpts from Israeli plays and her participation in an international performance.

October 2007

November 2007:

2007