^M00:00:13 >> Aaron Taub: Okay. All right, welcome everyone. Thank you all for coming. Thank you to our distinguished guests. My name is Aaron Taub. I'm with the Israel and Judaica section here at the library. Aaron Taub is my name. Today's program, Welcome to Theaterland and, a presentation by internationally acclaimed Israeli actor, director and I've just been told, diva, Roy Horovitz is sponsored by the researcher and reference services division and LC Globe in cooperation with the Embassy of Israel and the Edlavitch DCJCC GLOE, so thank you to all those partners. Just two quick announcements, please silence your cell phones, you already know that. Also, this event is being recorded to be webcast at a later date. There is a chance that during the Q&A, you might be filmed, so if you don't want to be, don't step up. I would like to thank Megan Metcalf, Chairperson of LC Globe for arranging this program. Where's Megan? In the corner. ^M00:01:25 [ Applause ] ^M00:01:28 >> Thank you to Oren Ben-Yosef, Cultural Attache of the Embassy of Israel. Carole Zawatsky, Executive Director of the DCJCC, our own Gail Shirazi from the Israel Judaica section and of course, our speaker Roy Horovitz. Roy is generously donating a variety of materials from various Israeli theaters to the library. This gift will augment LCs collection of Israeli theater posters and DVDs. These original source materials are made available to researchers at LC in our various divisions, posters and imprints and photographs division and in the Hebraic section, DVDs and other audio visual materials in the motion picture and recorded sound division. Oren and Roy are also working together to help us acquire items that will enrich our collection of the LGBT material from Israel and their many other resources throughout the library related to these topics. In each division, there are knowledgeable librarians available to assist you with your research. So, without further ado, I would now like to invite Oren to the podium to introduce Roy. ^M00:02:43 [ Applause ] ^M00:02:49 >> Oren Ben-Yosef: Thank you very much Aaron. Good afternoon everybody. I'm so pleased to see you all here. My name is Oren Ben-Yosef and I'm the Director of Cultural Affairs with the Embassy of Israel to the United States. On behalf of the embassy, I would like to thank Meg again from the Women's Gender and LBGTQ studies for your friendship and collaboration with us and various cultural programs. Your creative ideas are always exciting and leading to positive change and innovation and we are very much appreciative of that. I would also like to thank Aaron, the head of the Israel and Judaica section at Library of Congress for your friendship and for your, for supporting our cultural programs as well. I'm honored for the opportunity to help you carry out your vision of building the largest collection of human knowledge ever assembled by donating materials related for the, from the Israeli theater brought to you by our special guests, Roy. By having this program today, I feel that we are a part of your mission to serve an accessible and relevant source of knowledge to the general public. And, we look forward of course, for future joint events and cooperation between the Embassy of Israel and the Library of Congress. And, now for the star of the afternoon, it is my absolute pleasure to introduce to you Roy Horovitz, an Israel leading actor, director, dramaturge and lecturer for theater and universities around the world. Aside of being a good friend, he is also extremely talented as you are about to see in a few minutes. Roy also teaches in acting schools and won distinguished awards and honor scholarships for his theatrical work. In the past, he was a manager of theater in Israel as well. Some more fun trivia about Roy. He is a vegetarian, he likes dogs and sometimes he can be a bit childish which we love the most. And, most importantly, he's very, very happy to be here with you today, so please welcome the awesome Roy Horovitz. ^M00:04:48 [ Applause ] ^M00:04:52 >> Oren Ben-Yosef: Aaron, can you please join me. Yeah, there's a lot of good stuff from Israeli theaters. >> Roy Horovitz: I understand that you only get 12,000 materials everyday so, I'd like to add some more. Thank you so much. ^M00:05:11 [ Applause ] ^M00:05:15 >> Roy Horovitz: These are programs from the latest shows, productions of -- ^M00:05:19 [ Inaudible ] ^M00:05:32 >> Aaron Taub: Roy the stage is yours. >> Roy Horovitz: Thank you so much. >> Aaron Taub: Thank you very much. >> Roy Horovitz: Not only that I'm happy, I'm really, I'm thrilled, I'm excited, I'm overwhelmed actually, just, you know, crossing from this enormous building and collections is really something which is breathtaking, so I'm honored to be here and thank you everybody for having me. What I'm about to do, actually it's, it's a mission impossible, I would like to try and portray or to say what's there to be said about the theatrical scene in Israel which is really very intense, very alive and kicking and very diverse. And, I would like to shed some light about what's going on in the field of theater in Israel, because I truly believe that it has a lot to offer to communities outside Israel and I'm very happy to actually to take part in the effort of trying to portray a bit or not a bit, a substantially different profile of Israel from what it's usually pictured, you know, in global media. I think at least in the field of theater, we really are very original and special and as I've said, have a lot to offer. What I'd like to do, because we only have some 40 minutes and then we'll open it for a Q&A, is that I would like to combine, you know, all the different sides of my schizophrenia. I would like to be a bit of an academic at the beginning and give you some data and some information about the theatrical theme. And, then being mostly an actor, I brought with me some texts and I would like to just read to you and show some clips which I think will do a better service to the point I'd like to expose you to some of the most important playwrights, Israeli playwrights nowadays and to let the work speak for itself. Maybe I'll start with just some general data as I've said, Israeli, is really a theatrical empire. In Tele Aviv alone, we have every evening, some 50 different shows and the venues are packed. Israelis flock to the venues and I think it's the 10th or 11th year in a row that Israel has the highest rate of theater goers in the world per capita. Please bear in mind that what keeps the industry going in places like, yours, Broadway, New York or the Western London, not the local people but mostly the tourists, you know, that allow mousetrap [inaudible] to run forever. In Israel, these are the Israelis who come and flock as I said, to the venues and we have a very intense, some may say, maybe a bit of inflation, very intense scene and it is very diverse as I've said. We have shows not only in Hebrew, but also in Arabic, Yiddish, in Amharic, in Russian, in English and I think it's just a matter of time until we have, we'll find that we'll also add shows in French with all the French newcomers to Israel in recent years. Israel is very unique, we have some kind of abnormalities I think or some very specific characteristics which I think I'd like to point out. First of all, I don't, to best of my knowledge, I think Israel is the only country in the world to have, for example, it's national theater established long ago before the establishment of the actual state, you know, our national theater, Habima which I come from, was established in 1917 in Moscow, in Russia, whereas the state of Israel came to life in 1948, some 31 years later. Israel is the only country in the world to have, to have its national theater not functioning in the capital city of Jerusalem, but in Tel Aviv. Jerusalem is not yet ready for the revolution of theater. And, Israel is, as I've said, is really in love with theater and I think this might be explained by the fact that theater is relatively a new phenomena to Jewish culture, Jewish culture and Jewish life, whereas the rest of the Western world have been experiencing theater ever since Ancient Greece, you know, some 2,500 years ago. ^M00:10:20 Jews started dealing or enjoying or practicing theater less than 200 years ago. We are very new to the business and I think that in comparison to ordinations, the fact that we are very new to it, maybe explains why we are still very much in love with it. Whereas, the rest of the world, you know, came to terms with theater, it's one way among other forms of, you know, of a day or a night outside. Israel is very much celebrating the fact that we are finally allowed to enjoy an evening in the theater, because for many, many, generations, the orthodox, Jewish authorities rejected the sheer concept of theater. Theater was something which was identified with then, with the gentiles something which is not done, you know. Jews had been thanking the Lord for many generations for making them [inaudible] yeshivas and synagogues and not of this [inaudible] of mockers as they call the theater. They're not going to theaters or to circuses, God forbid. So, and some 150 or 200 years ago, as part of what we call the national renaissance, [inaudible] the national secular revolution which took part some 150 years ago, theater actually managed to put its foot in the door and we started practicing theater as well. At the beginning, just for your knowledge, it was allowed only one day in the Jewish calendar, we already have one, how do you say, one day which is freaky and, you know, pulling and they allowed, if you want to do your shows, use this day of the year where we, we get drunk and we change costumes and do your shows during that day, but you know the slippery slope? Once it was allowed, it was inevitable and it ended up with what I described at the beginning, that today you can have theater performances in Tel Aviv at 10:00 in the morning, at noon, at 2:00, at 4 p.m., at 6 and at, in the evening, its' really incredible, what is going on. And, the thing diverse from the national theater to municipal theater, to independent groups to children in youth companies, to independent artists to dance theater, you have the whole range. One thing, one fact which I find interesting is that 77, I checked the numbers, 77% of the repertoire which we present in Israeli theater is based on original, original new writing where the most of the what is being produced is Israeli dramaturgy[DJ1], Israeli plays. Besides, you know, we do of course, the classics and the last musicals, you know, the most updated musicals from Broadway. Everything, there is a place to, everything but 77% original writing. You know, let's just jump into the water. I would like to give you some examples before my time passes. Now, it's tough choices. You know, what I start with him, yeah, I'll start with Honoch Levin is the most, Honoch Levin is the most, considered to be the most important, influential Israeli playwright ever, he died at the age of 56 unfortunately at the, this year we are going to, it's going to be 20 years that passed he away. He died in 1999. But he left us with an enormous amount of plays, some, over 70 plays he managed to write, not to mention hundreds of poems, of children's books, sketches, lots of materials, all his writings is something which holds some 17 volumes in the library and I would like, and he is considered and I think rightly so, one of the most, even influential playwrights of the 20th Century, not just in Israel. For example, in France nowadays there are no less than 6 productions of his plays running now. The world actually begins to know that there has been a very good work done in Israel in translating his plays in many languages and there are productions all over the world actually and I brought some examples just to show you what it's, what it's all about. I would like to start from a play which long ago became some kind of Israeli classics by Hoch Levin, named Krum. And, I would like to read to you the opening scene. We have, it's a very typical Honoch Levin scene. We have, we meet, we've have a Jewish mother and all Jewish mothers tending in an airport in a terminal, waiting for her son to come back from abroad and she is very excited and she waits for him and in he comes and that's the dialogue, very, prepare yourself to a very Jewish humor I think. So, the mother says, oh, the plane just landed. In another minute, I'll see my son. Oh, here he comes. The son steps in and said, and says, I didn't' make it abroad mother. I didn't make money and I didn't get happy. I didn't have fun, didn't get ahead, I didn't get married, didn't get engaged and I didn't meet anyone. I didn't buy anything, didn't bring anything. All I have in my suitcase is dirty underwear and toiletries, that's it, I've told you everything and I want you to leave me alone. ^M00:16:41 [ Laughter ] ^M00:16:43 >> Roy Horovitz: Oh, I'm sure he's planning a surprise for me. No! No, mother. Definitely a little surprise for mom. No! No! What are you yelling for? Someone wants something from you? You came back to fight? They are aggravating me already. You are lucky I don't like to yell in airports. Let's go. They leave and a day after, I skip a little, the day after, they sit in their apartment and they have lunch together and he says to her, mother, I can't stand people looking at me while I'm eating and pinning all their hopes on me. Whose hoping? Who even wants anything from you? Looking at me and pinning your hopes on me day and night. What does he want from my life? I'm looking at a fly. In my own house, I'm not allowed to look at a fly? The fly is going out to eat in a restaurant. Go! Go, into the restaurant, the meal you start eating as a son, you'll finish as an orphan. He walks out and the neighbor walks in, the neighbor is the devil of this play, her name is Felicia and she comes in and she says, hi, hello Mrs. Krum, I just saw your son going out looking very angry. No, excited, he's excited because he came back from abroad yesterday. Okay, if you say so. He didn't bring you anything? I have everything. A little TV set. I have one, yes, made in Israel. You can see very well on it. A leather coat, a wallet, a handkerchief. Oh, well. Mrs. Felicia, my son came back from abroad strong and healthy, that's what counts. He is healthy, he works and supports himself. What else can I ask for? He even managed to save some of his salary for a trip to Europe. We are not arguing about Europe now Mrs. Krum. It's true that he went, even though, everybody's going these days. What's the big deal? A plane takes you, a plane takes you back, but he went, he went, the question is, is a person traveling to achieve something. Is he even progressing towards something? Is he building something? And especially, is he moving towards some happy event? Look, I'm absolutely not disappointed in my son. He is talented. Of course, no need to jump into disappointment right away. You can always keep on waiting and hoping, but the question is, for how long, a person doesn't stay 40 forever. My son's 38! If you say so. And for God, there is still the strength to wait, to hope. Of course, there is strength Mrs. Krum, the question is whether there is a point. As long as he's healthy and feels good. Healthy and feels good, Mrs. Krum, everybody's healthy, the question is, what a person does with his health. Does he know how to take advantage of the time he's healthy? Does he have something in hand to justify his healthiness and second of all, who can say I'm healthy? I'm mean sickness is always laughing at us. Pardon, I have no complaints. To each his own. One person becomes a doctor and another becomes a decorator. The main thing is that you are happy, and she leaves. ^M00:20:09 The mother stays alone and summarizes. Another attack fended off. My whole life fended off. My whole life is spent fending off attacks. [inaudible] attacking you from the front, poverty is already attacking from behind. Did you fend off the attack for rent. municipal are attacking from the side. Did you fend off municipal taxes? Felicia is waiting for you. Did you fend them all off? Go to bed and fend off a long empty night. This is -- ^M00:20:42 [ Applause ] ^M00:20:44 >> Roy Horovitz: Thank you, I just love it. And, I mentioned some short sketches, not only 70 plays, but also some very witty sketches I brought two short examples. Let's see what you say about this one for example. We are addressing an offstage dressing room of a magician who just finished his gig now, and there is a knock on the door and there is a man coming in and he and the dialogue goes like this. ^M00:21:15 [ Knocking ] ^M00:21:17 >> Roy Horovitz: Excuse me. Excuse me, Mr. Magician, Mr. Magician, please could you excuse? Can't you see I'm busy? Oh, sorry, sorry. But excuse me, Mr. Magician, excuse me for. What's this about?! It's just about my wife. Pardon? My wife. Ten minutes ago, you were so kind as to saw my wife in two. Yes? Are you waiting for something sir? No, but my wife. Yes? You sawed her in two. Yes, you said so. Well, and she's still sawn. Yes, and what's this about? Well, I wanted to ask, I don't presume to know anything about magic, but when are you sticking her back together? Pardon? I mean, when are you sticking the two parts of my wife back together? I'm not sticking anything sir. This isn't a weld shop. Sorry, sorry. You're welcome. But. Yes? My wife, she's in two pieces and you need to stick, sorry, to put her back together like she was before, sir, you remember don't you? She volunteered 10 minutes ago for you to saw her, you sawed her and now we are waiting for you to show us the trick. Trick?! There are no tricks with me sir. I'm a magician. All right, and my wife. What about her? She's sawn, she can't leave like this when she's sawn in two. So, why don't you take her to the emergency room? Based on your description I understand that she is in need of some medical attention. What, what, what, what, but the trick, the trick! You are starting with the trick again. I tried politely and guess what a pain in the ass. You stick my wife back together right now! Firstly, don't shout at me, because if you're annoying me, I can turn you into a rabbit and secondly, with regards to your wife, if she really is sawn in two, then she's probably dead, there's no surprises here. Dead?! She's sawn in two isn't she? But you are a magician! What's that got to do with anything? I can also saw my wife in two. No need to. I've already done it. This is the black humor of Honoch Levin. Lots of his plays and sketches have been translated into English and you can easily find them out. I would like to go to another example. Actually, you know, if I have to point out, I think I did it, yesterday I gave another lecture somewhere else and I was asked about the most characteristic thing which I can define to Israeli dramaturgy and I said it, I think it's the ability or skill to inject humor even into the most heavy subject matters. I think we have this incredible ability of, maybe it's some kind of survival mechanism, I don't know psychologically what, to deal with even the heaviest stuff with some humor. And, I think this is a very good example [inaudible] is the representative of I think the younger generation, the next one to Honoch Levin. And, I would like to read to you a scene from her first play, she wrote several plays to this day which is called, "The Guide to the Good Life". And, I think this example will serve me for two things, one is to show you that it's a combination of humor and serious matters and the other one is you know, Israeli theater has two central preoccupations, one is the Holocaust which we might come back later on and the other one is of course the current events, you know, in the political situation and the neighborhood we live in. And, what she does here is that I think she manages to show us what is living in Israel nowadays, especially for young people. The scene I'm about to read is the character is a woman in her 30s, she's a single lady in her 30s longing to get married. Her name is [inaudible] and it starts with her calling this company, I'm sure you have it here too, these coupons or Groupons, this special offer companies. She calls them, she saw an ad and she calls them and it goes like this. >> What's the name of the play? >> The Guide to the Good Life by [inaudible]. It was a major hit in Israel. Hello? Beauty Bargain? Hi, yes I'd like some information. The slimming soap that liquidizes body fat, is it painful? Okay. And, the body fat that melts away, what, does it just wash off in the bathroom? Great! I'd like to order one of those please, yeah. Oh, one more thing, the electronic breast muscle shaper, it doesn't actually electrify your boobs does it? How do you attach it to your breasts? Oh, vacuum? Lifting and refirming and does it enlarge them as well? Oh, that's what the natural capsules are for? Oh, yes, could you put them on the list please? And, they don't give you cancer do they? Tested on what, ferrets, otters, what's a ferret? A rodent. Oh, ferrets, they're called ferrets. Yeah, they're very smelly. What do I get with it? An, electrical vibrating bell for shaping the abdominal muscles? For how much extra? Oh, undetectable under any item of clothing? Yes, that's fab. One less thing, those wonder drops, Viva Young and Viva Lady, how can using them create perfect harmony with your partner and significantly improve your quality of life? Oh, the libido, whoa. And, a youthful energy? Yeah, that's lovely youthful. Yeah. Yeah, that's really amazing. Yes, I'd like the ladies and the men's too, just in case. Hold on a second, don't add this all up yet. The lifting cream for the forehead, how high does it lift? Oh, what a brilliant idea. All right, all right, put it on my list. Yeah, yeah, and total it all up. I see, I see, can I pay in installments? Okay, I'll pay in 18 installments. Yeah, that way I'll hardly notice it. Gosh, what a wonderful deal. A beauty bargain indeed, thank you. A few days later, it's the middle of the night, she knocks hysterically on a friend's front door and says to her, hi! Thank you, I don't know what I would've done without you. I had no one to call. My mom would kill me if she knew I got arrested. You are an angel. All right, all right, [inaudible] and tell me slowly what happened. How come you were at the policemen and why the hell were you detained as a dangerous terrorist. Because they thought I was a suicide bomber. What?! I bought this electric vibrating belt for slimming and shaping the abdomen. You can wear it under any piece of clothing and it's, it's completely undetectable. I have it on at home, at work, wherever. I had a date in the grill bar, the guy was inside already. I was about to go in when this security man shouted at me, hold it ma'am, stop right there. What's that under your shirt? And, I said, nothing, you know, because it's none of his business. You know, it's really none of his business and then I keep walking and so then he jumps me, he pushes me to the floor and starts yelling, a suicide bomber, a suicide bomber! He tried to rip my shirt off. Pervert! So, I bit him and then, then he handcuffed me and started shouting at me in Arabic. ^M00:29:35 [ Foreign Language ] ^M00:29:38 >> Roy Horovitz: And, then the police came and shoved me away in case there were anymore bombs around. Can I stay at your house tonight? Please? Living in Israel nowadays. You can't even wear this belt. Maybe we'll go the next, you know what, maybe a clip, not just my own presentations. This is a clip of, a short clip of a very witty comedy written by another playwright, named [inaudible]. Actually, I understood that just recently a week ago, there was a production of, "Oh God" by her which just closed in the Mosaic theater here. She is considered to be one of the really very talented, we lost her too. I don't know what it is with Israeli playwrights, she too died of cancer at the age of 59. But she left us with some very rich comedies and I was very happy to hear that the Oh God did well here. This is a comedy which is called, House Husband I think. ^M00:30:43 [ Foreign Language ] ^M00:30:44 >> Roy Horovitz: In Hebrew, house husband, how would you translate it, I think, stay at home. It's about an ex, about a pilot in the Israeli Airforce who just retired, you know, they retire pretty early in their 40s and is coming back to his family which the family members, his wife and his daughters are not used to having that at home. And, having him at home now after he retired makes things not easy or not simple for them. And, she wrote a very witty comedy once again another huge success at the Comedy Theater in Tel Aviv and a have a short clip of it with English subtitles luckily enough, so you can see it. Are we good the lights and everything, it's, maybe we should. Here, it speaks for itself. But what's with the sound? Oh. ^M00:31:46 [ Foreign Language ] ^M00:38:39 >> Roy Horovitz: Okay, that's it. Yeah, I think her plays [inaudible] comedies can translate very easily and I could tell from your reaction. She has another one, by the way, called, "Family Business", about once again we come back to the Jewish mother, the Jewish mother who refuses to accept her daughter's plan not to attend the, the [inaudible], the past of her eve meal and she attends to go abroad with some of her friends and her mother refuses. There's no such thing as not attending the annual setter and says, over my dead body. And, literally she keeps her word in order to prevent her from growing. So, this is a [inaudible]. I think mentioned before that we are very new to the business and you know, something which is I find interesting is that you know, unlike the enormous contribution of Jewish artists to the fields of music or of literature where you cannot imagine, you know, the history of literature without a Jewish contribution to it. In the field of drama, all the great masters are not Jewish. I think if I'm to think of a Jewish great master, I think that maybe the first name that pops into mind is maybe [inaudible] but then we speak about the mid of the 20th Century. ^M00:40:05 Jews haven't been practicing theater and we are very new and we do our first steps and I think it calls for lots of originality I think in doing it. As I said, before, there are two central preoccupations for Israeli theater. One is as I've said, political issues as we have lots of political writing going on. Some of them, of these plays, I understood yesterday even came here, arrived to Washington, made all kinds of debates here too when they were performed here, but there is a lot of political writing going on. And, the other one as I said, the Holocaust. I think the Holocaust maybe, it's a bazaar term to use, but I think it's the most popular topic or historical event over 100 Israeli plays which can be characterized as Holocaust plays. I think that maybe the most well-known, famous one is, "Ghetto", Joshua Sobol which won many prizes and got some, over 70 productions all over the world. But there are many, many, many productions which deal with, you know, first generation, second generation, third generation. Also, lots of them has these, as I've said, this ability to try pretty much like you remember, maybe the controversial female film from a couple of years ago, "Life is Beautiful", by Roberta Benigni which allowed itself to combine some kind of comedy with the tragedy, that tragedy of the Holocaust. We have lots of plays which go the same direction. I see that we are running out of time and I was asked to allow you for some Q&A. And, actually theater for me is, is always about the dialogue, so let's open it and please don't leave me alone. Yeah, please. >> You mentioned that the Jewish theater is relatively new, but there's a tradition of Yiddish theater? >> Roy Horovitz: That's right. >> You say that the modern Jewish theater is totally unrelated to the tradition. >> Roy Horovitz: No, I'm not saying that, I'm saying that the Jewish theater, with all due respect to the Yiddish theater, it's a matter of just 150 years ago. All these [inaudible] they are all very new relatively speaking. We are speaking about theater which started, you know, Goldfaden established his, which is considered to be the godfather of Jewish theater, he started his company in 1876, so we are very. This is [inaudible]. This is considered, so we are only speaking about the history of Jewish theater in Yiddish ever since then. The great miracle of Habima one of the historical achievements of Habima for instance, when it was established in 1917, it was the first Jewish theater to do theater for, by Jewish people, for Jewish people in Hebrew. You know, the holy language. Up to this point it was only done in Yiddish. But the whole history is something of 150-200 years ago. That's the whole legacy of Jewish theater you know in Yiddish. I know that at a certain point, you know, in 2nd Avenue in New York, there was some over, I think 100 Yiddish theaters, you know, and there was such a prosperity between the two World Wars of Jewish theater in the states. But it's, all in all, it's a very new phenomenon. Yes, please. >> On, the same thing of, Yiddish tradition, Yiddish humor and theater, I think that actually explains the Israeli love for theater currently because it's irreverent. It's Israeli's love up close and personal interaction and irreverent and it's all comes together. >> Roy Horovitz: I totally agree. You're very much right. Yes, please. >> I kind of disagree with you about. >> Roy Horovitz: Agree or disagree? >> Disagree. >> Roy Horovitz: Disagree with me? How could you disagree with me? Although what? >> About major American contributions to theater pushed American Jews invented the musical. >> Roy Horovitz: The musical, yes, yes, but. >> This is theater too. >> Roy Horovitz: Yes, what I was talking is the field of drama maybe. You know, if you talk about the graced masters of drama, you refer to Shakespeare. ^M00:44:50 [ Inaudible ] ^M00:44:54 You don't find Jewish playwrights all for the history, you know, ever since Ancient Greece, that's what I referred to. Of course, you know, musical which is an artform of the 20th Century, of course, you can't imagine [inaudible] sure, sure, so we agree, we don't disagree. Yes, please. >> You referenced a couple of times, as a catchall phrase, political theater. ^M00:45:26 [ Inaudible ] ^M00:45:30 >> Arrived in Washington at Mosaic. >> Roy Horovitz: In theater [inaudible] in the beginning, yeah. ^M00:45:37 [ Inaudible ] ^M00:45:38 >> Roy Horovitz: Yeah, no, you see I'm into the business, I know everything. Yeah, okay. ^M00:45:43 [ Inaudible ] ^M00:45:49 >> If one way of looking at it a theater in Israel pre-state is 100 years of political theater, no question about it where nothing was immune from theatrical [inaudible]. My sense is, the past two decades at least, political theater in Israel has been [inaudible], political climate, government. ^M00:46:13 [ Inaudible ] ^M00:46:16 >> Political theater has been on a decline. In fact, on the mainstream companies it's dead indeed, the fact that we had a number of plays [inaudible] coming here to Washington that came here, it couldn't be produced in this room. ^M00:46:35 [ Inaudible ] ^M00:46:40 >> Related to a point I think you said that at the very beginning, you said, 77% of productions are home grown [inaudible] place. I don't want to play the numbers game, but I looked at the kind of programs, the program of the comedy and I saw to my horror, exactly one Israeli, one new Israeli play. It's all musicals great stuff, adaptations, translations, Shakespeare [inaudible] terrific stuff, but other than in the fringe, occasionally in the comments not easy to find, new Israeli plays. ^M00:47:22 [ Inaudible ] ^M00:47:24 >> Roy Horovitz: My observation with, my observation is that, thank you first of all, but my observation is we totally disagree. I disagree with you. First of all, I don't know which program you saw of the [inaudible]. I come from the [inaudible] just directly [inaudible] They do more than one original play. It's true that they are doing all kinds of musicals too in the big venues but they produced at least, at least 4-5 Israeli original plays every season, so I can't give you the names. Otherwise, I don't know which documentary you referred to. As for [inaudible] and the fact that some of this plays were produced here even before having or facing some difficulties in getting a production in Israel, I don't really want to get into but I would say very, you know, with all, with all due respect and how do you say, [inaudible]? >> Cautious. >> Roy Horovitz: Cautious, thank you, that I'm not sure that every play that wasn't produced it's only because of its political content. I think there are some of the considerations, you know, and calculations that theater directors and managers do are sometimes has to do something with artistic merits you know. And, I'm not that sure that all of the plays that were denied in Israel are really masterpieces. >> An example, as a general observation. >> Roy Horovitz: You are right, you are right in the, you mentioned the name of our current minister of culture and once again without going into, you know, not stepping into any mine here, you arrived that there is maybe some decline in the last year or two, people are more cautious because, you know, you know, unlike the system here, most of the theater which deals with private money, most of the theater in Israel is subsidized either by the government or by the municipalities, so it's, and it calls for some, you know, it's complicated. And, I think you are right with some observations regarding this [inaudible] period which might, she came into clashes with artists and maybe some of them got frightened, but the situation is far from there is not real censorship. ^M00:50:11 And, I'm not familiar with any, you know, good writing, good, well-deserved, you know, well-made play which was denied or someone would turn down because of a fear of political content. I'm not aware of such cases. Yes. >> Since LC Globe is one of the cosponsors of this event, can you talk about specifically gay themed plays that have been produced. >> Roy Horovitz: Yeah, there is a first of all at any given time I think you can find at least 1 or 2 plays which has some relevance to LBGTQ issues. There is a small French theater which works at a gay center in Tel Aviv and specializes in gay themed plays. Right now, they are putting, I think for the fourth time, Angels in American, a new production which is about to open once again. There is a thing, you know, in Tel Aviv, it's some kind of a gay capital as we all know. We are about to host a Eurovision as you may know, the Eurovision Song Contest this coming May. In Tel Aviv is really some kind of a gay, gay paradise. Certainly, you know, in comparison with rest of our neighbors. So, there is, there is constant activity, you know, in this, in this world. And, even in the repertoire, in the established theaters, you know, they do from time to time, I myself directed a play which is called, "Volunteer Man", by an American playwright, very talented American playwright. He got an ABBY award for this play and named Dan Clancy, I directed four of his play by now in Israel and it was done in our repertoire of theater and it tells the story of a volunteer man, a gay man who is coming to assist a dying patient in a hospital and actually deals with the questions of amnesia and ending of your life and it's an encounter between a, very you know, drugged addict, very homophobic man and this feminine, very sensitive teacher of gay theater come to assist him. So, there is, and as I've said before, anytime you can find open productions which has disappeared anytime. >> What's the name of the theater, the gay. >> They are called, I don't know how to translate it into English. Tahel [assumed spelling], Tahel stands for -- ^M00:53:09 [ Inaudible ] ^M00:53:13 >> Roy Horovitz: It's a homo-lesbian theater, but in Hebrew is shrines a bit. Yes? >> I wanted to ask you about, in Israel, are there other theaters that are done in Russian, English, in Arabic in part and I want to know about that. And, you've mentioned just now the government subsidy issue and that man in the back grabs, obliquely referenced shame which is not Weisman's workshop playing in Mosaic now where the, apparently the, the Jewish Arab theater in [inaudible] is closed or something. And, I know the Kennedy Center brought a Palestinian play from a company in Jerusalem. I just would like you to talk about that and I mean the state of different, different ethnic group theaters and the issue of the need for government subsidies and if the government subsidies is shutdown then the theater is shuts down. >> Roy Horovitz: Once again, the story we have done due to the best of my knowledge is not, they didn't shutdown because of their theatrical activity, but because there was some issues as with, with some events that took place within the facilities of the theater which are something against the Israeli law or of encouraging some kind of terrorists groups or something. I don't want to really go into it because I'm not that, an expert, but it hasn't got to do with anything with their repertoire which was, there is not real censorship on which plays you perform. There isn't and there was by the way in Israel, censorship, up to 1988. ^M00:55:07 [ Inaudible ] ^M00:55:08 >> Roy Horovitz: Whom I've mentioned before has some clashes with the censorship back then in the 70s and insisted in performing some of his satirical plays without permission and that was a big deal back then, but ever since 1988, it was cancelled, this comedy of censorship. What I can say is there are companies which specializes in productions, in as I've said, in [inaudible] there are at least two subsidized Arabic theaters besides the [inaudible] which is about to close. There is the Gesher theater which some materials like I've brought here which functions, is bilingual theater. It was established some 25 years ago by new, by Jewish immigrants from Russia. They came as a company pretty much like Habima back then. They came and they performed in both Russian and Hebrew. They started performing in Hebrew while they still didn't know the language and they had to write a text in Hebrew, in foreign letters and so they function regularly. There is, and there is, you know, in recent years, there is a very large population coming from South Africa in the city of Ra'anana and they established their own English speaking theater which is now started to be, you have to prove that you function on your own for two years in order to start getting some subsidy from the government and they just now joined the this list and they will be started, starting to be supported as well. So, there is, a very, I'm not that of an expert because I focus mainly on the Hebrew speaking theater but I'm quite aware of the fact that it is being supported as well. >> To follow up in the occupied territories, is there Hebrew theater, is there. >> Roy Horovitz: I don't believe so. I don't believe there are. >> None of the settlements. >> Roy Horovitz: I don't, I don't believe so, but because of some, if I spoke about history and I spoke about the love hate relationship with the Jewish tradition and the making of theater, I think there is a large population, a large population of the settlers are coming for more religious, part, you know, groups of Israeli society and I am not aware of any established theater or company which functions. Israeli theater, the Cameri, Habima, they come and perform there. They have, you know, they host productions from Israeli theater, but I'm not aware of any theater which is based there and produces its own stuff, not to this day. Yes. ^M00:58:16 [ Inaudible ] ^M00:58:22 >> Roy Horovitz: Ah, in Yiddish, yeah I have. ^M00:58:23 [ Inaudible ] ^M00:58:25 >> Roy Horovitz: It's done every decade. You have at least one production of, we can't go without Fiddler on the Roof. Tradition, tradition. >> Are we all set? Okay. >> Roy Horovitz: I think so, thank you, thank you so much. ^M00:58:39 [ Applause ] [DJ1]