(Communicated by the Ministry of Tourism Spokesperson)
Within the framework of Tel Aviv's centennial celebrations which officially open in April 2009, the Cameri Theater of Tel Aviv will host the city's first International Theater Festival. Sixteen productions from across the globe will feature in the festival which runs from February-November 2009. The festival will be held at the Cameri Theater, Tel Aviv and the plays will be performed in their original language, with a screened translation into Hebrew. Other activities are also planned, including workshops with visiting actors, exhibitions and staged readings.
The season opens with the German production of The Three Penny Opera, performed by the Berliner Ensemble (21-24 February), followed by two productions in French - Philippe Genty's Boliloc (20-22 March) and the Rond Point Theater from Paris with The Promised Land (31 March -4 April). Poland's TR Theater stages Krum (18-19 April), followed by the Czech Republic' s National Theater performance of Tom Stoppard's Rock'n'Roll (2-3 May).
Other productions in May include the European Theater Convention's production of Noah's Ark in six languages (4-6 May), Henrik Ibsen's Enemy of the People staged by the National Theater of Norway (6-7 May) and Hamlet, performed by Lithuania's Meno Fortas, (15-16 May). Four different productions will be staged in June, including Macbeth, performed by Poland's Teatr Biuro Podrozy (1-4 June), the musical Fear of Flight performed by Canada's Artistic Fraud (28 May-3 June), Scholar and Executioner, staged by the Shanghai Dramatic Arts Center (6-8 June) and Court Miracles, performed by Le Boustrophédon.
The glamour of Broadway arrives after the summer break, with West Side Story (2-14 September), followed by the Romanian National Theater's performance of Electra (12-13 September). Closing the festival in November are performances from Russia's Roman Viktyuk Theater of The Maid and Germany's Mousonturm performing My First Sony.
The Cameri Theater also offers tourists and theatergoers the opportunity to see its most popular Hebrew-language plays performed three times a week with screened translation into English and once a week into Russian.
Contempo, the Tel Aviv International Festival of Contemporary Music and Video Art, is currently hosting a video art exhibition at the Tel Aviv Museum of Art with artists from 27 European countries. In addition, the three weekends in February (starting from 12 Feb) will feature contemporary music from experimental electronic music to video-opera performances and a rock and new-media party.
Tel Aviv-Jaffa is generally regarded as Israel's cultural capital, with many theaters, museums, concert halls, opera, etc. Other cultural highlights scheduled for the Tel Aviv Centennial include a free open-air concert by La Scala Opera House of Milan at Ganei Yehoshua Park, the city's First International Art Biennale and top international dance ensembles performing at the Suzanne Dellal Center for Dance and Theater.