Israeli Stage Announces Seventh Season

Israeli Stage, sharing the diversity and vitality of Israeli culture through theatre, is proud to announce Season 7! The season will feature two plays presented as Staged Reading in Fall 2016, Olivier Award Nominee Joshua Sobol: In Residence at Israeli Stage in March/April of 2017 and Israeli Stage's Third Full Theatrical Production, Days of Atonement by former Playwright-in-Residence Hanna Azoulay-Hasfari. Dialogue Reflections led by local thinkers, authors and artist will follow all performances.

Season 7 is asking jarring questions through an Israeli lens. What does it mean to be a woman? What is the nature of forgiveness? How can we use theatre and dialogue as a propeller of social change? "Theatre is a sacred place - it is one of the only places in modern society where people of different backgrounds share an experience. It is the rare exception where people from different walks of life are in a room together; how can we use that platform to broaden dialogue?" asks Producing Artistic Director Guy Ben-Aharon. "We must make theatre about building cultural bridges - between people, communities, countries - through shared reflective dialogue."

Season 7 asks us daring questions about gender identity in Fertile, challenges our ideas on end-of-life treatment in Happy Ending, examines how theatre can be used as a form of resistance with Joshua Sobol and looks at what the nature of forgiveness means while shedding light on the Israeli-Mizrachi experience with Days of Atonement.

"I am so excited about this connection with The Bostonians," says Days of Atonement Playwright Hanna Azoulay-Hasfari. "Last year's residency taught me just how important this cultural bridge is. Israeli Stage is creating a vision for artists and audiences to examine issues that are universal together with the goal of making a more open-minded world."

Adrianne Krstansky, who will be playing one of the four sisters in the production says: "The desire to experience theatre from around the world will strengthen our compassion and understanding. Under Guy's direction, these plays come to life with great beauty, humor, intelligence and artistry. I am thrilled to have this opportunity to work with Israeli Stage and the important mission of bringing cross-cultural work to Boston audiences." Director Guy Ben-Aharon expressed his admiration for Azoulay-Hasfari's work, "In Days of Atonement, Hanna manages to write both comedy and pathos." Following last year's All Female Playwrights season, Ben-Aharon says, "Days of Atonement is the natural follow-up to Season 6's All Female Playwrights program line. This is a play about four strong women - women whose voices are often unsung - and need to be sung."

"It is so important to sing the unsung stories of the Moroccan-Israeli narrative," writes Azoulay-Hasfari. "It is one that has been under-served in Israel, and practically unheard abroad. Being able to explore Days of Atonement with American audiences, and fostering this relationship with these brilliant Bostonians gives me hope - hope to create a world that is more understanding and more pluralistic."

Incoming Board Chair Naomi Gordon says "the mission of Israeli Stage is not to present 'the party line' - we are engaging with an Israel that is as nuanced and diverse in opinion and narrative as our reality is here. The playwrights presented are writing from the fringes, not from the center and provide us an opportunity to look into a lens that is sometimes uncomfortable, but always authentic." Board Member Bruce Lynn adds, "Israeli Stage provides us an Israeli slice of life - you get to experience a different Israel with each play you attend."

Days of Atonement by Hanna Azoulay Hasfari | Full Production featuring Adrianne Krstansky

June 1 - 25, 2017 | Boston Center for the Arts | Tickets: $40 at IsraeliStage.com

Massouda Ohana hands her house back to the State-owned housing company and disappears. Her four daughters - who have all been estranged from one another - come from all over the country to their hometown in order to find her. Malka, a housewife who is continually paranoid that her husband is cheating on her, Evelyn (Adrianne Krstansky*), a mother of eight and a devoutly religious follower of Shas (the Sephardic Religious Right Wing), Fanny, a sharp, funny and sexy real estate agent, and Amira, an unsuccessful film student looking to finish her final project. After not having seen each other in years, the four rediscover their relationships and uncover their differences. They must find their mother, empty the house that's been signed over to the State, and spend Yom Kippur, the Day of Atonement, together. While packing, memories surface, tensions intensify and secrets get revealed, coming to the realization that though they all grew up with the same mother, each of them had a different one. Azoulay Hasfari's play is a moving portrayal of four sisters, the Moroccan-Israeli family, and an examination of the nature of forgiving. "Azoulay-Hasfari places her ethnic background at the center stage - the Jewish-Moroccan family and its place in Israeli culture...No subject is more worthwhile of treatment. " ~Ha'aretz

Fertile by Yakir Eliahu Vaknin | A Staged Reading featuring Ramona Alexander

September 18 at 7PM | 170 Beacon Street, Boston's Back Bay | Tickets: $15-25 at IsraeliStage.com

Fertile, a one-act monodrama written by a rising young playwright Yakir Eliahu Vaknin, deals with blurring the lines of gender identity. Fertile was born with a gift - she was born without a uterus. An inherited genetic defect makes her barren at birth. Throughout her life, she is marked by society and by herself as faulty and broken. At 26, following a romantic encounter with the man of her dreams, Fertile decides to reexamine the "broken" parts of her life, and sets on a journey of healing herself. Her journey makes her confront all sides of her femininity and her right to exist as a woman, despite her inability to fulfill the basic female mission, bringing children into the world.

Happy Ending by Anat Gov | A Staged Reading featuring Nancy E. Carroll, Maureen Keiller, Karen MacDonald

November 13 at 7PM | 170 Beacon Street, Boston's Back Bay | Tickets: $15-25 at IsraeliStage.com

From the playwright who brought you the Smash-Hit Comedy, Oh God, experience Anat Gov's ?Happy Ending?. "To be or not to be. That is not the question. The question is how to be." Anat Gov does the unthinkable: making a comedy out of cancer. Talia, a diva of the stage, arrives at an oncology clinic to begin a series of treatments in order to prolong her life. She arrives and meets three incredible women-a feisty Holocaust survivor, a middle-aged, hippy divorcée, and a young Orthodox woman-who make her rethink her life. This encounter brings up what awaits her, and she decides to let go of treatment and embrace the end. After its debut in 2012, Anat Gov died herself, but she wouldn't let you stop laughing.

Joshua Sobol: In Residence at Israeli Stage | March 20 - April 9, 2017 | Various Locations

Israeli Stage will be hosting Award-Winning Playwright Joshua Sobol for three-week residency, work-shopping a brand new play, David, King, featuring Jeremiah Kissel, among others, as well as partnering with local academic & non-academic institutions to host Joshua Sobol for his lecture entitled "Theatre as a Form of Resistance to Oppression and Genocide." David, King: a play about King David that mixes in the Biblical text and modern interpretation with a twist on the idea that King David never actually wanted to be a King, but rather a misanthrope. "Heavy lies the head that carries the the crown"- Sobol's absurd, hilarious and poignant new play examines leadership and its effectiveness when not wanting to be a leader.

Guy Ben-Aharon (Producing Artistic Director) was born in Israel, founded Israeli Stage, an initiative dedicated to sharing the vitality and diversity of Israeli culture. After the success of Israeli Stage, Guy was asked by the Goethe-Institut Boston to develop German Stage, by swissnexBoston to develop Swiss Stage, and has developed Austrian Stage for the Austrian Cultural Forum New York and Tel-Aviv, French Stage for the French Cultural Center and Scandinavian Stage for the Scandinavian Cultural Center. His dedication to international theatre has resulted in tours throughout the East Coast from Toronto to Atlanta. A proud Emerson College alum, Guy lives in Bay Village.

Anat Gov (Playwright, Happy Ending) passed away in December 2012 after a long battle with cancer, leaving a significant imprint on Israeli theatre with six plays: Best Friends, Lysistrata, Househusband, Oh God, A Warm Family and Happy Ending. Israeli Stage: readings of Best Friends and Oh God, and full production of Oh God.

Hanna Azoulay-Hasafri (Playwright, Days of Atonement) is an actress, playwright, screenwriter, social activist & artist. For the past 25 years, Hanna has appeared as a leading actress on stage and on camera in TV & film, garnering two "Best Actress" awards by the Israeli Film Academy, a "Best Actress" award by the Jerusalem Festival, and a "Critics Award for Best Actress" at the Jerusalem Festival. Hanna wrote and acted in "Sh'chur," a film that won the "Best Film Award" at the Israeli Film Academy, a "Special Notice Award" at the Berlin Film Festival, the First Prize Winner at the San Sebastian Festival and "Best Script" at the Troja Film Festival. As a playwright, Hanna has written the Betulot Shiduch, Slihot and Mimuna. Hanna is among the founders of "The Democratic Sephardic Rainbow Coalition," a political activism movement focused on improving Sephardic rights. Israeli Stage: Playwright-in-Residence 2016 (Dina).

Adrianne Krstansky (Actor, Days of Atonement) Off Broadway: 365days/365 plays at The Public Theater and Luck, Pluck and Virtue at the Atlantic Theater Company. Regional credits include Come Back Little Sheba (Huntington Theater - Eliot Norton Award) (Paradise Lost, Britannicus and Ubu Rock (American Repertory Theater), A Clockwork Orange, Twelfth Night. (Steppenwolf Theater). Boston area credits include Tribes, Body Awareness, Snakebit (Speakeasy Stage Company); Blackberry Winter, Imagining Madoff, On the Verge, Holiday Memories, Three Viewings, 2.5 Minute Ride, Frozen (New Repertory Theater), Gary and Legally Dead (Boston Playwrights Theater) November (Lyric Stage Company) and Danny and the Deep Blue Sea (Vineyard Playhouse). Film credits: Cynthia Bibber in Olive Kitteridge (HB0) and Carol in The Company Men. She is the Barbara '54 and Malcolm Sherman Chair of Theater Arts at Brandeis University. Israeli Stage: reading of Make My Heart Flutter and At Night's End.

Joshua Sobol (Playwright in Residence) is a Playwright, Director and Author. Sobol has written over 75 plays and directed productions in Germany, Austria, Switzerland, Israel and the United States. His most famous play, Ghetto, has been performed in 24 countries, and his plays have garnered many awards, among others are: The Evening Standard Award for Best Play of the Year; The Critics' Circle London Theatre Awards - Best New Play 1989; Laurence Olivier Award Nomination for Best Play; Mainichi Art Prize - Best Play of the Year; Yumiuri Shimbun Grand Prize for Best Play of the Year. Sobol won five David's Harp awards for Best Israeli Play and won the Israeli Theatre Award for Lifetime Achievement. Sobol was awarded The Golden Medal of the City of Vienna for Excellent Achievement in 2014. Israeli Stage: readings of Sinners and Wanderers.

Yakir Eliahu Vaknin (Playwright, Fertile) is an actor, director and playwright based in Tel-Aviv. After graduating from the Goodman Acting School in the Negev, he started working as a freelance director and playwright, directing his own original work; a short play entitled Service, a short musical entitled Yakir for Rent, a musical written for the youth city choir of Be'er-Sheva entitled Pretty in a Red Dress, and Fertile (Pori'ya)- an autobiographical monodrama that went on to be staged at the Israel Festival and is now a part of the repertory at the Tmuna Theatre in Tel-Aviv.

ABOUT ISRAELI STAGE

Since its Inaugural Season in 2010-11, Israeli Stage has produced over twenty plays in translation, exposing American audiences across seven states to New England, American, and World Premieres. In March 2012, Israeli Stage launched its first tour of the play Apples from the Desert that visited half-dozen universities, and has since toured extensively throughout New England (and Georgia) to over forty venues, including twenty-five academic institutions. Israeli Stage has been profiled in The Boston Globe, The Improper Bostonian, The International Herald Tribune, Ha'aretz and Yediot America for the unique work they do to build cultural bridges between the United States and Israel. For more information, visit IsraeliStage.com.

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