The Kibbutz Theatre Company of Israel

13, Leonardo da Vinci St.
Tel Aviv, Israel 64733
Phone: 972-3-692-5256
Fax: 972-3-692-5266

www.shwartzberg.org

The 'Kibbutz Theatre Company' was founded in the 1930s by the kibbutz movement. The theatre functioned at the time, as a political satire ensemble as inspired by Brecht and Piscator. Since the 1960s, the theatre has been transformed and is supported by the Ministry of Education and Culture. It now reaches out to a varied clientele of adults and youth country-wide. The theatre has an eclectic and interesting repertoire of plays which reflect both Jewish and Israeli culture. Last year, the theatre conducted 400 performances of 19 different productions and was awarded the '2006 Play of the Year for Youth' prize. The Kibbutz Theatre Company does not possess its own auditorium, but is commissioned to perform and thus reaches every kind of audience.

2007-8 Theatre Season: [This is a free translation of the original Hebrew titles]
"Season's End Legend" - by Gil Czernowitz
"Genesis - Dance of Creation" - by Zvi and Avital Korman
"The Beetles" - by Hamutal Ben Ze'ev
"My Charming Monster" - by Yaki Machrez
"Eight Tracing the One" - stage adaptation by Dafna Engel
"To Myself" - stage adaptation by Kobi Doron
"The Jujube Tree is Occupied" - stage adaptation by Dafna Engel
"My Personal Ceremony" - by Yaki Machrez
"A Family Picture" - by Aviv Luz
"The Chicken as Scapegoat" - stage adaptation by Dafna Engel
"I Christienne F" - stage adaptation by Ilan Kurkus
"For the Piece" - Eli Dor Haim
"Address Unknown" - by Kressman Taylor, translated into Hebrew by Asher Tarmon
"The Ceramic Mask" - by Gili Levi
"The Girl of the Berries" - by Savion Lebrecht
"The Social Lesson" - by Aviv Luz
"Stones" - by Tom Leicus and Stephano Nantso, translated into Hebrew by Ziv Meir

"Address Unknown" North American Tour 2008

After a successful pilot tour in Canada and the USA in February 2007 of "Address Unknown" in Hebrew[accompanied by English surtitles], the Kibbutz Theatre Company is to perform this modern classic at several locations in North America in March 2008 in commemoration of Israel's 60th anniversary. This epistolary story by Kressman Taylor, termed by the New York Times "the most effective indictment of Nazism", exposed the American public in 1938 to the terrifying impact of Nazi ideology in the lives of Europe's Jews.

The story consists of the exchange of correspondence between and American-Jewish art gallery owner in San Francisco and his German business partner who returned to Munich in 1932. The deterioration of their erstwhile close relationship - as the German is gradually seduced by Nazism and is complicit in the betrayal of his friend's sister to the Gestapo - is apparent from the text of the letters. The skillful surprise ending, in which an intriguing revenge is leveraged via transatlantic correspondence, does not diminish the terrible darkness of a relationship doomed by history and opportunistic weakness.

The story has been adapted and performed publicly in France, Belgium, Luxembourg, Germany, Italy, Spain, Turkey, Argentina, South Africa, the USA, Israel and England while the book itself has already been translated into 20 foreign languages. This courageous classic is timely at this historic juncture when a global anti-Semitism coupled with an anti-Israel bias, framed in the shadows of ignorance and intolerance, threatens. The Israeli adaptation by Avi Malka and produced by the KTC, was accorded enthusiastic acclaim in its over 150 performances to date and screened by Israel Public Television.

Bookings for the above play "Address Unknown" for the March 2008 North American Tour, have so far been received from Detroit, Michigan, Tenafly, New Jersey and Boca Raton, Florida. Any community, institution or theatre interested in a performance during the 2008 tour, should refer for detailed specifications to the website www.shwartzberg.org and contact Mr. Zvi Shwartzberg at email address: a1912@netvision.net.il.