When the 30th Jerusalem Puppet Festival opens on August 22, the big news with this beloved festival of puppetry and visual theater may be the complimentary rapid COVID-19 test offered at the entrance, not the Liberty of Jerusalem instead of the new campus built on the corner of Bell Park.
“We are doing business as usual, as much as possible,” said festival director Shehar Marom. “We need rapid testing for children, and we will pay for it, unless the government offers. Israeli society has to go in this direction, because how can we live otherwise?”
Working with Magen David Adom Emergency Services, Israel this week opened 120 rapid testing stations, providing results in 15 minutes and a 24-hour green pass from the Ministry of Health for NIS 52 ($16).
“We’ll have responses in 15 minutes, and then it’s going to be a protected space, with a bracelet on everyone,” Marom said.
“It’s like being a security guard,” he said.
With 100 artists participating in the five-day festival, Marome is ready to do almost anything to go with this year’s event, which was forced online last summer due to the pandemic.
Three scheduled international casts recently canceled due to new quarantine measures, but the rest of the planned roster is set to put on puppet shows and other theater works for children and adults.
This year, the Train Theater – called for its original home in an abandoned train carriage that has now been renovated for the new complex – will mark 40 performances as well as the 30th year of the festival and new children’s cultural Celebrating its move to the center. Donated by the Davidson Family of London and the Jerusalem Foundation.
The festival opens on 22 August with the opening of the new centre, which is designed to resemble building blocks and is located next to a skateboarding complex in a renovated corner of the park. The complex consists of two auditoriums, one large and one small, a grassy outdoor stage and a cafe.
Along with performances for children of all ages, 33 original productions will be displayed in the theater and the campus’ outdoor spaces.
Renovated Train Carriage at Jerusalem’s Train Theatre, which has a brand new campus in Liberty Bell Park, in time for the 2021 Jerusalem Puppet Festival, August 22-26, 2021 (Jessica Steinberg/Times of Israel)
They include famous Hebrew children’s books and Mother Goose poems, as well as more original material, such as “The Big Bang”, a work by the Itim Ensemble and Zvi Sahr, depicting a fantasy taking place in space.
One of the works being done at the upcoming Jerusalem Puppet Festival, August 22-26, 2021 (Courtesy Kefir Bolotin)
There are also contemporary plays for adults, performed during festival evenings and usually suitable for teenagers.
“Missing Faces – Live” by Iris Erez combines contemporary dance language with images projected on smartphones worn on the actors’ bodies, while “Reality Check” by Nimrod Farchy builds on a contemporary circus stage.
Another work is “Silence Makes Perfect”, a play by Yael Rasuli and Amit Dolberg, a staged fantasy revealing a painfully personal story about sexual assault.
Rasuli, 38, made her puppet debut at the same festival nearly 20 years ago, finding that it enabled her to bring together the arts that had long inspired her: stories, classical music, opera and Song.
Working with her collaborator Amit Dolberg and a team of five musicians and a costume designer, she is finally premiering her most recent work at the festival where she “grown up”, Rasuli at the World Puppet Theater in France. Said before staging it at the festival. September, if COVID-19 doesn’t extend those plans.
Yael Rasuli, a puppeteer and singer whose highly personal work about sexual assault will premiere at the Jerusalem Puppet Festival August 22-26, 2021 (Jessica Steinberg/Times of Israel)
“There are four generations of artists at the festival,” said Marome. “There’s all kinds of things going on here. It’s a space that the actors feel like it’s theirs, and they can and do create in this space, as we expand the theater conversation.”
The centerpiece of this year’s festival is an outdoor complex for the whole family that focuses on the theme of surprise as spectators are invited to experience a carnival of installations, performances, dance, sound and multidisciplinary acts with free activities every afternoon. This is done so that families can spend the whole day in celebration.
It is intended to be a cheap day of culture at NIS 25 per ticket for the stunning complex (early bird price), and appeals to a wide range of local Israeli audiences, Marom said – secular and religious, Jewish and Arab, including the wordless, also plays for those who are not native Hebrew speakers.
‘Cozy One Man Band’, one of the acts being performed at the Jerusalem Puppet Festival, August 22-26, 2021 (courtesy David Seibert)
Early bird tickets to NIS 45 for children’s shows and NIS 60 for adult performances are available for purchase until August 21, while tickets during the festival will cost NIS 60 for children’s shows and NIS 80 for adult shows. Combination ticket packages are also available for purchase through festival website.
“It provides a real day to disappear from the real world,” Marom said. “This is not Legoland, this is not commercial, this is for your soul. A festival should offer some kind of fantasy, a place where you can enter a world of fantasy.”
