The Slovenian Drama in the Israeli Theatre
Live stream lecture
About the event
Lecturer: Yonathan Esterkin
Among the differences between the Slovenian and the Israeli theatre, the most significant is how they are financed, as the Israeli theatre greatly depends on box office income. The annual subsidy from public funding is around 30 per cent, and theatres must raise the rest on the market. No doubt, a positive side of this arrangement is that individual productions have more reprises; up to 300, 400, or even 500 are not unusual. Some productions have even reached 1,000 and more. Around 5 million people in Israel (out of a population of over 9 million) annually attend the theatre, or, at least, that’s how many tickets are sold. On the other side, such a financing system influences the productions, which are generally more conservative, non-ambitious and try to please everyone.
Working in this theatre institution system with the contemporary Slovenian drama was a big challenge not only for Yonathan Esterkin but also for the actors and audiences. Esterkin translated a series of Slovenian plays into Hebrew and also directed them.
In his live stream lecture, Esterkin will present the core questions, dilemmas, and challenges he has faced when staging the Slovenian drama. He will discuss the interventions into the texts, working with the ensemble and the questions that intrigued them. Recently, he has staged some Slavko Grum Award winners, among them, Matjaž Zupančič’s Vladimir and The Corridor, Simona Semenič’s 5boys.com and Rok Vilčnik – rokgre’s People’s Democratic Circus Sakeshvili.
The lecture will include short excerpts from the Esterkin’s directions of the mentioned plays.
The event is organized with the support of the Embassy of Israel in Vienna.
Photo gallery
