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 Beit Lessin Theatre  Founded in the early 80’s as a modest cultural club of the Histadrut – Israel’s Workers’ Union – today Beit Lessin is the country’s 2nd largest reperatory theatre. Named after an almost forgotten Yiddish author, Beit Lessis is the most amazing success-story in the Israeli theatre scene over the past decade, with its yearly 10 new premieres, over 30,000 devoted subscribers in Tel-Aviv alone, and hundreds of performances throughout the country. In mid 2003, Beit Lessin moved to its new large-scale auditorium (900 seats) in the heart of Tel-Aviv, in addition to its two smaller venues in the city. Ms. Tzipi Pines, the theater’s general manager and artistic director, appeared on the scene in 1994. Under her direction, Beit-Lessin became the cradle of contemporary Israeli playwriting, a local version of the renowned Royal Court, as many journalists labeled it. An entire generation of playwrights found its artistic home at Beit-Lessin during the 90’s. Goren Agmon (“A Letter to Noa”, play of the year 2001), Shmuel Hasfari (“Hametz”, play of the year 1995, and “Shiva”, play of the year, 1996), Miryam Kaini (“Stormy Rain”, play of the year 2003) and, especially Hillel Mitelpunkt (“Ismailia”, play of the year 2002; the theater's Author in Residence, whose Beit Lessin plays are currently enjoying great success throughout Europe –“Driver, Painter”, at the New-End theater in London; “The Accident”, at the GTA, and the Schaubuhne, Berlin, and soon in Washington, DC, Zurich, Switherland, and in other cities in German-speaking countries). MIttelpunkt helped to create the Beit-Lessin style of writing and aesthetics: a theatre that tells its country’s stories. The uniqueness of modern Israel with its social, political and religious conflict; diversity comes alive and is relevant to a public that seeks a communicative, human theatre. Since 2000, Beit Lessin is responsible for Israel’s annual New Israeli Drama Festival – “Open Stage”. The festival’s 15 yearly productions have helped discover the most appealing new voices among Israel’s young playwrights, from among some 100 bachelor-playwrights, for whom Beit Lessin is the only chance to have their work produced. Hadar Galron (“Mikveh”) and Reshef Levy (“The Indian Patinet”) have won the country’s most significant theater awards, just after they were discovered on that occasion. Roni Pinkovitch (“Tea”) was nominated for the Best Dramatist award. The renowned Israeli novelist, Savyon Liebrecht, has chosen Beit-Lessin as a venue where she can develop her brilliant dramatic skills (“I’m Speaking to You in Chinese”, “Apples from the Desert”). Her plays “I’m Speaking to You in Chinese” and “The Banality of Love”, as developed at Beit Lessin, are regularly produced in German speaking countries. Hadar Galron’s “Mikveh”, as it emerged from the “Open Stage” festival, was staged in Budapest, Mexico-City, and recently in Prague. For her outstanding achievements in promoting modern Israeli drama, Tzipi Pines recently received an Honorary Doctorate from Be'er-Sheva University.  |
