Kartoshkes

Members of "Kartoshkes" ensemble are professional actors and musicians who have been working together 15 years.  

"Kartoshkes" is currently composed of 11 members, graduates of acting and music schools in Israel, UK, Moldova and US; with additional expertise in specific domains including dancing, opera, classical music, ethnic music, jazz, group processes, psychodrama and scientists from the Weizmann Institute of Science. The group brings diverse theatrical, musical, dance and mind disciplines. All are trained in playback theater techniques to improvise real-life stories drawn from the audience's experiences with honesty and humor and without prejudice or stereotyping.

At the Kartoshkes ensemble playback theater In each performance our team is composed of 4 actors/singers, a musician or two, and a conductor of the performances, who conduct the energy from the audience to the stage and back again, the audience speaks of their personal stories, moments and experiences from the past and present thus creating a circle of listening, respect for the audience and the stories told, creativity and hopefully, a theatrical catharsis. Everyone who is involved in this interactive ritual- the story teller, the audience and the performers are given a unique opportunity to take part in a ritual that will bring them closer together and leave them imprinted with empowering gifts.

 

The Kartoshkes Vision: A Multicultural Audience to Bridge the Divide

We believe that the playback method helps to bridge divides within mixed audiences that come from different backgrounds, cultures, and viewpoints. Seeing stories come to life on the stage connects people across socio-cultural barriers enabling people to discover their common views, anxieties and hopes. Differences are experienced as intriguing and exciting rather than strange or threatening. The experience also provides members of the audience with a new prism threw which they can view their own regular habits and customs in different light. Sitting around a Kartoshkes "bonfire", the audience builds a sense of closeness and trust in the course of the performance that breaks through any preconceived ideas, mutual suspicions and prejudices and creates camaraderie. The Kartoshkes ensemble believes that its style and techniques are particularly well suited for mixed and diverse audiences, whether Arabs and Jews, secular and religious, audiences from mixed socio-economic backgrounds, different generations, etc.

 

About our co-existence activity

Recognizing the special ability of our work to listen and respect stories from different communities, we started in recent years to work with Palestinian communities in the west bank. Given the current political and security situation, and given that our group is composed mainly of Israeli-jewish members, this was, and still is, a challenging activity. Nevertheless, we have managed to organize and conduct unforgettable Playback performances and workshops in 2009, 2010, 2011, 2012 and 2013.

In those meeting's we experienced the ability of our work to bridge between people, communities and opinions. Our improvisation is based on cooperation, deep listening and creative responses. These elements are being employed in the context of human stories. These stories are based on basic and common human feelings, feelings of love, hate, fear and longing. During our performances we see these feeling being conducted into the stage, and being transformed into different realms. Sitting together in this circle we share an experience that connect us and the audience, and people in the audience among themselves. This experience allows us to remember our commonalities, and to dream together on a better world, world of mutual respect and peace.

Our co-existence work is spearheaded by one of our members, Dorit Lubrani, a choir conductor in Arab-Israeli Center and opera singer, who is involved in promoting Israeli/Palestinian co-existence for many yeas. Among her many activities, she has established and led two Israeli-Arab choirs in Jaffa, winning recently the I prize at the Bat-Yam International street festival.

 

Korea 2010 G20 Moral Politics: Dialogues among Civilizations ,Cultures and Religions. 

The Kartoshkes ensemble created a collaboration with Palestinian Artists. The Palestinian-Israeli Artistic delegation led by Dorit Lubrani were invited to perform in Seoul, South Korea in front of International audiences. The Kartoshkes ensemble attended many deliberations in that conference and introduced the ensembles work in furthering the peace process. Subjects such as "women leadership" and "co existence between Cultures, Religions and Civilizations" received much interest to viewers from the United States, Europe, South Korea and other regions in the world who participated at the conference.

The "Kartoshkes Playback Ensemble" performed in front of delegates from the U.N, politicians and heads of organizations for human rights. The personal stories told by this audience were derived from a reality of conflicts between different Religions and Cultures. Throughout the Kartoshkes Playback ensemble performance, a thread of common ground and dialog were found and were portrayed through artistic theatrical means in our playback techniques.

 

"Kartoshkes Playback Ensemble" and The Weizmann Institute of Science

The "Kartoshkes Playback Ensemble" has forged with the Weizmann Institute of Science, to create a "Playback Theatre Research Laboratory", led by professor Uri Alon. The aim is to undertake scientific research of human behavior and interaction, applying physics, neurobiology, mathematics and computer science, while drawing on concepts and approaches from theatre. In the "Playback Theatre Lab" 13 performers from The "Kartoshkes Playback Ensemble" Playback group, which is comprised of professional actors and musicians, but also several scientists (including professor Alon and doctor Noy), devote two days a week to define research questions and conduct experiments on aspects of community-building through enactment of personal stories. The Theatre Lab is supported by the "Braginksy Center for Interface between Science and Humanities" at the Weizmann Institute. It is envisioned that the Palestinian Playback Project will open up opportunities for partnerships with Arab researchers.