Mayumana reinvents the wheel with ‘Garage Six’

In 21 years of creating, performing and touring, Nuphar and Berman refused to rest on their laurels, seeking out new collaborators and styles to keep the Mayumana language relevant.

By ORI J. LENKINSKI
Mayumana (photo credit: Courtesy)
Mayumana
(photo credit: Courtesy)
Few companies come to life with a first creation as successful as Mayumana’s inaugural production. Mayumana Show, an unprecedented, experimental blend of music, movement and body percussion, hit the stage in 1998 and went on to spend a decade delighting audiences around the world. That first performance put Mayumana on the map. It built an international audience for the tour and etched out an aesthetic that directors Eylon Nuphar and Boaz Berman continue to develop today.
In those 21 years of creating, performing and touring, Nuphar and Berman refused to rest on their laurels, seeking out new collaborators and styles to keep the Mayumana language relevant and attractive to new audiences. Their repertory includes Be, which was created for an off-Broadway stage in New York City; Bejuntos, a collaboration with David Broza; Game On, a joint-creation with the Israel Ballet choreographed by Ido Tadmor; among others. In 2015, Mayumana unveiled its first musical, Malabi, set to songs by Matti Caspi. Their newest endeavor, a “musical joyride” titled Garage Six, does just that, it takes the established Mayumana style and pushes it into the present.
With Garage Six, Mayumana will reveal a new generation of performers: young, multi-talented and teeming with energy.
The show is set in an auto garage in which five men and one woman hatch big dreams of making it big as a band. Left without any proper musical instruments, the mechanics turn to their tools, rearranging classic hits such as “Take on Me” and “Susanna,” as well as more recent songs such as “Hey Ya!”
For this creation, Mayumana teamed up with Israeli production company BlueStone Live Nation, which is credited with bringing major recording artists to the country. This move undoubtedly points at aspirations to tour extensively abroad.
Garage Six will play from June 1-30 at Reading 3 in Tel Aviv Port before setting sails for its first international engagement. For more information, visit Mayumana.com.