A show in a ‘kumkum’

Andre and Katia Orbach of the Kumkum Theater put on shows in universal visual and musical languages, with puppets and masks and sometimes live music.

By BARRY DAVIS
Kumkum Theater 521 (photo credit: Courtesy)
Kumkum Theater 521
(photo credit: Courtesy)
For some years now Musrara has been gaining momentum in the creativity department. There has been an ethnic music school there for some time, and other artistic endeavors in the neighborhood on the cusp between east and west Jerusalem include the Naggar School of Photography, Media and New Music, the Sam Spiegel Film and Television School and the Kumkum Theater puppet center.
Kumkum (“Kettle”) is a husband-and-wife team – Russian-born Andre and Katia Orbach – with a little help from their three-anda- half-year-old daughter Eva. The couple set off on their independent journey into the realms of puppet theater after completing their studies at the School of Visual Theater in 2005. Six years on, the Orbachs keep a very busy work schedule, putting on shows at their home venue in Jerusalem, at schools and community centers all over Israel, and for all sectors of society, as well as performing at leading puppet theater festivals abroad.
Next week the couple will perform Kumkum’s Dolls’ Circus street show at this year’s International Puppet Theater and Film Festival in Holon (July 21-30). The production incorporates a combination of puppets and masks and was first performed at this year’s Musrara Mix Festival.
After spending much of their time globe-trotting, the Orbachs finally obtained a permanent base in Musrara.
“We got this place from the Jerusalem Foundation,” explains Andre. “We didn’t necessarily need financial backing from them, although that never hurts, but we needed to have our own home.”
That home, on Rehov Shivtei Yisrael, comprises a workroom, which doubles as an intimate show venue, and a large sports hall which has been converted into the Rhinoceros Auditorium with a plastic chair seating capacity of up to 200.
“We had reached a point at which we knew, artistically, what we were up to and where we were going, but we needed a place to consolidate what we were doing,” Andre recalls.
“We had a great start to our professional life after we left the School of Visual Theater. We were sent all over the world, to perform at all sorts of festivals, but we wanted to have our own place, and we wanted that place to be in Jerusalem.”
Besides the fact that they lived here, Andre says he believes that working from Jerusalem gives him and Katia something of a cutting edge. “It is easier to create more experimental theater in Jerusalem, compared with Tel Aviv and other places in the center of Israel.”
Andre attributes this to what he sees as a different mind-set, and the different environment in which children are brought up in the capital.
“Both my wife and I prefer Jerusalem audiences. Children – and the parents who bring them – from Jerusalem are more inclined to think and to use their imagination. There is a heavier vibe in Jerusalem, but I think that it is that heaviness that generates greater openness.”
This became even more apparent when Kumkum started touring with a new production. “We put on a brand new show, called Agvaniat Hapeleh [“The Wonder Tomato”], at all sorts of schools and other places in Jerusalem. Then we got to Ness Ziona and we realized the show was going over very differently there. There is a greater expectation of just getting entertainment there. It’s the TV-orientated mind-set. We like putting on theater that’s accessible for everyone, but we also like doing things with just a bit of sophistication. Agvaniat Hapeleh is more enjoyable when the audience is ready to use its imagination.”
The Orbachs are also happy to be in Musrara which, they say, brings them into contact with all sorts of sectors of the city’s population. “There are the grandchildren of the [1970s Musrara-based social activist group] Black Panthers, many of whom come to our shows.”
The Black Panthers’ descendants do more than just watch and have fun. “We run hands-on activities with them too,” continues Andre. “We run the Gam Vegam [And Also] group with them, and they put on shows themselves, with masks, outdoors and at schools. We called the group the Gam Vegam because the children design the masks and also perform. We’re talking about kids from second grade to sixth grade, and we work with them and help them, but they put on the actual street shows.”
Andre says that Kumkum does its best to reach as many different communities as possible but achieves varying degrees of success.
“My daughter, Eva, goes to a kindergarten at the YMCA, which has Jewish and Arab children. Some of the Arab children come to the shows, but unfortunately we don’t seem to be able to attract Arabs from the Old City, which is just across the road from here.”
The theater also did its best to appeal to other neighbors from a different sector. “For a while we had kids coming from the haredi community. But they were subjected to a lot of peer pressure. Other kids poked fun at them and said ‘Why do you need to go to that theater?’ and other stuff like that. Eventually they stopped coming.”
Still, as Andre points out, Kumkum puts on shows in universal visual and musical languages, with puppets and masks, and sometimes with live music.
“We have performed for Beduin near Beersheba. I can’t say they got everything we did, because the medium is very foreign to them, but they definitely got something from the show.”
Meanwhile, Kumkum is doing well in foreign pastures. “We have performed at the festivals at Imrata in Finland and at Charleville in France. They are very important puppet theater festivals.”
Andre says they are also doing a good job at spreading some positive vibes from here. “People now have high expectations when they hear a puppet theater company is coming from Israel. We are in a very good position in terms of the international puppet theater arena. There are more and more companies here doing good work. Just think of the Puppet Theater Center in Holon, which has a museum and a theater and a school. That is quite unique.”
Next week’s Dolls’ Circus show in Holon is sure to produce plenty of belly laughs from the audience.
“It is a sort of parody on circus performances, with all the classic characters, like the ballerina, the tightrope walker and the muscle man,” explains Andre. “For example, we show how the muscle man has to eat a lot of sushi in order to stay so strong, and it’s very hard for him. It’s a colorful street show which, I think, draws the audience in. I think it will be fun for everyone.” • For more information about the International Puppet Theater and Film Festival in Holon: www.puppetcenter.co.il