The Orna Porat Children’s Theater, the oldest theater in Israel – named after the Israel Prize winner and actress of the same name – is beginning a long trek from the North to the South of Israel starting Sunday, bringing theater to children throughout the country.Some highlights of the show include a performance of Peter Pan in collaboration with the Cameri Theater, as well as Eli, a play about the life of the famed Israeli spy Eli Cohen.The central project of the show, titled Our Celebration, is a musical performance that will be performed on a rolling caravan stage.
The theater will reach 50 different localities throughout the country while also celebrating the theater’s birthday.The show includes a spectacle of different performances, including the two aforementioned shows as well as Eyal’s Fingerprint – named after the newly-released book by the same name, written by Noam Horev.Two of the more famous children’s stories, Beauty and the Beast and Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs, will be coming to the stage with new and original performances, the latter of which has comically changed its name to The Seven Dwarfs and Snow White. Beauty and the Beast will feature fantastic dancing by the Fresco Dance Company.A handful of other shows will be travelling with the theater throughout its trek.Although the theater is coming back to the (makeshift) stage, its general director David Kigler said that it nevertheless awaits the day that the Health Ministry allows the actors onto the stage in front of a live audience once more.He explained that the theater sees the return of audiences into the theater seats as “a necessity for the continued existence of the culture world for children.”Performances begin in the North in Tel Hai on May 2 and end in Eilat on June 2, followed by a final visit to the Jordan Valley on June 3.