Vision
The Theo-tron is a Jerusalem-based ensemble of religious and secular theater artists working together to create an inter-cultural bridge within the divided Israeli society.
We believe our art has the ability to generate pluralistic dialogue and to expose a wide audience, regardless of sector, to the Jewish nation’s spiritual heritage, thereby creating a new Jewish language that will successfully speak to the current generation.
Activity
Theo-tron productions make the content of Jewish texts accessible to a modern audience. We conduct study sessions and use them as background research for the creation of our shows. These sessions strengthen the bond of every member of the group to his/her Jewish identity.
The collaboration of young religious and secular artists is itself an opportunity for exploration of diversity within the group at the same time helping to bring down barriers.
The group was founded following the vision of the late Rabbi Menachem Froman. Today it is accompanied by Rabbi Yossi Froman and managed by Netanela Tirosh. The ensemble has found a home in the Khan Theater of Jerusalem.
Theo-tron produces one show a year. “The Generations of Adam”, the group’s first show, has been seen by more than 8,500 viewers to date, among them 5,500 high school students. The uniqueness of the ensemble allows its work to reach a wide and varied audience – secular and religious, older viewers and high schools students, residents of settlements and residents of bigger towns.
In a discussion that takes place at the end of the show, an unmediated debate is created enabling a respectful dialogue among all those in the audience.
The play “Halila”, which was produced with the support of the Matanel Foundation, was inspired by the theme of the “decapitated calf” (Egla Arufah) recounted in the book of Deuteronomy and deals with the experience of facing existential uncertainty. The play met great success recently at the Khan Theater and Beit Mazia in Jerusalem and at the Habima Theater in Tel Aviv, receiving critical acclaim and media coverage.
The play “The Song of the Dead Birds” was written by the international playwright Joshua Sobol. During rehearsals, the text of the play was revised and reworked, which involved staging reading of the play in the presence of director Yael Nibron, playwright Joshua Sobol, and members of the theater’s management. Dr. Neta Sobol, his daughter, brought Kabbalistic sources to the study session, taking inspiration from a midrash found in The Zohar and in Bereishit Raba that tells of a concept of God “building worlds and destroying them”. We studied the source material together, and under Dr Sobol’s guidance facilitated a discussion exploring the philosophical ideas connecting the midrash and the play.
The play premiered on December 30, 2021 at Emuna Hall and continues to perform at the ‘Tmuna’ Theater in Tel-Aviv and the ‘Khan’ Theater Jerusalem.