More than 200 festival and cultural center heads, artistic directors, dramaturges, directors and choreographers came to Israel recently to watch local plays and dance performances, throwing local artists and directors into a fit of excitement.

They came in three groups from countries all over the world, including France, Italy, Croatia, Serbia, Poland, the United States, Brazil, Canada, China, Japan, England and Scotland, to see three different projects. Thirty guests from Francophone countries came to the Isra-Drama presentations of original plays in translation; the International Exposure theater showcase project received a delegation of 93 people; and 102 people came to the most veteran event of the three, the International Exposure dance showcase.

"They are looking for interesting materials for their halls," says Yair Vardi, director of the International Exposure dance project. Vardi founded the project in 1995, and it later became a model for the theater project.

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The three projects are assisted by the Culture Administration at the Education Ministry and the Foreign Ministry, which give them a relatively small subsidy totaling NIS 600,000. The International Exposure dance showcase has brought Israeli dance and dancers international recognition, outstanding among them Yasmin Goddard, Inbal Pinto and Emmanuel Gat.

There has also been a real increase in demand for original plays overseas. Particularly in demand are the plays of Hanoch Levin, which for many years have been considered impossible to perform abroad because of the language barrier. Levin is now being taught in drama schools in China. Nine of his plays are being performed in translation this year and next in the United States and Europe. There will be 13 different productions.

Next year in Spanish

The second annual Isra-Drama project, under the initiative and direction of the Hanoch Levin Institute of Israeli Drama, ended a week ago. The visitors, who included a director of the Paris Fall Festival, watched plays and scenes translated into French. They also participated in symposia on political playwriting, plays about families and debutant works.

"I received many requests," says Maya Tabi, foreign relations director at the Institute of Israeli Drama. "There was evident interest in Anat Gov's 'Househusband,' Hillel Mittelpunkt's 'Excitement,' 'It's All Greek to Me,' Goren Agmon's 'Cafe Arava,' Aharon Appelfeld's 'Badenheim 1939' and Hanoch Levin's 'Requiem.'"

Noam Semel, the director general of the Cameri Theater, initiated and established the Institute of Israeli Drama in 2000, after Levin's death. Within a year, dozens of dramaturges and festival directors from around the world had come to Israel, seen "Requiem," "The Whore from Ohio" and "The Labor of Life," and participated in symposia on Levin's work. From there it was a short path to transforming the institute into an Israeli drama exporter. Each year, the Isra-Drama project markets plays to speakers of a different language: Last year it was German, this year French and next year Spanish. The institute receives NIS 200,000 in support from the Culture Ministry, NIS 150,000 from the Tel Aviv Municipality and NIS 80,000 from the Yehoshua Rabinowitz Foundation. The bulk of the funds go to the Isra-Drama project. In addition to Levin's plays, the project has included works by Shmuel Hasfari, Gov, Liebrecht, Mittelpunkt and Yael Ronen. In March 2007, Berlin's Schaubuhne Theater is planning to stage a week of Israeli drama in cooperation with the institute, and the Parisian Theatre de Poche is planning a marathon of Israeli plays.

Fringe interest

As the Isra-Drama guests packed their bags, the International Exposure theater project began last week. While the Isra-Drama guests are interested in original plays to produce in translation in their home countries, the International Exposure guests are looking to import Israeli plays and productions.

The 32-country delegation was organized with NIS 120,000 in support from the Ministry of Culture, NIS 65,000 from the Foreign Ministry and NIS 45,000 from the Tourism Ministry. Guests included the director of the National Theater in Beijing, the president of the Chinese People's Theater, the director of the Greek National Theater and the director of the Zurich Festival. They viewed 20 theatrical productions and eight events and play parts, half of them from the fringe. Events director Eran Baniel says the visitors are very interested in Israeli fringe theater and that the invitees' response this year was three times greater than it was last year.

Ridiculous budgets

At the end of the week, 102 guests of the four-day International Dance Exposure arrived, including the director of the Pittsburgh Dance Center, a representative of the Vienna Dance Center and an important impresario for artists who appear in France. They were invited to watch 35 large and small companies perform works by independent choreographers. All had been performed in the Curtain Rising festival.

Guests will attend performances at the Suzanne Dellal Center in Tel Aviv, and will travel to Jerusalem to see works by the Vertigo and Kolben Dance troupes and Arkadi Zaides. These events, too, are on ridiculous shoestring budgets: The Culture Ministry gives the project NIS 40,000 for organization, management and artist services. The Foreign Ministry pays for the hotel expenses; the visitors cover flights and the per diem. "The very fact that such a large group of people comes to Israel at their own expense says something," notes Vardi. "There is a great deal of international curiosity about Israeli creativity."

Does the International Theater Exposure produce similar achievements? Baniel is optimistic. According to him, about twenty invitations "are in the works" at this very moment. What is clear is that the visitors are very impressed by the large audiences that fill the theater halls in Israel: "They don't believe it's real," says Baniel.