MITCHA FIGA
Mitcha Figa Theater Group Artistic Director Yehezkel Lazarov
MITCHA FIGA
A multidisciplinary cultural season The Mitcha Figa association (a half-fig in Gypsy and the name of the horse with which Pina Bausch worked) was born from the desire to expose and share the creative processes with the audience, allowing them to experience the worlds of inspiration, questions, and cultural contexts from which works of art are created. The Mitcha Figa cultural season consists of theater, dance, and music performances, art exhibitions, performances, and film, as well as interdisciplinary events, lectures, workshops, and experiential meetings. Throughout the season, the audience will be exposed to the thought processes, realms of exploration, references, experiments, and inquiries behind the realization of the works. These ongoing activities create an engaged and curious audience. The entire initiative expands the boundaries of the works and builds complete layers of connections revealed to the viewer throughout the cultural season. The underlying assumption is that a more engaged viewer enjoys more. Mitcha Figa offers the act of creative research as an open and ongoing process of liberation from disciplinary thinking, inviting the audience to freely wander between new forms and connections, culminating in the creation itself.
MITCHA FIGA
Exposing the Audience to Creative Processes
A multidisciplinary cultural season: theater performances, dance and music shows, art exhibitions and film, alongside, interdisciplinary events, lectures, workshops, and experiential meetings. The Mitcha Figa Association, aims to engage the audience in creative processes allowing them to experience the worlds of inspiration, questions, and cultural contexts that give rise to art.
Mitcha Figa launched in 2022 at the Tel Aviv Cultural Center and has since performed at theater festivals in Shanghai, Kosovo, and Cyprus. Thousands of people have already attended Mitcha Figa’s first multidisciplinary event -
“The Superfluous Man”. In light of its success,
the Mitcha Figa Theater Group association was established to leverage and advance the initiative to the next level - significantly expanding activities to create a full multidisciplinary cultural season.
The Superfluous Man I Gallery
"Say goodbye to 2022 and to the Tel Aviv Cultural Center, which was illuminated with a surprising uplifted spirit.
A powerful display that expressed, in utmost delicacy and elegance, Lazarov's poetic way of telling a story... a textual-ideological gem... a meeting of the real and the theatrical... a performance that penetrates the margins of the classic theatrical experience. Performance art, video art, philosophical enrichment, a dance party, installation, a sleepover, and if that’s not enough, a full-length play, a culinary experience, and collaborations with creators who are themselves forces of nature in every sense. In staging this event, Lazarov offered his audience a different starting point for the conventional experience of the "theater play" concept, equipping them with glasses through which they could witness the creative processes leading to the arrival of our esteemed artistic product. To do this, he had to use unconventional means and ultimately produce a detailed and rich production. How did they not think of this before...“ (The Theater Magazine)
The Gymnasium for Culture Multidisciplinary Skills for Youth to Acquire Knowledge and Tools for Critical ThinkingMitcha Figa aims to nurture young voices interested in culture, and theater in particular, by offering a professional curriculum that combines theory with practical experience through afternoon enrichment classes. The program, inherently multidisciplinary, will offer studies in theater, movement, cinema, visual arts, music, philosophy, and science. Additionally, students will have the opportunity to participate in various ways in productions held by Mitcha Figa and be part of the ongoing activities. Exposure to performing arts on an international scale will provide them with a broad perspective on global developments in art, foster creativity, professionalism, refinement, and familiarity with diverse languages and independent thinking. Active AudienceMitcha Figa believes that each and every one of you carries a wealth of knowledge that can contribute to the themes offered in the season. Throughout each season, we will invite the "Mitcha’s Friend" to share their knowledge on relevant topics in various ways, with the goal of enriching both us and the broader audience.
The world of art in Israel is built on communities that, for the most part, do not interact with each other. Dance audiences are considered separate and distinct from theater audiences, which in turn are seen as separate from visual arts audiences in all their variations. Just like the audiences, artists themselves rarely cross into the same arenas. Here, the venue and the activities invite a larger audience and create a mingling of communities, offering a chance for new artistic languages to emerge. In contrast to the familiar model of cultural centers in Israel and around the world, where audiences enjoy a rich repertoire of products but lack a process, the Mitcha Figa cultural season mirrors the breadth and depth of the creative tapestry and invites the audience to an accumulating experience of the research process from the very first moment. A work of art is a long process that derives its richness not only from the integration of different artistic fields but also from the society in which it is created. Mitcha Figa, therefore, invites diverse audiences to witness the processes of thought, action, inspiration, and realization of the work, with the creative process being an inseparable part of the work itself. Mitcha Figa produces a continuum of artistic and cultural activities that maintain a thematic and formal relationship with one another. The activities span the entire cultural spectrum, including visual arts, literature, poetry, philosophy, science, music, dance, architecture, and even film and new media.
THE SUPERFLUOUS MAN
The adaptation of the Russian classic Oblomov by Ivan Goncharov raises the question: Does a person have the right to live without leaving a mark? To be and then not to be. Is the departure from the continuum and the retirement from the circle of work, from reality, and from social life legitimate in a world that is entirely a temple of aspirations and fulfillments? As a guideline principle, wherever MItcha Figa is performing, we invite local artists to co-create the full interdisciplinary experience of the event.
Cast and Crew
Artistic Director, Director, Adaptor, Stge Desiger:
Yehezkel Lazarov
Producers:
Yu Jingyi, David Galil
Cast:
Adam Gabay, Shirah Naor, Vladimir Friedman, Alon Barel, Tali Sharon, Eduard Shprochman
Lighting Designer:
Yair Vardi
Video Designer:
Ran Slavin
Sound Designer, DJ:
Itzik Gil Avizohar
Assistant Director:
Ira Orlov
Executive producer:
Omer Boulanger Cohen
Our Past Tours
SHANGHAI
CHINA | July 2023
Shanghai Culture Square Theater invited Mitcha to perform in the 2,500 seats venue. The multidisciplinary event included a dance routine specially curated by a local dance group - Feng WeiDi, Wu Pengfan, Yue Xinpeng, Fu Yuxin, Dou Jianhan, Pi Yichen, Wang Shuhuan, Han Jinfeng. Ding Wei, a distinguished local actor lectured Schopenhauer's philosophical thoughts, a performance piece by Ira Orlov, and a sleeping party on the huge stage for the audience to join, and video art. The tour included a workshop with the director Yehezkel Lazarov and several PR events.
PRISTINA
KOSOVO | May 2023
FEMART FESTIVAL established and artistically directed by Zana Hoxha invited Mitcha to perform in the Teatri ODA as part of the 11th Femart Festival. The multidisciplinary event included a performance of local theater group ARTPOLICE directed in a workshop with Lazarov, a poster with a "printed exhibition" with works by local artists..
TEL-AVIV
ISRAEL | January 2022
The original venue of Mitcha Figa and The Superfluous Man is the Zuker Hall in Charles Bronfman Culture Auditorium. The heart of Tel Aviv culture and music, the home of the Israeli Philharmonic Orchestra.
MORE TO COME
"The Israeli artists shared their experience and knowledge through workshops with artists from the Republic of Kosovo, thus creating an important bridge between the two countries through cooperation between the artists"
RTK LIVE
Please feel free to contact us. more details on the INVITE US section
Artistic Director I Yehezkel Lazarov
Head of the Performing Arts Department at Kibbutzim College of Education and the Arts, is a multidisciplinary artist and performer, a graduate of theater studies at London Actors Center, and a former dancer in the Batsheva Dance Company. A director, set designer, adaptor/writer actor, and theater choreographer at the Gesher, Habima National Theater, and Cameri Theater. A winner of the Actor, Director, and Choreographer Award at the Theater Awards. In all theatrical works directed by Lazrov, he is also the adaptor/playwright, the set designer, and the movement designer. Lazarov is the co-founder and artistic director of the Middle School and High School for Creative Thinking and Entrepreneurship “Ankori Studio.” An active curator and entrepreneur in the field of visual arts. His film and television credits during the last three decades include approximately forty leading roles.
Front Stage
Is a work of art measured by the process it underwent or solely by the result? Should the behind-the-scenes of a creation be revealed or remain hidden? Should the magic of creation be exposed? After all, magic is never revealed. Why, then, do I have the desire to bring to the forefront the "how" and not just the "what"? The incubation process in building the concept, not just the moment of "performance"?
The tendency to mix and operate in parallel worlds, to blend one thing with another and give birth to hybrid creations, exists within in me as a multidisciplinary creator. The unknown is the essence of the existence of a researching artist, and long processes are my great love; without them, I don’t think I would create nor return to create. As a performer, I always loved the rehearsal stage more than the performance itself: the digging, the searching, the editing, the questions, and the discoveries.
Art in all its forms has developed and refined over the years, and its journey is endless, in search of different and original ways to express itself. But just as art continually rises in levels of difficulty and enjoyment, so does the audience that consumes it. This is a relationship based on trust, and both must develop and grow together. As for the question of whether to expose or not to expose? I believe that today there is no other way. We are in a collaborative, honest, and open era. All knowledge bases are easily accessible and visible to all, and asking questions is an inherent and necessary part of our development. Deep understanding and full awareness have taken the place of "blindness," giving us confidence as citizens and as a culture-consuming audience.
This is not about personal exposure, confessions, or a glimpse into the personal lives of creators or my colleagues at Mitcha Figa, but about creative processes, research questions, content worlds, working methods of theater, dance, and music artists, costume and set designers, visual artists, filmmakers, and so on... Connections and revelations that we at Mitcha Figa will ensure to bring to the forefront for our audience, alongside the works themselves; directing the spotlight on them.
Theatrical Works I Education I Exhibitions
Mitcha Figa Team I C.V
Mitcha Figa Non-Profit Organization
