// ABOUT PASSPORT ENSEMBLE

‘Passport-Ensemble’ theatre group was founded in 2014 by director Yael Cramsky in collaboration with actors and creators as part of the ‘Creative Man (Adam Yotzer)’ association. The group is based in Tel-Aviv and performs its works all across Israel. 

The ensemble’s work draws its inspiration from Israeli day-to-day, existential conflicts, questions of identity and universal questions on a person’s place in society. Through texts that combine canonical literature, documentary work and original writing, the ensemble formulates a theatrical language composed of visual, graphic and digital imagery, together with music and movement syntax.

Passport Ensemble places visual perception front and center in its theatrical language. Working alongside ensemble director Yael Cramsky are designers Dina Konson and Iris Mualem. Together, their dialogue allows for synergy between the text's adaptation, stage direction, and visual interpretation.

The style of movement in Cramsky's works is in direct correlation with her past as a choreographer. The transition from the skillful body of a dancer to that of an actor led to more than a few conflicts. This, in turn, gave rise to an impulse-based style of movement that also incorporates everyday movement and gestures in changing accents, spacing, weights, and rhythms, the combination of which creates unique and mesmerizing sequences.

Cramsky's bold and unflinching writing and her stage adaptations create new hierarchies and alter the characters’ substance and identity. She thus sustains the ever-updating dialogue between theater and current events, keeping the balance of both the original text’s essence and its relevance to our day-to-day reality. 

In 2014, the ensemble was nominated for six Kippod HaZahav awards (Israeli Fringe Theater Awards), and Yael Cramsky won the award for Best Stage Adaptation. In 2017 the group’s play Citizen K was nominated for Kippod HaZahav for Best Stage Adaptation. In 2019, the group’s show Leah was nominated for Kippod HaZahav in five categories, and Eyal Zusman won the Best Supporting Actor award.

Passport Ensemble has set out to research, challenge and innovate the medium’s boundaries and reach a diverse audience worldwide. It strives to create contemporary dialogue and insightful discourse attentive to the different voices in society. It seeks to offer a response, be it like-minded or critical, from a place of genuine love for all people and the place where we live.