Text games
Each event is built from the texts of the participating group. At its heart is the opportunity to encounter what we have rewritten—and to feel that someone listened to our words that came to life in our hearts and in the hearts of the audience.
The "Text Games" event has been taking place since 2022 in public spaces that vary in composition and goals.
Since 2023, the group has been operating six times a year at the "Eitanim" Mental Health Center with youth.
Since 2024, the group has been operating once every two weeks at the "Shalvata" Mental Health Center with adult patients.
In the museum spaces within exhibitions and video performances — so that the texts are given the context of a painting, sculpture, installation, or video art.
In unique public spaces such as: art majors in high schools, the Writers' Association, "Treasures" - Israel's national letter collection, "Elem Association" - an association for youth at risk, "Knafaim Association - Making Art" - the association works to integrate artists who are dealing with mental crises through creativity, employment and community. "Krambo's Wings" - a youth movement for young people with and without special needs, "My Wave Association" and much more.
To coordinate an event, please contact: Oksana Chermansky, CEO of Passport Ensemble.
Mobile: +972 50-435-0744
passporttheater@gmail.com
There is a moment when we hear our words in another person's voice and suddenly hear something new in them. A sentence we wrote takes on weight. A memory takes on body. Between the words, a longing, humor, or desire that we didn't know how to express is revealed.
The show "Text Games," which was born during the Corona period, invites the audience to be the source from which the stage event is created. The participants' personal texts — a poem, a short story, a stream of consciousness, a thought, or a moment from life — are transformed into live theater performed by the ensemble's actresses and actors, under the direction of director Yael Kramsky. The spotlight is directed at the people sitting in the audience and the words they chose to bring.
We live in a time when personal writing has become part of everyday life on social media.
Social. We write, share and read each other. In “text games” these words are given a different attention: the actors dwell on them, listen to what motivates them and give them a voice, a body and an action. We search within the text for intention, desire, obstacle and action – and from them we build a human presence on stage.
The writer sits in the audience and sees their words come to life. What was once theirs alone takes on a form that can be seen and heard, and returns to them with new layers. Sometimes it is precisely this distance that allows one to identify something very close: a feeling that has not yet been given a name, a contradiction, a longing, or a power that was hidden in the sentence.
The guided encounter between the writers, the actors, and the audience allows us to stay with what
that has arisen and given expression to it. This is how a shared experience is created from personal material: one person's text may touch the memory or emotion of another person in the group.
Our theater students were privileged to meet the actors of the "Passport Ensemble" under the guidance of director Yael Kramsky. The unique exposure to the power of a documentary text and the direct dialogue with the actors, gave rise to a fruitful discussion that aroused many questions in the students and led to active and creative participation. It was educational and enriching and we were left with a taste for more.
Anat Ben Ari, Theater Department Coordinator, "Ravin" High School, Kiryat Gat
Imagine an actress performing this text of mine, giving it a personal interpretation, but surprisingly, accurate to my intention and close to the directing instructions I give.
I don't remember ever being in a situation like this, when the text stands on its own with, but also completely without, a connection to me. Suddenly we
Three: I - the text - and the interpretation.
Michal Hadar-Kidar,
Poet
Seeing ourselves from the outside through the actors made us see hidden places within ourselves that we were not aware of before. It was an exciting and enlightening experience. We left with the feeling that we were doing something great and that our personalities were more complex than we thought. The actors were professional, sensitive and human. It was simply special and fun!
Yael, coordinator of "My Wave",
Tel Aviv Municipality
... By the time I got home I realized that I would like to hear the song from you [actress Dina Bly] again and again and again, and each time I would get closer to you, closer and closer, until I would be united with you. Like in the video that was behind your back in the last part you performed. And I also liked the space you chose to sing in. Clean, with part of a clock on top, a broken or sunken clock dissolving into the wall... There was also something innocent about this space. There was a negative of girls holding hands!
Ronit Levi Weiss,
Poet