{"id":18779,"date":"2012-04-15T06:56:15","date_gmt":"2012-04-15T13:56:15","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.midnighteast.com\/mag\/?p=18779"},"modified":"2012-04-15T06:56:15","modified_gmt":"2012-04-15T13:56:15","slug":"olympia-dukakis-to-perform-at-the-cameri-in-tel-aviv","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.midnighteast.com\/mag\/?p=18779","title":{"rendered":"Olympia Dukakis to Perform at the Cameri in Tel Aviv"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Olympia Dukakis\/Photo: Ayelet Dekel<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Olympia Dukakis is visiting Israel for the first time to perform a concert reading of Rose at the Cameri Theatre in Tel Aviv. The star was in full form at a press conference held this morning at the Sheraton Hotel, with Cameri General Director Noam Semel and Artistic Director Omri Nitzan. Eyes full of life, warmth and fire, even in conversation her expressive features reveal the talents of an actress whose career spans stage and screen (including an Academy Award for Moonstruck), and an impressive record offstage as director, producer, teacher and activist, including an almost twenty year stint as the Producing Artistic Director of the Whole Theatre she helped found in New Jersey.<\/p>\n

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Noam Semel, Olympia Dukakis, Omri Nitzan\/Photo: Ayelet Dekel<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

She doesn\u2019t shy away from conflict or her hide feelings in euphemisms, and she is no stranger to hard work.\u00a0 Asked whether she misses running her own theatre, she responded with vigor, \u201cDo you miss a stick in your eye?\u201d<\/p>\n

Yet her role in Rose is quite demanding, physically and emotionally: a one-woman show performed while sitting on a bench for the entire duration of the play (about an hour and a half). Dukakis said she was initially attracted to the role because \u201cit seemed impossible to do.\u201d Written by Martin Sherman and directed by Nancy Meckler with lighting design by Ted Sullivan, the play will be performed in English with Hebrew translation by Nava Semel (in surtitles). Rose is an elderly Jewish woman, sitting Shiva in Miami Beach, reflecting on the past in an attempt to come to terms with the present.<\/p>\n

Born in the U.S. to Greek immigrant parents, Dukakis grew up in Lowell, Massachusetts where there were \u201cGreeks\u201d and \u201cAmericans,\u201d saying, \u201cI felt I needed to distance myself from both.\u201d Describing the American cultural atmosphere as one where there are different groups of Greek-Americans, Italian-Americans \u2013 always with a hyphen, Dukakis said, \u201cI often felt that I lived right in that hyphen and I think that resonated for me in the play. There is a freedom that it [not belonging] allots you\u2026yes, there is a joy in being free.\u201d<\/p>\n

Dukakis has been cast as a Jewish character in the past, and has also played many Italian characters, most notably as Rose Castorini, Cher\u2019s mother, in Moonstruck. The reason is simple, Dukakis explains, \u201cI wouldn\u2019t change my name.\u201d As a result, she was \u201cbranded as an ethnic actress. I couldn\u2019t even get auditions [for non-ethnic roles]\u2026that\u2019s why I started a theatre.\u201d<\/p>\n

She enjoys her work in films for intimacy it affords, as the camera comes in close to focus on every nuance of expression, but of her work in theatre she says, \u201cIf I didn\u2019t do plays I wouldn\u2019t know who I am.\u201d Drawn to the human aspect of theatre work, Dukakis values the relationships one can establish with fellow actors while working on a play, the relationship with the audience, and with herself: \u201cit\u2019s always a revelation every night to see where I\u2019m at.\u201d Dukakis said she is \u201cvery interested to hear how this [Israeli] audience will respond. I\u2019m curious to see how the humor will travel. Humor is always the hardest thing to travel from one culture to another.\u201d<\/p>\n

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Olympia Dukakis\/Photo: Ayelet Dekel<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Martin Sherman had Dukakis in mind for the part of Rose; the two had attended Boston University at the same time, and even performed together once. \u201cI was Clytemnestra,\u201d recalls Dukakis, \u201cand Martin was in the chorus. I don\u2019t remember him at all\u2026of course I felt really thrilled that he thought of me.\u201d<\/p>\n

The play touches on several painful and sensitive topics, Rose is a Holocaust survivor and as Dukakis describes, \u201cshe is in turmoil and chooses to open up\u2026she doesn\u2019t know how to resolve this conflict that has emerged in her life.\u201d Rose is sitting shiva on a bench in Miami Beach, mourning the life of a Palestinian girl who has been shot. Her choice to mourn involves not only a conflict with her son in the play, but some audiences have found the play controversial. Dukakis said that there were times when the play was first performed (over a decade ago) when \u201cpeople would yell \u2013 that\u2019s anti-Semitic.\u201d Yet she feels that the play \u201cputs a human face on that conflict\u201d which makes it easier to connect, and finds that audiences today are more \u201caware than they were ten years ago\u2026trying to understand.\u201d<\/p>\n

As for her own connection to the play, Dukakis recalls her initial difficulty getting into it, and director Meckler\u2019s insistence on finding the key. The two worked for an hour and a half of improvisation before Dukakis found her own way to sit on that bench. Dukakis said, \u201cI sat on that bench for my mother, and all the Greek women\u2026the emotional weight of the piece is extraordinary.\u201d<\/p>\n

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Olympia Dukakis\/Photo: Ayelet Dekel<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Rose will be performed at the Cameri Theatre in Tel Aviv on Monday, April 16 at 20:30; Tuesday, April 17th at 16:30 and 20:30. Tickets are 300\/260 NIS. To order, call: 03-6060960.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Olympia Dukakis is visiting Israel for the first time to perform a concert reading of Rose at the Cameri Theatre in Tel Aviv. The star was in full form at a press conference held this morning at the Sheraton Hotel, with Cameri General Director Noam Semel and Artistic Director Omri Nitzan. Eyes full of life, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-18779","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-theater"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.midnighteast.com\/mag\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18779","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.midnighteast.com\/mag\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.midnighteast.com\/mag\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.midnighteast.com\/mag\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.midnighteast.com\/mag\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=18779"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.midnighteast.com\/mag\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18779\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.midnighteast.com\/mag\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=18779"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.midnighteast.com\/mag\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=18779"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.midnighteast.com\/mag\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=18779"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}