The Proyekt - Seven Years of Laughter

There are a few occasions every year when I wish I understood Hebrew and Israeli culture a little better. One of those times is the yearly Proyekt teen comedy show.
The audience roared and cheered throughout the evening, and I was a bit slower on the up-take, as I waited for my spouse to finish laughing before he told me what I missed.
As dozens of teenagers floated through scene after scene, jumping across time and space, the appreciative audience of teens and adults alike hooted and applauded.
This year's Proyekt, "The Mystery of the Lost Pearls", featuring characters as diverse as Sherlock Holmes, King Ahav, and Guy the Israeli paratrooper, was a strictly youth production - with young people writing the script, creating the scenery, music, and commercials, promoting the show, performing, and working backstage. Its humor was clever and in, and the jokes rolled easily from one to the next all night.
Kids worked on the show for six months under the guiding hand of producer-director Yonatan Levi (above left). 
Levi told the audience that communities are always searching for ways to engage the youth in positive activities. Well, the Proyekt has proven itself to be one of those ways.
It promotes friendship, cooperation, creativity, really hard work and dedication. And it encourages teenagers to take responsibility for their own undertaking. 
This year's Proyekt was written by Dvir Infeld, Yaniv Cohen, Ohad Naveh, Avia Benmelech Chovav, Yonatan Levi, Natan Marcus, Roi Gugenheim, Elazar Landau, Esti Kolin, Arnon Gutel and Amit Sorek.
More than a dozen young people appeared on stage and three times that number worked backstage and in pre-production.
Over the past seven years more than 6000 people have come to see the Proyekt's performances. 
"The Mystery of the Lost Pearls" may struck its sets, but the Proyekt will be back later in the summer with a film night, featuring short movies about life in Gush Etzion. It's something worth looking forward to. 
Here's a glimpse of this year's Proyekt, http://www.voices-magazine.com/videoClip/247.
For more information on the Proyekt, haproyekt@gmail.com .

Youth take the Stage in the Proyekt

It's about friendship. It's about appreciating each other's talents. It's about creating something fun together. It's about accomplishing one big Proyekt, The Project!
For the past four years, hundreds of teenagers have passed through the curtain of HaProyekt, The Project, a yearly production, written and performed by teenagers from Efrat and Gush Etzion. Any young people who wish to get involved can find a place in the Proyekt, on stage or off. In this year's Proyekt, there were about 30 kids on stage, and there were about 30 stage hands moving all the sets and scenery around. Teens were in the sound and lighting booth too.
Produced and directed by Yonatan Levi, the Proyekt gives teens a place to be creative, clever, adorable (oops, I meant cool, of course).
Yonatan said that the Proyekt functions totally on donations. After producing shows for the past nine years, i can attest to the fact that the most innovation comes when you have no money in your budget. Because they don't get regular funding from any official body, Yonatan Levi thanked all those who helped them create The Project year after year - Gush Etzion's Early Childhood Center gave them space for scene painting and storage, the library gave them space too, the Derech Avot school let them meet there, Matnas Gush Etzion gave them the stage, sound/lighting pro Yair Balams helped with their tech needs, as especially did Yehuda Margolis, Rebbetzin Riskin's clothing gemach gave them costumes, etc.
According to Yonatan, almost 3500 people have seen the Proyekt over the past five years. About 60 young people participate in each season's show, writing the script and music, making costumes and scenery, and handling PR and tickets. This year's writers included Micha HaCohen, Meir Cohen, Yonatan Levi, Roi Landau and Adiel Kahan. These are very talented young people - their script, which followed real families through their daily routine of going to work, school, the Mall, etc. was very clever. The performers were just delightful.
The Proyekt rehearsed for six months before they went on stage. The kids themselves also filmed the videos and "commercials" included in the show.
Yonatan noted that he'd like more kids involved, and he'd like to do more shows if there's an audience. As I said, the show was adorable, I mean, cool. It was filled with screaming young people. I think if it performed once more, it could be filled with screaming old people. Adults have a sense of humor too, you know.
Have a look at Voices Gush Etzion TV's clip of this year's HaProyekt:

http://www.voices-magazine.com/index.php?page=inside_page&id=150&which=GTV