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The Cameri Theatre was founded in December 1944. Its establishment affected many facets of theatrical activity in Israel, from the choice of plays to the design of sets; it was accomplished by a group of young actors headed by producer Joseph Millo, who was the Cameri's artistic director and guiding light. The young troupe began to present plays with modern and imaginative staging and realistic acting, and the actors used everyday language spoken in a natural manner. All this was quite different from the style of presentation then current in the country, and the contemporary quality which the Cameri brought to the Israel theater aroused an immediate response. Especially delighted was the younger Israeli-born generation, which felt that the Cameri was their own theater, an expression of their own taste and spirit.
The Cameri Theatre troupe of forty artists has produced over 160 plays, classic as well as modern, Israeli as well as foreign. Among them were plays by Shakespeare, Aeschylus, Buechner, Gogol, Chekhov, Moliere, Ibsen, Kafka, Shaw, Brecht, Garcia Lorca, O'Casey, Steinbeck, Pagnol, O'Neill, Miller, and Pinter, to name just a few. The most outlandish of the Israel plays produced by the Cameri were Shamir's They Will Be Here Tomorrow, Leah Goldberg's The Castle, Mossinsohn's Casablan, Aloni's The Revolution and the Chicken, Gronemann's King Solomon and the Cobbler, and Alterman's Kinneret, Kinneret.
In addition to the Cameri's two permanent stage directors, Gershon Plotkin and Shmuel Bunim, numerous local and foreign directors have staged Cameri productions, all in cooperation with the most talented Israeli composers and set designers.
The Israel Opera Company was founded in Tel Aviv on November 29, 1947, by Edis de Philippe, the Opera's director. In its first ten years, the company gave 1,000 performances. Thereafter, it moved from the Habima Theatre to its own hall - the building which had housed Israel's first Knesset - and in the ensuing 14 years, the total number of performances of operas, operettas, and ballets reached 3,250. The company also takes its productions to the major cities and other places under the aegis of the "Art to the People" program.
The Israel Opera has 230 employees, most of them Israelis. It is the only opera group in the world that performs 50 weeks a year.
Great artists from East and West, from famous companies such as New York's Metropolitan, Milan's La Scala, and those of Vienna, Paris, Sofia, Berlin, Moscow, Warsaw, etc. have appeared along with Israel singers, in performances led by Israel's most gifted conductors.
The Opera has trained a whole generation of Israeli singers, who have been entrusted with leading roles according to their ability.
The maintenance of an active and effervescent opera company is a challenge everywhere, and many richer countries than Israel have not yet succeeded in achieving this. The fact that Israel has done so is most encouraging, and the Opera management is prepared to continue its efforts to this end in the future as well.
The Opera's rich repertoire enables it to provide many different productions in the course of a month. The operas are sung in Hebrew, Italian, and French, but are understood by all, as the Opera's language is a universal one.
The Inbal Dance Theatre was founded in 1949 by Ms. Sarah Levi-Tannai, who is also the theatre's choreographer. Inbal has created a new style of the dance, based on the traditions in music and body movements of the various Jewish communities, especially the Oriental ones.
The twenty years Inbal has existed have witnessed the development of a rich and varied repertoire, constituting a valuable contribution to Israel's renascent culture. The company's dance programs are inspired by one of five areas: the Bible, the folklore of the different communities, Jewish tradition, landscape, and the new Israel.
The Inbal Dance Theatre has toured foreign countries six times - twice in the U.S. and Canada, three times in Europe, and once in Hong Kong and Australia. In 1962 the Inbal company appeared in Paris at the Theatre des Nations which acclaimed Ms. Sarah Levi-Tannai the best choreographer of the year.