“Alona Comes Home from the Kindergarten, Through the Garden” is how Shira Geffen’s book The Heart-Shaped Leaf begins.
As Alona rests beneath a tree, a golden leaf falls from the branches above her and rests on her head. This leaf is different from all the others. It is shaped like a heart, shielding Alona from the pouring rain. But does this leaf belong to her or to the tree? Will she keep her new treasure or help it find its way back home?
The audience joins Alona and the leaf on their journey home in the new stage adaptation, which Zvi Sahar and Shira Geffen are creating with designer David Polonsky. The magical performance combines unique theatrical languages, blending puppetry, projections, and shadows.
Alona walks home from kindergarten when a golden, heart-shaped leaf falls on her head and protects her from the rain. Who does the leaf belong to? To her or to the tree?
The Itim Ensemble was founded in 1989 by Rina Yerushalmi, a director and creator who is a recipient of the Israel Prize, aiming to explore the essence of theater and reveal its role within our time’s social and cultural changes. The ensemble serves as a theater laboratory emphasizing the work and research process. In this process, the relationship between all the elements of theater – space, time, audience, actor, language, movement, and composition itself – is re-examined in each project. At the end of the process, a new stage language develops, breaking away from existing conventions and reinventing itself.
Adapted and Directed by Zvi Sahar & Shira Geffen
Designed by David Polonsky
Assistant Director & Producer Yinon Cohen
Puppet Director, Co-Creator & Performer – Gony Paz
Co-Creator & Performer – Aviv Horovitz
Music by Asaf Roth
Light Designer– Shai Dror
Photos – Gerard Allon
Video- ilya kreines
Based on a book by Shira Geffen
Artistic Director Zvi Sahar
The show was created as part of the Haifa Festival for Children and Youth.
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