Don't miss the 2022 edition!

THE FACTS:

Haim Abud and his Scapino theatre group have been organizing and taking care of the celebrations of the international CDA day in Israel  for 8 years now, with outstanding expertise and enthusiasm. Year after year the annual event  taking place in Israel in partnership with Hasimta Theater and  in collaboration with the Italian Cultural Institute of Tel Aviv and Haifa, and it  became a happy, familiar rendez-vous for the Commedia dell'Arte community and its growing audience.

But then Covid stroke, the merry laughters turned to silence and everything seemed doomed to an end, at least for the current year.

So, celebrating the CDA day this year is not an easy task.

And not just for obvious technical reasons: theatres remain shut down all over the world and there's no clear sign of what the fate of live performance will be, but because after one year of dealing with the pandemic we have this uncomfortable feeling that we're kind of getting used and resigned to this never-ending “on line-life” that gives us the chance to communicate on one side, but forces us apart on the other.

Commedia dell'Arte is so connected with “feeling” and playing the live event for its audience, that we were almost convinced there was nothing to celebrate this time. 

 

THE IDEA:

Then one night, at the top of depression, Haim was having a chat (on line of course), with Didi and Cristina, a glass of wine and a cigarette, just sobbing about the fact, there were no Covid we would have been already together rehearsing our new live production.

And then something clicked.

After all, even our comedians ancestors had to deal with more than a pandemic and one of Commedia's basic rule is: if there's a problem, just play the problem.

And all of a sudden we imagined the entire crew of Commedia's characters giving his/her secular opinion on the matter, each one from her/his shelter, but all connected by the urgency to get closer, to get together, to make something that human race has been doing for ages: telling stories that will become part of the collective memory, making us a little bit more humans.

Nice dream uh? But how to make it in practice? 

48 hours later,  Haim came with a green light from Hasimta Theater and the IIC of Tel  Aviv, and with a practical plan  how to make this dream real.

 

THE MAKING OF:

Since we must go on streaming anyway, we asked ourselves how do we preserve that feeling of community?

We decided that, non-matter what, we had to perform the pandemic topic and we had to perform LIVE.

From that point we had to contact the artists, amazing people who have devoted their entire life and profession to live performance, who accepted the quest of being part of this unusual, pioneering show. To them, to their generosity and professionality we are deeply grateful.

And we realized we have a lot to celebrate.

SO, WHAT ARE WE CELEBRATING THIS YEAR?

The fact that Commedia dell'Arte is such a huge tool that can always speak to your senses, especially in uncertain times.

The enthusiastic response we had both from the producers, the artists and the audience who's submitting to the event told us this was needed. Although we're all more fragile as isolated human beings, we will always tend to get together to sing our chants, listen to our stories, share our knowledge.

And we learnt that the only way to get rid of Death, it's to nourish Life.

 

So, please, have a seat and be our guests!

Didi, Cristina, Haim