The House by the Lake
Created by Yael Rasooly and Yaara Goldring
Produced by Hazira performance Art Arena.
A musical cabaret for actresses, dolls and objects.
THE HOUSE BY THE LAKE is a performance that swings between the boundaries of musical cabaret and contemporary puppetry for adults.
A cabaret singer, haunted by her unspeakable memories, tells the story of three little sisters in hiding during World War II. Forced to hide in a tiny cold room, waiting for their mother to return, the sisters do their best to preserve a shadow of the life they once knew, one of discipline, culture and care, while escaping together into an imaginary voyage of play, dreams and hope. As reality is falling apart and the danger draws nearer, their bodies come together with pieces of broken dolls, creating a fantastic and absurd world.
In this original and creative play, humor and tragedy are woven together, forming an overwhelming and unforgettable theatrical experience.
The show has been inspired by conversations with and testimonies of holocaust survivors who were children in hiding, who shared their experiences with the artists.
THE HOUSE BY THE LAKE premiered in 2010, and since then has been performed in leading festivals and theaters in Germany, Portugal, Poland, Denmark, Canada, Israel, Czech Republic and throughout France.
This will be the first time the show is presented in the USA.
Press:
“An original and highly imaginative piece, that succeeds in creating a delicate and
beautiful theatrical world, which combines the humor and the terror of the situation.”
Shai Bar Yaakov, Yediot Aharonot
Credits –
Written and directed by YAEL RASOOLY and YAARA GOLDRING
Production | HAZIRA PERFORMANCE ART ARENA
Co-creators | EDNA BLILIOUS and RINAT STERENBERG
Performers | EDNA BLILIOUS / GILI BEIT HALLAHMI / YAEL RASOOLY
Stage and costume design | MAUREEN FREEDMAN
Puppet design | MAAYAN RESNICK
Assistant puppet and object maker | NOA ABEND
Composer and Lyricist | NADAV WIESEL
Sound design | BINYA RECHES
Lighting design ASI GOTESMAN
Assistant director | MICHAL VAKNIN
Artistic advisor | YAEL INBAR
BIOS:
Yael Rasooly is a theater director, actor, singer, puppeteer and a teacher. She performed in more than 30 countries and hundreds of festivals and theaters worldwide.
Yael is a trained classical singer. She studied theater design in London at Saint Martin’s college of art and design, and graduated from the school of Visual Theater in Jerusalem. She has a distinct theatrical language, based on a multidisciplinary approach, combining forms of theater, puppetry, visual art and music. Her performances received raving reviews from publications such as The New York Times, Télérama and The Guardian, and won awards such as the excellence Award at the New York International Fringe Festival. She is presently touring with 6 different theater and music performances, primarily her latest show on an International tour, EDITH AND ME which is part of a trilogy that deals with violence towards women and children.
Yael has also been a guest professor for a semester at Trinity College, UConn and The Eugene O’Neill Theater Center , and has taught masterclasses at the National Academy of Theatre Arts in Wroclaw(Poland), ESNAM (France), Université du Québec à Montréal, NYU, Berklee school of music and others. She frequently gives talks about transforming personal trauma through creation, with an emphasis on female creators in the field of visual theater.
“Yael Rasooly is a powerhouse of imagination.”
– EdinburghGuide
“Inspired wackiness.”
– The New York Times
yaelrasooly.com
INSTAGRAM: #yaelrasooly
Yaara Goldring grew up between Israel, South Africa and U.S.A. Her Interest and training in the arts began at an early age, through drawing, sculpture and theater.
From 2001 to 2005 she studied in the School of Visual Theater (Jerusalem) where she
Trained in the art of Puppetry – From design to manipulation and direction. After graduating with excellence she continued to explore the borders of fantasy/reality, humor and personal tragedy through body- puppet – and object. She created and performed “Swamp story”- As solo performance with objects, and worked for years developing street theater performances. In 2009 she began working together with Yael Rasooly On The House by the Lake which premiered in 2010 and is still touring worldwide. Yaara is also a mother to Shilo, a pilates instructor, runs a child daycare center and works with people on the autism spectrum.
Maureen Freedman, Stage and Costume Designer. Maureen has worked in the US and abroad creating spaces and crafting characters for theater, object theater, opera and dance.
Some notable work includes The Exalted Carl Hancock-Rux (Anne Bogart, Director) at BAM, Colliding Classroom by Dr. Christopher Emdin at LCT, The Wolves at the Window by Toby Davis at 59e59 and Intimate Apparel for CT Rep (SILV award for design excellence, NAPAT award for scenic design, published in ‘A Critical Companion to Lynn Nottage’ by Routledge). The Boat is Sinking (Fringe First, Israel), and several collaborations with award winning puppeteer, Yael Rasooly; The House by the Lake (Israel & touring) and Silence Makes Perfect (UK, Israel and touring). Maureen is an L.B. Tobin Director-Designer award winner from Opera America, a Linbury Prize finalist, Cheek by Jowl young Professional alum and a NYFA IAPfellow.
Nadav Wiesel is a NY based multidisciplinary theater artist, songwriter and performer.
Wiesel has performed in Scurry at Lincoln Center, and the Emperor’s New Clothes with New York’s Children’s Theater, And several shows with the Clown Gym Ensemble. He has toured with a cabaret of his music, Funny Little Heartbreaks, in the US and Israel. As Composer-Lyricist, his works have been staged in Israel, New York and across Europe. His works include The Femme Fatale Show, The House by the Lake, and One Night in the Palace Escorial. Nadav is an advanced member of the BMI Musical Theater writing Workshop and a graduate of Tel Aviv University’s Theater Arts department.
EDNA BLILIOUS is a theater film and television actress. She has appeared in dozens of productions, TV series and films. She is a member of the Habima national theater in Tel Aviv. She graduated from the Nissan Nativ acting studio, worked at the laboratory of Anatoly Vasiliev in Moscow And studied at the Lee Strasberg Institute NYC.
But most importantly a mother of three.
GILI BEIT-HALACHMI is a theater, film, and television actress. She has appeared in numerous productions, both locally and internationally, from Habima National Theatre to stages across Europe. She is a professional puppeteer. Her work includes award-winning performances at the Acre Festival and Tribeca Film Festival. She is a puppetry advisor for major theater productions, most recently for Habima’s production of Pinocchio.
Produced by : Hazira Performance Art Arena
Hazira is a theater and a production house for original work in the realms of performance and contemporary theater. The focal point of its activity and identity is creative artists who work in a wide variety of fields: theater, performance, dance, plastic art, experimental music, and media. Throughout the years, Hazira has become famous both in Israel and abroad as a dynamic production house that dedicates all its efforts and resources to create the complex conditions that are required for the development of original and high-quality artistic languages.