Orto-Da theatre Group: To Be Or Not?
The journey of the nation of Israel from an ancient tradition to a new age

AUG 20 - 20.00 hrs
SOPACUA KATOPPO OPERA HOUSE
JL. BULUJATUS CENDRAWASI BEKASI TIMUR

TO BE OR NOT?:
THE RETURN JOURNEY OF THE LOST ARK OF THE COVENANT TO THE HOLY LAND WITH THE FOUR SONS — THE WISE, THE EVIL, THE INNOCENT, AND THE ONE WHO DOESN’T KNOW HOW TO ASK — AND WITH THREE WOMEN.  THE JOURNEY OF THE NATION OF ISRAEL FROM AN ANCIENT TRADITION TO A NEW AGE, FROM BEING THE CHOSEN PEOPLE TO BEING A PEOPLE WHO CAN CHOOSE.

The Orto-Da Company first performed in 1996 — just after the murder of the Prime Minister of Israel, Yitzhak Rabin, and at the height of the kulturkampf between traditional & progressive values.
Ordo-Da creates various plays with a social orientation, inspired by the complex context of the Middle East but with universal implications as well. The subjects addressed include the individual and society, religion and state, army and civilians, racism, and the environment (see below for the repertoire). The company is composed of artists who are personally involved and interested in our society and have suffered from its errors.

 
The Ordo-Da company is an independent group presently seeking funding. Its works are performed in theatres, festivals and street shows, and at educational foundations, all around the country and the world.
Following the concept that the theatre holds a mirror to nature, Orto-Da wants its exploration to reach the secret things in the mirror — the things that don’t appear at first sight. During the process of creativity, the company explores the internal motivations hidden in humankind. It wants to go down into the depth of instincts, set free the human image with its beauty and its ugliness, its goodness and its monstrosity — which are inside us all — and transfer them to the realms of artistic creativity with the purpose of creating a cathartic relation with the public, eliminating pain and sorrow from the human consciousness that way, release and bring out the good of life in everyone and realize universal moral principles

.
The company is using, among other methods, the “open circle” method developed by Amir Orian of the Room Theatre in Israel, which studies the dynamic between the scene in history and the actor’s personal experience in order to reach artistic harmony.

 
The company creates a grotesque style by using frontal characters, circus attractions, clowning, and interactive street parade, insisting specifically on searching into the human attitude and bodily expression.
The Orto-Da group teaches the method all over Israel.

Prizes and awards:
Orto-Da was awarded first place (“Best Show”) for Meta-Rabin at the Acco Theatre Festival 1999, and Best Show at the forum of Doctor Shosh Avigal 2002.
It has been chosen to represent Israel at the following festivals:
Chalon dans la rue 2000 in France,
Varazdin Croatia 2004,
PTUJ Slovenia 2004.

JakArt secretariat: Jln. Lebak Bulus II / 20 A, Cilandak – Jakarta 12430, INDONESIA
Tel/ fax: + 62-21-75907687, Tel: + 62-21-70830742, email: proseni@indosat.net.id