Open air street theater

Open-Air Street Theater – 2024 Haifa Theater Festival 

Chava Alberstein wrote and sang: “You can get it without a doctor’s prescription; you just have to come and ask. A kiss every hour, and a hug every two”. So simple and so effective is the power of love to heal the soul. In days like these, days of pain, we wish to send a smile, to offer you laughter, awaken the hope in your heart, faith in humanity and goodness, and to reaffirm the firm belief that peace begins from the place where love is born. We seek to surprise you with spontaneity, color, freedom, and optimism, and to offer you a warm place on the bright side of humanity. 
The open-air theater complex celebrates this, its 34th year of children’s theater festivals. This year the festival focuses on the wonder of human connection, reminding us that people cannot always be heroes, but they can always be human.  
In the open air, you will see artists from all over the world, surprising and thrilling you, face to face, eyeball to eyeball, performing their magical and breathtaking shows.

18 Unique, original projects, will fill the theater plaza and Binyamin Gardens with beauty, cheekiness and inspiration from Australia, Italy, Germany, Spain, Argentina, Uruguay, Paraguay, Austria, and of course – from Israel, with high-quality and extraordinary theater, with a variety of works, expressing a deep love of humanity expressed in a variety of theatrical styles.

It is a great privilege to promote and to strengthen the art of street theater in Israel. The ORTO-Da theater group, whose roots are deeply embedded in the tradition of street theatre, is proud to present you with an exciting artistic program, for the tenth year in a row. We thank the many good people who play a part in this privilege.

Special thanks to Nitsa Ben Zvi, the festival’s CEO, who enthusiastically shares with us the vision of turning the Haifa Festival into an international event.

A big thank you to Roy Segev, the artistic director of the festival, for his cooperation and his complete trust and to Moshe Naor, the artistic director of the Haifa Theater for his wonderful cooperation.

A huge thank you to the amazing team from the ORTO-Da Theater, to the unique Shani Luzon – the production coordinator and assistant to the artistic directors, who divided her time between the production and military reserve duty, to Mikol Pietra for her dedication despite the difficult days and to Yif’at Zandani-Zafrir and Helena Pasternak for their commitment and their work, full of soul and spirit.
Thanks to the Haifa Theater team, the Haifa Municipality, the Cultural Attaché Italy for their support of the festival, with the firm belief that peace begins from the place where love is born, and a huge thank you to the wonderful artists and the dedicated audience who together celebrate creativity and the human spirit!

Best regards,

Yinon Tzafrir, Avi Gibson Bar-El
ORTO-Da Theater Group – Artistic Management of the Open Air, Street Theater Festival.