GESHER THEATER

A bilingual—Russian andHebrew—theaterbased inTel Aviv. It was founded in 1991 with the support of Israel's Ministry ofEducationand Culture, theJewish Agency, the city of Tel Aviv, the Tel Aviv Development Foundation, and theZionistForum. It was initially comprised mostly of Russian-speaking new immigrants (seeALIYA) from the formerUnion of Soviet Socialist Republics. The theater's founder and artistic director, Yevgeny Arye, had been a successful stage and screen director in Moscow. The theater is one of the only truly bilingual theaters in the world, performing with the same troupe in Russian and in Hebrew alternately. It became the first Israeli theater company to be invited to perform at the prestigious Festival d'Avignon (July 1993).