Tel Aviv Community Theatre

The Tel Aviv Community Theatre is dedicated to the idea that English speakers need and will welcome quality theater in their native language. TACT has been providing good theater for more than 50 years.

English theater in Tel Aviv goes back to the days when a website was where a spider had spun hers.

It was 1958 and three stage struck Tel Avivians, all newish olim – or immigrants - became the first members of a then non existent theater group. They pooled the mighty sum of 35 Israeli pounds and, with one typewriter between the trio, wrote and mailed 2000 letters exhorting local citizens to lend their presence and talents too. Nellie Lenson, Stanley Broza and Zippora Peled called themselves The Little English Theatre.

Its first production was Jan de Hartog's comedy, The Fourposter. It had a cast of two. Ms. Lenson was back stage.

There were also play-readings in people's homes, and slowly TLET began to grow.

Fast forward to 1969 when TLET is putting on its 12th production at Tel Aviv's ZOA House. Ms. Lenson directs Kett Frings' Look Homeward Angel and some 250 people have taken part in the 11 full length, 11 one-act plays and two musicals that TLET has put on over the years.

In the 1970s TLET became the ZOA House Drama Circle which a decade or so later metamorphosed into TACT.

Our shows run the gamut from the classics to Broadway/West end hits to original plays or compilations by our own members. Past productions have included Arsenic and Old Lace by Joseph Kesselring – twice, once in 1968 and again in 1990, The Diary of Anne Frank by Frances Goodrich and Albert Hackett, Nuts by Tom Topor, Lettice and Lovage by Peter Shaffer, and Neil Simon comedies such as Rumors and The Prisoner of 2nd Avenue.

Over the past decade or so we've done such as Aristophanes Lysistrata, The Cherry Orchard by Anton Chekhov, Blithe Spirit by Noel Coward, Checking In, an original musical one of nine that Daniel Schwartzman has written for TACT, This Land,a compilation of stories about why people want to be in Israel written for the states's 50th anniversary and the ever popular English pantomime, such as Aladdin and Cinderella.

Our most recent productions are Mikve by Hadar Galron, a Hebrew theater play that was translated into English, Ladies in Retirement by Edward Percy and Reginald Denham, and Happy Hour, Danny's latest musical.

 

A TACT season typically contains from one to three mainstage productions, showcases and workshops. Showcases are in-house evenings that enable members to take on new and challenging roles with the help and advice of experienced actors and directors.

 

TACT also offers members the opportunity to participate in all types of workshops, such as acting, singing, dancing and more. For lovers of the Bard, there's also a Shakespeare play-reading group.

 

Additionally, TACT is a wonderful social community that welcomes everybody from anywhere who wants to work in English. Our reason for being is to be on stage, but we do the greatest parties too. Joining TACT is a great way for English-speaking newcomers of all stripes to become acclimatized to our country.