There are no secrets between the actors, no shame. They are all familiar with the hardships of their peers. The plays are a refuge for them; here they can escape the beatings, the yelling and the hardship. One actress recounted that she came to Yoram Loewenstein’s studio when she was twelve and a half because she felt lonely and liked to write poetry. Loewenstein recognized the young girl’s latent potential, invited her to audition and promptly accepted her.
“My mother is addicted to gambling, my father’s an alcoholic, and my brothers are drug addicts”, she relates the story of her life. “My family doesn’t know anything about me. When I was in fifth grade I discovered things about myself that only my friends in the troupe know. Before I got to know them, I was completely alone. I didn’t speak and suffered from all kinds of fears. This group and this theatre are my family’s reformation”.
David, a student at the Performing Arts Studio, was committed to a psychiatric hospital after suffering depression and attempting suicide. He discovered acting thanks to a Studio project designed to introduce youth at risk to the world of theatre. Today David reveals for the first time that he has left despair behind, the days when he was restrained in his hospital bed and wanted to end his life.
“I was in a bad state even then. I had to look for reasons to get up in the morning. I had no contact with teachers or students, only with myself. No one knew anything about me. I’d come home from school, go to my room and not come out until the next day”. David recounts that he did not care about his grades or the other students, and the turning point came when he decided he had nothing to live for. “That same night I went to the bridge over the Kibbutz Galuyot interchange”, David recalls. “I wanted to jump, but a voice inside me told me to go back”.
After six months of hospitalization he began to take the right path. A doctor from the Hatikva Quarter referred him to Halil, an actor and the coordinator of the community activity at the Performing Arts Studio who is responsible for the Youth at Risk Project.
“I wanted to go back to the hospital, where I could shout, cry and go crazy without anyone saying anything about it”, says David. “Despite that, I decided to go and see what goes on there. When I entered the Studio, I felt a connection with it. I suddenly felt the need to meet people. My life revolved between the hospital, where I was hospitalized for an additional six months, and the Studio. For the first time in my life I was happy. There is complete freedom on the stage”.
Today David is far removed from the world of depression, thanks in no small measure to the world of acting. He is currently completing his matriculation exams and will be enrolling at the Studio as a regular student.
Halil, initiator of the project, praises David: “David has the potential of becoming an actor. Today he already knows what an audience is and how to perform a monolog”.
Halil recounts how the idea of creating the Youth at Risk Project came into being. “About three years ago I thought that we should take advantage of the Studio’s location to hold activities for the benefit of the community”, he relates. “Yoram Loewenstein was in favor, and I brought young people off the streets who had been cast out of the education system. The senior students teach them, and in this way they return to a framework”.
David feels that he has not only been given a temporary framework. He does not intend to give up acting. “I’m going to work very hard to become an actor. It’s my dream”, he says enthusiastically. “If I hadn’t come here, it’s more than likely that I would have remained hospitalized or committed suicide a long time ago”.
Director of the Performing Arts Studio, Yoram Loewenstein: “The Studio considers itself part of the community. Second- and third-year students teach acting in the community as part of their training. The students are exposed to a variety of cultures and to all types of drama and human complexity”.