mission: theatre dybbuk creates provocative performances and innovative educational encounters that explore Jewish thought to illuminate universal human experience.These productions incorporate lyrical language, stylized movement and visceral metaphors to create expressionistic, singularly theatrical experiences.

projects.

theatre dybbuk was founded in 2011. The company’s inaugural production, cave…a dance for lilith (co-produced with LA Contemporary Dance Company), opened on November 9, 2012 at Diavolo in The Brewery Art Colony.

Since its beginnings with cave, theatre dybbuk has created and performed an additional six original, full-length theatrical pieces, as well as two original short pieces, and numerous staged readings and community events.

Additionally, theatre dybbuk has become a prominent provider of arts-based leadership training, community engagement events, and Jewish educational programs to non-profits, community organizations, synagogues, Hillel chapters, and schools in the Los Angeles area and throughout North America.

premiered november 2012 in downtown los angeles. Co-Production with L.A. Contemporary Dance Company.

cave… is an exciting collision of theatre, dance and music that explores the humanity behind the myth of one of the most infamous demon goddesses of Jewish folklore. This dance theatre production travels through time and space as Lilith and her nemesis/lover cycle through endless attempts to connect with and dominate one another.

premiered on October 4, 2015 in Encinitas, California. Conceived by the Center for Jewish Culture and Leichtag Foundation, and created by theatre dybbuk.

As a part of the Leichtag Foundation’s Sukkot Harvest Festival, assemble brings experimental performance to a festival audience for an exploration of community and integrity. It blends theatre dybbuk’s own brand of heightened language and physical theatre with dance and music for an invigorating journey inspired by the ancient ritual of Hakhel.

premiered with performances throughout Los Angeles in the summer of 2016. This groundbreaking performance was presented in partnership with Temple Israel of Hollywood, where it had its world premiere on June 18, 2016, the Fowler Museum at UCLA, the Dortort Center for Creativity in the Arts at UCLA Hillel, and Grand Park/The Music Center.

“exagoge” is the first recorded Jewish play, thought to have been written in Alexandria and which tells the biblical Exodus narrative in the style of a Greek tragedy.

Although only 269 lines of the original play exist, the company has used this fragment as the starting point for a full theatrical work, rich in movement, music and poetry. The play weaves in modern day narratives of refugee and immigrant experiences to highlight the inclusive nature of the Exodus narrative, and the ongoing crises of people fleeing oppression around the world.

premiered at Los Angeles Contemporary Exhibitions (LACE) on February 24 & 25, 2018 and toured to arts and cultural venues around the Los Angeles area throughout that winter and spring. The Los Angeles tour included sold out performances at The Dortort Center for Creativity in the Arts at UCLA on March 10 and at Armory Center for the Arts in Pasadena on March 29, and performances at Temple Israel of Hollywood on April 7 & 8, 2018.

Framed in the context of a gallery exhibition, lost tribes weaves together stories from the Assyrian conquest to the present day, tracing a world history of assimilation and dominance; of cultural conquest, annihilation, and survival. The performance incorporates choreography by Kai Hazelwood, production design by Leslie K. Gray, and a live percussion score composed by Michael Skloff, created in collaboration with Emilia Moscoso Borja and Alex Shaw. The production is written and directed by theatre dybbuk’s artistic director, Aaron Henne, and developed with the ensemble.

premiered on August 26, 2019 at The Philosophical Research Society in Los Angeles, CA.

Enter the gates of the Venice Ghetto of the 17th century and go on a journey of dominance, separation, and survival that spirals down through the pits of Gehenna. Featuring a landscape of choreographed movement, poetic text, shadow puppetry, and choral scoring, hell prepared follows a spiritual leader as he endeavors to exorcise the dominant culture and its influence on his world. In the process, he is driven down through the pits of hell where he sees visions of a challenging past and an uncertain future.