Theatre as a tool for Bridging Socio-Cultural Dichotomies: A Tourist’s Assessment of the Akko Theatre Festival in Israel

Abstract

rom the ancient Greek theatre studies, and cutting through societies of the world, festival performances have remained didactic and dynamic tools or avenues that either promote or project cordial relationship of divergent and or communally bound cultures. Festivals are also repertoires of a given people’s history in their original forms, or re-defined forms because of the cultural response to the changing world. Israel is a nation where, like most nations of the world, theatre plays significant role in the lives of the people. With tourism as a vibrant revenue earner for the State of Israel, the Akko Theatre Festival provides not only the tourist a full theatrical satisfaction, but it also contributes its quota to the entertainment and educative needs of its audience. This paper attempts a look at the potentials of Akko Theatre Festival in bridging great socio-cultural divides, not only in Israel but other nations of the world with similar theatre experiences.

Keywords. Theatre, Socio-Cultural Dichotomies, Akko Theatre, Festival, Paradigm.