Sharon Fridman

With a ready smile and a clear, steady gaze, Sharon Fridman is the artistic coordinator of the Israeli theatre company Mayumana. Drawn by the company's emphasis on different cultures, he joined its ranks two years ago at a time when many new performers and soloists were coming in. His task and goal was to help improve the dance numbers, choreography and show at large. We caught up with him late one Friday afternoon, between rehearsal and show time at the Tivoli.

I seem to have caught you at the tail end of a rehearsal. Given the amount of energy required for the show, what does a typical rehearsal on a performance day entail?
The little secret behind the Mayumana show, on my part, at least, is the energy of the performers. I try to transmit good vibes to them and allow them to work with the energy they choose to have. I don’t push them too hard in rehearsals, but rather try to draw out the best vibes I can to make sure they feel comfortable and free to transmit their own energy.

Each day, I look for different energy. It depends. For example, today, half of the cast is sick. So we started off the rehearsal by celebrating one person’s birthday. Then we jammed a bit, played some African rhythms, sang some Cuban songs... Not every rehearsal is a rehearsal of the show. Sometimes it’s a rehearsal of the people, of the energy. We jam and look for the right starting point, so that we can take the show up from there. We don’t try to achieve the same energy as during a performance, because that would be too tiring.

Tell me a bit about how the founders of Mayumana, Eylon Nuphar and Boaz Berman, got the idea to create a dance troupe that also incorporated music, comedy, percussion…
I think Boaz’s and Eylon’s idea was to bring together different people with different skills… They would jam, and each person would contribute what he or she had to offer. There’s humour, theatre, dance and music in the show today, because that’s what the original members brought with them. There were percussionists, actors, dancers… They worked with the material they had.

Nowadays when Mayumana sets out to create a new show, do the directors or choreographers first come up with an idea and then seek specific actors to perform it, or do the actors themselves still join in on the creative process, bringing their own specific skills or designing their own parts?
Let me answer by way of example: flippers. We said to ourselves, “Let’s work with flippers.” We knew we’d do a bit of this, a bit of that, but there was a lot of room for contributions from the individual performers. We improvised a lot to see what worked and what didn’t, and then we decided. So, the idea is there from the start, but it’s the performers who work out its specific development under the direction of the artistic directors.

So when you start brainstorming around a central idea, how do you choose the starting point? How did you think to work with flippers?
There was no money. There was a group of talented people with no money…. We said, “OK. Let’s do something. We need to find something to play on. What can we play? Let’s play on cans.” Why? Because there are always cans at the marketplace, and we could go out to the market at night to steal some to work with. And that’s how we began to play on cans, for example. That’s where the idea to work with very cheap things that can be found around the house came from… It definitely wasn’t a company then. Only people.

Israel is a very multicultural country, and so is the company. Does the multiculturalism of the cast influence the final production? Do the performers tend to bring elements from their native artistic cultures to the show?
As I said, we work with the materials we have. We don’t know from the start whether we'll have acrobatics, flamenco or contemporary or classical dance. We look for interesting, talented people and tell them to try things out and develop them. Then we take the best parts and develop them further, give them structure. We work with the talent we have. So, if we have a classical dancer, she’ll do classical ballet, not flamenco, because we won’t ask her to do flamenco.

Specifically with regard to flamenco, we work with a lot of people from Spain. We fell in love with flamenco and Spanish culture and decided that we wanted to see more of it in the show. So we tried to work it in. But only because we love this culture and a lot of our members are from this culture.

In any event, every show is different. The girls play different parts each day. One day you’ll see the flamenco dancer, one day you’ll see the acrobat, one day you’ll see classical dance. It depends on the day you come. The solos are constantly changing.

When you take the show on the road to different countries, do you adapt certain details to the local culture? I don’t want to give anything away, but I’m thinking about the restaurant scene.
That is the only part we change each time we get to a new place. We change the language, we use the traditional foods of the place where we’re performing… and we play with that. That’s always changing.

How important is humour to the show?
Humour is part of the show, and it is constantly changing, because of the performers. Some of the actors do humour, but not all of our performers are actors. And we don’t try to make them be actors. Again, we look at each specific person and try to determine the extent to which he or she can add humor. The jokes are also constantly changing, because we improvise a lot.

Humor lies at the core of the show, probably because some of the show’s original elements had a heavy dose of clown.

Tell me a bit about Mayumana’s new show, Bejuntos, and its other activities at your theater in Tel Aviv.
At the heart of Mayumana lies the way we do things. We work with the performers and their cultures. In Bejuntos, you see more of the individual characters, which come through more strongly. It’s a different type of show, based more on music. That show also has a singer, so it’s a combination of that singer and Mayumana. When Mayumana begins a new show, first we look for new ideas, new visuals, whereas Bejuntos is more instrumental. We also have a children’s show.

Which was my next question. How did Mayumana become involved in activities for children? Is performing for kids gratifying in a different way than performing for adults?
Children like the Mayumana show very much. My nieces always come along with me, and for them it’s great. That’s why we decided to do something very similar for children. For the actors, though, it’s the same, because the show requires a lot of concentration. They concentrate on the show, not the audience. First and foremost, we have to play well, and that requires concentration, because not everyone in the company has a musical background. So, acting for children is the same for us. It’s a different show, with different energy, a little bit lighter, but the basics are the same.

One last question. What about Catalan audiences? Are they receptive to the show? Do you enjoy performing in Barcelona?
Very much. We love Barcelona. We've performed here in the past, and we came back, because we love this place. And we love the audience. The audience in Barcelona is de puta madre.