About the project
The Train Theater is a puppet theater that offers activities for children ranging from story telling with objects and music to full-length productions, creative workshops and street festivals. The theater was established as a collaboration of four independent puppeteers: Michael Schuster, Alina Ashbel, Hadass Ophrat and Mario Kotliar, and located in a railroad car in Liberty Bell Garden (later, Koret Liberty Bell Park) adapted for theater use in 1981. Since then, the theater has developed to serve as an umbrella organization for numerous companies, offering a permanent repertoire of plays and annual productions and hosting the bi-annual International Festival of Puppet Theater. The theater is now recognized as the leading puppet theater in Israel: it has won numerous prizes and has performed at international festivals around the world. The Jerusalem Foundation helped establish the theater in its original train car, supported construction of and renovations to a 70-seat theater that eventually replaced the train car, and has supported various theater activities, including programs for special needs children, and Friday is Fun, a program that brings Train Theater performances to neighborhoods throughout the city.
