Na Laga'at (in English, Please Touch) is a nonprofit organization founded in 2002 by Adina Tal and Eran Gur around the first of its kind in the world ensemble whose actors are all deafblind (double disability). The organization established a unique cultural center at the Levantbondet House in the Port of Jaffa in Tel Aviv. The center is a platform for creative arts, which promote equal and open dialogue and lead to social change built on the belief in the human spirit and its ability to reach out and make a change.
Na Laga'at Center
Established by the Na Laga'at organization the center opened its gates to the general public in December 2007. It employs more than a hundred people, most of whom are deaf, blind and deafblind.
The center operates the Na Laga'at theater with ensemble consists of deaf, blind, deafblind and actors who can see and hear; Kapish Events Complex, where waiters are deaf and communicate with the customers in sign language; The dark restaurant Blackout (kosher-dairy), where the meal is held in complete darkness and a team of blind and visually impaired waiters accompanies the patrons throughout the meal; workshops center, offering a variety of workshops led by content experts and a team of deaf, blind and deafblind instructors. The Na Laga'at center enables and advances equal and open dialogue to promote the needs and aspirations of every person in the belief that all human beings are equal.
Over the years the center's unique activities have earned it a number of prestigious awards and degrees in the fields of society and culture, and it was also among the organizations that violinist Yitzhak Perlman included in the awarding of the Genesis Prize. Pearlman explained the choice of Na Laga'at: "One of the most innovative theaters in the world, a cultural and arts center that brings together the deaf, the blind and the general public, and creates an equal dialogue that promotes the needs and aspirations of every person." In 2018 the center received an international social honorary award for "effectiveness of cultural action for a better society" on behalf of Fair Saturday foundation. This is the first win for an Israeli organization.
Oren Itzhaki is the CEO of the center since 2017.
Na Laga'at Theater
Adina Tal and with Eran Gur founded the Nalaga'at Theater Company in 2002 after accepting an invitation to teach drama to a group of deaf-blind individuals. This experience grew into Nalaga'at (meaning "Please Touch" in Hebrew), the only professional deaf-blind theater company in the world. The Na Laga'at theater provides a permanent ongoing stage for the only ensemble in the world whose actors are deaf, blind, and deafblind, and to allow them artistic self-expression.
Since it started to operate the theater has provided the audience with an artistic and social experience that changes perceptions and connects communities and sectors.
The theater offers a diverse repertoire of performances, allowing viewers a glimpse into the world of deaf, blind and deafblind people. It also raises questions of identity, inclusion, communication and acceptance of the other.
The theater's debuted performance "Light is Heard in Zig-Zag" directed by Adina Tal, was staged in 2000 in Israel and worldwide and received excellent reviews among viewers and critics.
The 2007 debut performance of "Light is Heard in Zig-Zag" was internationally successful, and led to the opening of the Nalaga'at Center in Tel Aviv. The theater's second performance, "Not by Bread Alone", directed by Adina Tal and featuring an ensemble of 11 deafblind actors and actresses, was first staged in 2007. Tactile Signing interpreters accompany the actors during rehearsals and performances. "Not by Bread Alone" toured the world.
Most deafblind people have the ability to communicate only with a person who knows Tactile Signing or "glove language", according to which each joint in the palm corresponds to a Hebrew letter written on the palm. Most of the actors in the show suffer from Usher Syndrome, a rare genetic disease that affects both hearing and vision. It causes deafness or hearing loss and an eye disease called Retinitis Pigmentosa (RP). The disease develops in adolescence or later, and causes significant vision difficulties and even blindness. Employing these actors in the theater on a daily basis empowers them, improves their interpersonal communication skills, reduces their social isolation and enables encounters and contact with hearing and seeing audiences and also with people of identical and different struggles.