In 1986, a group of children from the children's club of the Jewish Community of Belgrade, interested in acting and stage performance, began working on the first short, themed performances for the holidays of Hanukkah and Purim, inspired by the current rabbi Isaac Asiel. Mirjam Salom, the theater's director, started this initiative. In modest conditions, without appropriate decor, props, and costumes, a group of enthusiasts, including set designer Mirjana Lehner and musical collaborators, slowly laid the foundations of the future theater. The parents of the participating children create and sew costumes, assist in making the decor, lighting, makeup, and organization.
The participants, children aged 9-16, achieve better results through their effort and dedicated work, socialize, gain experience through tours and performances, and learn diction, stage movements, dance, and singing.
The goal of the theater's work is not only to improve acting and diction but also to acquire basic knowledge of Jewish history, tradition, customs, and culture, developing Jewish identity, which highlights the multifaceted role of the theater within the Jewish community in Belgrade. The theater is also a place where future generations of friends of the Jewish Community of Belgrade, who are not members of the community, are educated.
In our theater, three generations are combined, i.e., three groups of members: the youngest members aged 6-14, then youth aged 15-35, and seniors, who say they are in their prime and that it is never too late for acting – they participate in the so-called four-day acting workshops on joint performances, which are performed at family seminars (e.g., in Kladovo), coming from various parts of Serbia and former Yugoslav republics.
So far, more than four hundred members of all ages have passed through the “King David” theater, and about 40 performances have been staged – theatrical happenings, musicals, dramas, sketches, cabarets, and themed holiday programs, mostly works on the theme of Jewish tradition and culture.
Plays by well-known Jewish authors have been staged: Isaac Bashevis Singer, Isaac Samokovlija, Ephraim Kishon, and others. Notable performances include: “The Evening Before Hanukkah in Warsaw,” “The Blue Jewess,” “Mirjam's Hair,” “Aftara,” “He and She,” “Anne Frank,” “A Great Miracle in Shmuel's Workshop,” “Golem,” and “Lost Luggage.” Among the most successful musicals are: “Joseph and His Colorful Coat,” “Fiddler on the Roof,” “Marriage Certificate,” “Adam and Eve,” “Solomon and Sheba,” “La pasiensija vale mućo” (a musical in Ladino), “The Smell of Rain in the Balkans.” From theatrical happenings, themed holiday performances, and purpose-built comedies for seminars, the following stand out: “Exodus,” “Cabaret Herc,” “Yom Kippur,” “Hanukkah,” “Purim Sketches,” “Moses,” “Passover in the Weiner House,” “The House of Broken Hearts,” “The House of the Jewish Big Brother,” and others.
We cannot fail to mention the numerous collaborators without whom this theater would not be what it is. They include: our long-time member, academic painter Mirjana Lehner, set designer, musical collaborator Ljiljana Lazić Dragojević, choreographers: Ana Torbica, Radmila Milovanov, Ružica Stanković, Đurđa Makrevska, Lana Pavlović, Marija Šormaz, and Jasna Mijailović.
It is also important to highlight several actors who began their acting careers at the “King David” theater, continued with their acting careers, and today are well-known actors after graduating from the theater academy: Stefan Buzurović, Tašana Đorđević, and Maša Đorđević.
