Bedside Fantasy
Interactive and Experiential Shows For Hospitalized Children
Illness and hospitalization are extreme situations which create a sense of disconnection, isolation, apprehension and anxiety in the sick child.
In response to this, Alina’s shows foster mental and spiritual support for hospitalized children in order to ease, comfort and distract them from their illness and surroundings.
The barrier between stage and audience is almost erased, replaced by a private event of a safe, yet intimate, nature. The show transforms the frightening, alien reality of the hospital into a magical world which is friendly and full of surprises.
The shows are created and adapted to hospitals’ physical conditions. Lightweight and easy to assemble, they are built and designed mainly on umbrella structures which can be transported easily down corridors, into elevators, into rooms ― right to the bedside of the hospitalized child.
After twenty years as a puppeteer in The Train Theater in Jerusalem, Alina initiated the project in 2000 in the children’s wards of the Hadassah Ein Karem Medical Center. She has performed it continuously ever since.
Concept, design and performance: Alina Ashbel