TRES CANTONES DE ESTAMBOL: HASKÖY, BALAT, KULEDİBİ
De
FORTI BAROKAS

Theater actress Forti Barokas turns three small plays she wrote for the Istanbul Literature House into a Ladino audio-visual reading.

Stories from three old Jewish neighborhoods Hasköy, Balat and Kuledibi are brought to life in the form of historical narratives and dialogues by Barokas. The plays are presented with subtitles in Turkish by the Istanbul Literature House (Kıraathane - İstanbul Edebiyat Evi).

Born in Istanbul, Forti Barokas started her amateur theatrical career with the Culture and Art Youth Association (Kültür ve Sanat Gençlik Derneği) in 1964 with a role in Eugene O’Neill’s Long Day's Journey into Night. After a hiatus of twenty years to raise a family, she joined an Istanbul Jewish Youth Group (Dostluk Yurdu) in 1984 where she worked as a backstage supervisor. When an actor failed to show she suddenly found herself back on stage and have been performing on and off ever since. She enrolled in drama and improvisation courses and wrote several plays, including some in Ladino at the occasion of the  International Ladino Day  celebrations.

Barokas writes on the Ladino page of the weekly Şalom newspaper, she is also a regular contributor to the El Amaneser. She sings with  NES, the Sephardic songs choir directed by İzzet Bana and the Turkish Classical Music Choir of the Beşiktaş municipality. As she puts it in Ladino:

Ay treinta i cinco anyos ke djugo i eskrivo teatros seya en turko seya en ladino. Mezmo fui direktora de syertos. Los djugos ke eskrivi spesyalmente en ladino para el dia enternasyonal del ladino son:

LOS MACHUKADOS

LOS REKUERDOS

LOS ALKULUMBRES

AMİGAS PARA SYEMPRE

 Eskrivo para las pajinas en Judeo-Espanyol de la gazeta Şalom i tengo mi propria pajina en la revista El Amaneser. Ademas ago parte del koro NES (koro de kantikas sefarad). Los dalkavos sez anyos tomi klasas de muzika klasika turka i ago parte del koro de muzika klasika turka de la munisipalidad de Estambol, Beşiktaş.