The era of accepting the constant contempt and superiority that has happened to us is over

He was recently re-elected director of the Petőfi Theater in Veszprém, so his third term at the head of the theater could begin. He had previously stated that he did not expect Károly Eperjes to contact him after István Bujtor’s death when taking over the management of the theater. What did you mean when the Bujtor family chose your name from the five proposed by Presov?

I admit I didn’t even know it. It was in my head what defined my work from the beginning of my career: it was not only important to build myself in the theater, but also to contribute to the development of the community. Back in college, I saw our class as a cohesive team. Later, if I remember correctly, I came across an oath at the Kőszeg museum, that all citizens were required to swear to uphold the construction of their closest patriarch as well. When Károly Eperjes telephoned me and encouraged me to apply for the position of director, I was playing soccer with the parents of the local Catholic community in Nagykovácsi. I came home, asked my family for their opinion, and soon I said yes, I had a different background.

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There are people in each company who are satisfied and there are those who are less, often they know very well how to do theater at the buffet. It was no different at the Comedy Theater, where I spent many years, and remembering the different opinions I heard at the time, I thought: the easiest way to scream from the edge of the track. You have to go to the start round and kick the ball. It may not be a goal right away, but you can at least try it yourself.

Did you have a plan on how your career would continue if you didn’t win?

I think it is usually true for me that when you close a door, many other windows open. Since the management of the theater didn’t even occur to me before the application, I probably would have continued to perform “solo” as an actor and would continue our festivals, concerts and a rich series of cultural and artistic programs organized in Nagykovácsi, where I lived.

What environment did you come to and what were your first impulses in Veszprém?

I really got into theater management like Pilate did Creed, so to speak, like a green ear. I asked my former Piarist classmate, who for a time was also the provincial head of the order, what he believed to be the most important value when I started working. He replied that I should stay and not try to be different. I was born in Budapest, I also grew up there, I played in theaters in the capital, where I have to do radically different theater than in the country. A different set of criteria is required for the full development of the program, to keep in touch with the audience, as we do not live here in a capital of two million, but in a county seat of sixty thousand, where there is also another private theater . Working together with Károly Eperjes worked well in the first period, he asked for my opinion and listened to me. At the same time, I also had to understand that their ways are richer.

What kind of theater did you want to do?

I tried better to reinforce the concept that we try to express in our motto: in communion with the public, for what popular theater means, with its own criteria. It is necessary to create in all genres, so that as many people as possible attend our presentations, since we operate from their forints that pay taxes. However, we also have to realize that sometimes we have to put on a very nice piece that I could say as an actor: that is not necessarily why I chose this profession. When I went to university, we dealt with Chekhov, Molière, contemporary Hungarian pieces, but at Veszprém we have to think about some twenty thousand season tickets. There may be a demand from Chekhov, but not from nine to ten thousand people a year. I had to decide to do theater for the general public.

Are the two unthinkable together? They have more playgrounds, couldn’t the Latinovits-Bujtor Play Color, with its narrower capacity, be suitable for a broader immersion of the pieces of domestic, universal and contemporary dramatic literature that certainly occupy the rural intelligentsia? I also ask this because Tibor Gyurkovics last October Vizit high His presentation was no more successful than his other performances.

Gyurkovics has great respect in the city, as he even played on Veszprém. Anyway, before getting here, there were several attempts to “educate” the audience, but they were as big as the house. This is an adorable, but often extremely determined, audience that doesn’t need it. There was a heroic time for theater in Veszprém, but to understand why I run the theater as it works today, we have to rewind the wheel of time. In the XIX. In the late 19th century, as a result of civilization, a theater construction program was started in Hungary, which came to Veszprém in 1908 with the building designed by István Medgyaszay. There was also a dance hall, a cinema, and a theater. It was renovated after the war, it has been operating with an independent company since 1961, the beautiful period that started from there really ended in the seventies and eighties, because this place was a touchstone in socialism. Here the pieces of Csurka, Páskándi, Illyés, László Németh, Gyurkovics were presented and the public was also educated, since they could see the best performances. Comrade Aczél’s delegation came, watched the lectures and what “happened” was presented at Pest. In answer to your question, True Color is truly the place where we can also introduce less demanding genres that are very moving.

Based on your own evaluation, how did your second director’s cycle deliver more than the first?

In 2010, when I came here quite openly, I tried to evaluate how the theater works. It took me a few years to understand many things, and in addition to the joys that came to mind, I experienced with some pain the challenge that many people think in many ways, and often not even in the language of theater. He was not necessarily prepared for that. I think we managed to choose employees, led by Deputy Director Zsuzsanna Kellerné Egresi, who will lead the theater in a common direction. We would rather be less, but stay together. Today we have more than twenty thousand passes, which justifies the change of direction. Since 2015, we have taken a large part in the community, mental and spiritual life of the city, and we have also established two festivals, through which we also address the audience.

Looking at the period beginning in 2020, what are the main pillars that can complete the previous two cycles?

The biggest challenge now is rebuilding. There comes a time when we need to save our audience and we also want to think about young people, in whom the Lázár Ervin Program can help a lot. We will have to create smaller scale but even more attractive performances as our new playground will be smaller than our grand theater. When we reach the year of the European Capital of Culture, by 2023 we must also strengthen our international relations at the level of the Carpathian Basin. In accordance with our plans, we will organize a meeting of national theater and the Carpathian basin, which will be joined by international chamber theater shows. We are currently cooperating well with the Csíki Playground and the Mosti City Theater in the Czech Republic, but we would also like to cooperate with Slovak, German and French partners. And we would crown all this with a lecture on theater theory on current issues. I think it is important that our theater reflects on the changes taking place in the profession and in society.

How can theater respond to social change?

It in no way equates social problems with current daily political goals. Inexplicably, there is a feeling of mistrust in some professional circles, despite the fact that the money spent on culture has reached unprecedented levels at the municipal and state levels and is significant worldwide. No one was left out of this because they were completely independent of the values ​​and ideology represented. They have all been given, in some cases, multiples of what their budget used to be, and they can operate with security, predictability, years of planning while being free to create. No one has a voice in which author chooses which piece, who he asks to organize and how the performance is articulated, even if sometimes what appears on stage is frankly offensive. Freelancers also get their money. However, I find that some members of the profession are denying the opportunity to exchange views, which has already begun to materialize in recent years. It cannot happen, for example, that a representative of the same profession publicly ridicules an actor or theater director who has been in the field for decades, taking the standard of professional public dialogue to such depth that no one can afford it. This is a far cry from European standards of conduct. Unfortunately, we have made and made a number of mistakes by listening and waiting politely “then this will pass.” It really seems that this attitude did not work. The era of accepting the constant contempt and superiority that has happened to us is over.

A manifestation of this is the new cultural law and the new NAT?

I think that after thirty years, you should finally be decided, if you still haven’t made it. Many organizations have voiced opposition and criticism of the new cultural law and the new NAT, giving the appearance of a majority that may have been a formator of Hungarian public education in the years before or since the change of regime. Obviously I don’t understand education because my profession is different. However, almost all the principals and educators of the schools I had the opportunity to speak about the above agreed that it was excellent material and that our core curriculum would ultimately be truly national. And why not? … You don’t have to go far, let’s take a look at the Croats, the Serbs, the French, the British or the Germans. Their own flag, their identity, their history, their literature are sacred and wonderful things for them. Hungarians have many reasons to be proud because we are a talented nation, we have heroically fought for the last more than a thousand years, and our historical role is recognized throughout the world. But to maintain all of this in the long term, community action is needed. I don’t want to offend anyone, but I think a lot of people on the national side have backed off very well because they believed that the government would resolve the situation right now anyway and they had no choice but to enjoy the shaved chestnuts. Of course, when we have to, we’ll go out to Kossuth Square together or anywhere, but we have nothing more to do with it, they think. This is a big mistake! Everyone has to act in their own small community. My previous personal experience is that when a church needs to be cleaned, the pastor cannot be left alone. Continuous activity is needed to strengthen yourself.

He mentioned the importance of attendance and activity. Let’s go back to the Petőfi Theater in Veszprém again. An emergency was declared on March 11 and the theaters closed. What has happened to the company in the recent past? How have you reflected on changing circumstances?

I consider that the acquisition of patience and the ability to understand each other are the most important. We were testing our demonstration, Tomb Picnics, when the government decree on the emergency was published two days before the demonstration. In the blink of an eye, our daily operations were reversed and we had to regroup our tasks as well. I believe in live theater, so stay home, then we’ll go! With our titled program, we were the first of the Hungarian theaters to organize an entertaining music program for the people of our city, who could see the production of our company members from their windows and balconies. Life did not stop at the theater either. We were also the first to start masking our mouths, encouraging our colleagues from Budapest and the countryside to join us. The number of masks we have sewn now has exceeded seven thousand. The masks made of special, strong and disinfectable textiles were selected by the management of the Ferenc Csolnoky Hospital and the raw materials selected by the theater along with the necessary accessories, but were first handed over to Veszprém Pharmacy doctors, nurses, general practitioners, institutions involved in the care of the elderly and volunteers of Veszprém. There is great interest in our work, Gyula Porga, the Mayor of Veszprém, asked me and Deputy Director Zsuzsanna Kellerné Egresi to continue producing masks for the citizens of Veszprém as well. Beyond the above Petőfi all of all petőfi we organized an online poetry contest titled, we sprayed our viewers through the camera on Easter Monday and invited them to a musical show, Extraordinary Petofi SalonAnd our audience could also watch it on the internet, we will continue the series as planned.

In addition to his duties as director, he is the president of the Rural Theater Directors Association. Recently, acting directors of rural theaters jointly recited a poem by Sándor Reményik titled One May It Will End.

The coronavirus epidemic has fundamentally changed the lives of all of us. Our intentions, actions, long-term plans, steps towards each other have been stagnant for a long time, and in our rural and foreign communities, cultural institutions and theaters, our weapons, which believed to be natural a few months ago and enjoy giving themselves instinctively, now they cannot be reached. The changed space around us has been reduced and expanded, so we made a video on the occasion of Hungarian Poetry Day with the acting directors of rural theaters, working with our Italian colleagues on the occasion of Hungarian Poetry Day. , the coronavirus. Our website, www.videkiszinhazak.hu, will be launched soon. Our goal is to make the value-based and value-creating rural theater community visible to the public in the capital and rural theaters, and to inform them more broadly about all the events affecting our theaters today and the long, about our performances, programs and guest performances. With our rural theater news, our recommendations, our interviews, our photo and video summaries, our short and long articles, our reviews and our writing, we want to create a quality look for rural theaters in terms of content and visuals. We will talk about the nature of theater management, spend a day in rural theaters, ask our outstanding creators, actors and staff what they think of their direction, planning, roles, professional and artistic public activities. We would also like to introduce our rural artists, who, while working at a high level, have not yet had a decent opportunity to express themselves. Additionally, we would help deepen relationships between rural theaters with a public offering and other online cultural innovations available on the website exclusively for rural theaters, a closed market within the website, and the ability to exchange sets, costumes, and accessories. It is in our common interest to show the cohesion of the theaters, our mutual respect, our care, our care and our will to do, even in the ever changing circumstances. It is important to make them visible at all times: we know each other, we have not left each other, in addition, we want to use our own means to provide faith, hope, spiritual food and encouragement to each other and to the public.