Peter Gemza, Director of the National Theatre named after M. Csokonai in Debrecen, Hungary

This festival integrates and introduces on the international scene a bunch of creative theatres with a splendid history but operating in peripheral regions. The common characteristic of all of the festival’s partner towns is a combination of a large centre in the provinces, aspiring to the role of a secondary capital city, with a strong bastion of its own university, and vibrant with cultural life. The festival enables creation of an amalgamating mobile intellectual community covering six countries. Participation in it in the role of partner-founder is an honour to us.

Cooperation of borderland towns acting for the purpose of building a cultural bridge is a praiseworthy example of activity in the field of culture and politics. It is an evidence of openness, turning to each other, and mutual curiosity. The TRANS/ MISSIONS festival represents an excellent opportunity to get to know our partners even better. To find out from where we come from, what are we like, and how do we envision our future. In reward, we gain an insight into our cultures and artistic achievements, and the established relationships will for many years determine the future of our theatres in this shared region of Europe.

As the director of Mihály Csokonai Theatre in Debrecen I was happy accepting invitation to the festival as the event that is born in front of our eyes in 2018 in Rzeszów, fits perfectly into our vision of future of the Debrecen theatre. We prepared to the event with a thrill of emotion. Nevertheless, we hope that we will be able to win sympathy of Polish audience.

We will present a diverse program which, as we expect, will divulge our thoughts about Hungary, Central Europe, theatre, and art. We bring to Poland a monodrama with elements of biography of a Transylvanian dramatist András Visky in which the author recollects his mother’s fate affected by the history of Central Europe. Visitors to the festival will be also offered a theatrical adaptation of a novel by Magda Szabó, one of Hungarian novelists most widely recognised in Europe. In Rzeszów, to mark our Europeanism, we will stage also a baroque opera “Acis and Galatea” in English language, evidencing this way our interest in and respect for the common European cultural heritage.

Our programme, apart from theatre performances, will include also a folk dance show and an exhibition of works of Debrecen artists working next to us and with us.

Péter Gemza
director of the Csokonai Theatre in Debercen