ON SCENE – MONDAY
Introduction. A festival, graduate theatre students, applause, beer, people fiddling on laptops. Theses, assignments. Day five. Teacher training seminar paper on conflict management in schools.
Teacher-student conflict - disrupting class. 10 a.m., Boglárka Berecz: A rendíthető ólomkatona. Starting the audio files. Two classes of children's tantrums. Then serious silences. Talking to the kids. A question for me. "Who are you, by the way, because you just sit quietly and do nothing." A day has passed since then. It doesn't hurt anymore.
Parental cooperation, or lack thereof, in school conflict. ChatGPT suggestion: “If you do not speak Romanian, you should consider how much you will enjoy the theatre experience because of the language barrier. However, in modern theatre, visual elements and acting often strongly convey the message of the performance, so even with language barriers, it can make a deep impression." Copilul acesta. Camera, projection, wheelchair, death. Painful, problematic parent-child relationship(s).
Drama education for conflict resolution. Confusion, crowds, ticket booking apocalypse, helpless organizers ready to help. Hair. Yesterday's lump in the throat now bouncing like a ball around the stage. Musical war-revue. Here and now, what was then and there.
(Mátyás Dögei)
UNSEEN: FESTIVAL VOLUNTEER REPORT
When I ask my fellow volunteers to sum up the festival in one word, they say: energetic, chaotic, diverse. My word is: opportunity. Opportunity to see special performances and thus gain insight into different universities. In this way, the festival can even have a career guidance function. My personal favourites were the dance theatre pieces.
Apart from the performances, what means a lot to me and is also a crucial part of Unscene is the atmosphere. The atmosphere it creates in Miercurea Ciuc, at least around the theatre for sure. We are looking forward to this period of May for a reason. It is an experience to meet new people, to talk to them, and all these connections will remain precious moments in my life.
I think I can speak for all volunteers when I say that it means a lot to us to be involved in theatre and Unscene at such a young age. Being involved gives us an insight into both the world of theatre and event management. We appreciate the fact that they entrust us with tasks.
Volunteering itself is obviously sometimes tiring and energy-intensive, but it is also recharging and energising. The festival and the professional and social experience gained here are very rewarding. I'm glad for the opportunity to help out here and I hope to see you again next year.
(Vanda Veress)
ON SCENE – SUNDAY
On Sunday, we continued where we left off on Saturday. Right at the beginning I was able to see the performance János Kovács dies. The directing of Csilla Dálnoky and the drama by András Hatházi is an encounter for which one is happy to sacrifice the noon-soup.
After the performance, I think I can say on behalf of all festival-goers that it was good to have a break of a few hours. We went with fresh mindes to see the dancers from Iași, who came to the festival with their movement performance Nomad. I'm sure that after the performance, there were no two identical impressions in the auditorium. I could describe the Chicken Teriyaki afterwards as a dumpling in the throat of the spectator: very hard to swallow and digest, but definitely worth it.
The train back to Cluj Napoca is about to leave, but I'm going to drop by the Gen.Snowflake performance on the way. Although they say one shouldn’t start a sentence with “well”, "well, I will". Well, that's how long the festival lasted for me, rushing to catch the train with a taste of wild raspberries in my mouth. Well, thank you.
(Abigél Vizi)
ON SCENE – SATURDAY
Sit back and enjoy! Children, sparkling eyes, curiosity: this is the atmosphere that Tamás Szűcs brought to the Unscene audience and passers-by. After a couple of hours and a lot of coffee, the harder part of the day began, with five different performances. I took my morning curiosity with me. The second performance of the day was Amintiri din pământ și hârtie. Afterwards, I rushed straight over to the House of Culture, where I watched the production of The Angel written by Sebestyén Sztojka, who was also acting. Drug addiction, caring for sick parents, loss, faith - all themes that are important for young people of his generation.
I was drawn to the atmosphere of the festival. With smiles on my face, I sat in for the next performance: The Hasty Funeral. By the end of the performance it started to rain, so we rushed back to the theatre's chamber hall to see It's easier if: a clown play directed and performed by Ádám Balázs and Áron Sárosi, which didn't leave eyes without tear, to say the least. Lastly, we head to the movement performance Ex-Therapy. It will be fun, I can feel it. And you can usually feel something like that.
(Abigél Vizi)
ON SCENE – FRIDAY
On Friday morning, most of the participants could not have denied they were attending the Prezeng concert on Thursday evening.. The summer atmosphere finally came (which made me forget that I should be tired), lifted the festival's spirits, and it was just about time for the two dance theatre performances in a row. The power of New Genesis and Ipso Facto energised the audience. It was good to see that after the performances, the audience talked about what they had seen with such intensity that they almost started dancing themselves in the park next to the theatre. We came out of the theatre like children on a roller coaster, our first sentence being: "One more time!". Then the evening Drunks topped off the day, so it wasn't just the hour-long coffee that kept me going. We hope to keep that energy moving through the rest of the festival.
(Bence Székely)
Peter Gemza once referred to the performance as an organic composition. And yes, perhaps that's the best word for it; as an outside eye, I had more then enough time to spell out the title of this theatrical event.
The name ‘movement theatre’ is good, but it really fulfils its mission (or so I think) when it makes you forget what is happening on stage. I don't see a theatre of movement, I see a creation, a story of suffering, a ritual. The common language of the third year in Cluj, letters being the movements, the meanings, the emotions and energies.
(Lilla-Alíz Stan)
ON SCENE – THURSDAY
Bábö
Puppetry is not a children's game, it's a genre!, MME, Târgu Mureș
Day one. The weather is terrible. No heat, but at least there’s cold. But the puppeteers' performance brought sunshine in my life. My great love is Ionesco, especially the Bald Singer. One of the most inspiring works for me, I'm head over heels. I loved the performance, partly because of Ionesco, but also because I could finally see the text as a clown play. The space was a bit strange: a lobby, where one’s supposed to wait. Somehow this fact didn't take away from the energy of the performance, which still gave me chills down my spine. The double casting of the commander worked very well, and also the way the two actors followed each other, portraying the character as both male and female. Although they were not playing in a different key, it was important that the character was split (or even united) by a female and male actor.
The second "act": well, that's a separate performance. I would not, and could not, talk about it with a professional eye: I smiled through the whole thing. Of course I can say that the puppetry itself and the music with the little sticks were professional, and the actors moved very harmoniously, but at this point you become such a 5-year-old child (at least I did) that you can't and don't want to analyse the story in depth. You just enjoy it. Just like a kid.
(Ágnes Gergely )
Johanna
Johanna, MME, Târgu Mureș
It was strange to see a university performance in which none of the actors were „thrown off” the stage. In fact: we felt their energy from the firs second.
It felt like the performance was directed by two directors with different humour. There were a lot of situations with well-timed humour; there were some great twists.
I think that one goes to the theatre (at least I certainly do) to encounter a new way of expression that you can't find anywhere in everyday life. Speech on stage has to have an edge, it has to hit you. As András Visky once said: 'a good performance gives you back your virginity, only to take it away at the end'.
Although I was a bit shocked for two and a half hours, fortunately, all three times I would have fallen asleep, someone would have jumped off the stage and I would have felt the sweat of the performance. Of course! Second row edge. I didn't think that one through.
(Ágnes Gergely)
The product
The product, BBTE, Cluj Napoca
Yesterday was a „great” start of the day, as we arrived early on Thursday morning, and by four o'clock in the afternoon I had managed to finish my third cup of coffee. And it was raining. We rehearsed with Antal Örs for his 9 o'clock solo - or he did, because I was just the curator. Of course, rehearsal is not rehearsal without the technicians (to whom we send our kisses from here at New Genesis rehearsal for all their help).
If the performance hadn't gone down as well with the audience as we heard from the laughs, and if the one-man hadn't enjoyed the one-show as much as I saw afterwards amidst the cheering, I'd say it was depressingly cold...
..., but I'm not saying Product spoke for me, I'll keep quiet.
(Lilla-Alíz Stan)