The 7th MaFeszt Was a Success

This year’s MaFeszt, hosted in Satu Mare, proved to be a historic event not only because the travelling festival returned to its original venue — the Northern Theatre, which also hosted the very first edition of the festival — but also because the theatre association announced a major expansion during a press conference held as part of the event. Three new theatres joined MASZÍN simultaneously, marking the largest expansion in the organization’s history, and the newly admitted member theatres were already present at this year’s festival with their own productions.

The new members are the Hungarian State Theatre of Cluj, the Tamási Áron Theatre of Sfântu Gheorghe, and the Figura Studio Theatre of Gheorgheni. With these additions, nearly all Hungarian-language repertory theatres in Romania are now members of the initiative, with the exception of the Tompa Miklós Company of the National Theatre of Târgu Mureș. Since the latter has also expressed its intention to join, the association may soon become fully representative.

At the festival in Satu Mare, prose, puppet, and dance companies from the nine member theatres performed alongside the Romanian-language division of the Northern Theatre of Satu Mare, the Mihai Raicu Company, which participated as an honorary guest. The festival, featuring numerous studio, main stage, and puppet performances, attracted nearly 2,200 spectators.

In addition to the theatrical productions, several professional events also took place behind the scenes. Theatre marketing expert Levente Árpád Bíró, a staff member of Budapest’s Örkény Theatre, held lectures and workshops for the marketing and PR professionals of the member theatres. Actors from the participating companies attended two professional workshops led by Gábor Viktor Kozma and Hunor Horváth, where they were introduced to the Suzuki Method and the Esrig Method.

Festival audiences also had the opportunity to process and discuss the performances during professional discussions led by theatre experts and university students specializing in dramaturgy and theatre studies. Actors and theatre creators answered questions and reflected on the productions together with the audience. The discussions on various festival days were moderated by critics Katalin Köllő, Melánia Miklós, Timea Papp, Katalin Ágnes Szűcs, and Lilla Turbuly.
 

Two book launches also took place during the festival. Katalin Czvikker, general director of the Szigligeti Theatre in Oradea, and Pál Nagy, director of the Tomcsa Sándor Theatre in Odorheiu Secuiesc, presented the volume Drámázat V., containing the best entries from the latest drama competition, while also announcing the next edition of the contest. During the festival, the works Towards Actor Training I–II by Gábor Viktor Kozma were also presented.

Under the guidance of dramaturg, theatre critic, and university lecturer Kata Demeter, students from the University of Arts in Târgu Mureș, the Faculty of Theatre and Film of Babeș–Bolyai University in Cluj, and the University of Theatre and Film Arts in Budapest attended the festival as guests and maintained a student blog throughout the ten-day event.

The festival’s eighteen theatre productions attracted significant attention from both theatre professionals and critics, while the afterparties also proved highly popular. Performers included the Tokos Ensemble, the Black River Blues Band, The Dockers, the actor-band of the Mihai Raicu Company, and DJ Pumi. The concerts and closing parties were organized by actor Zsolt Orbán, with Red Hat YARD serving as partner and host venue.

“This year’s MaFeszt brought me double joy: on the one hand, after the previous editions of IFeszt, we were once again able to offer the people of Satu Mare a successful festival with a rich programme; on the other hand, we were able to make important announcements and important decisions concerning the future of MASZÍN. Nearly ten years after its foundation, this association is finally beginning to fulfil its original goals. In a sense, we are making history, because uniting within a common theatre association also implies a shared professional and cultural destiny. Despite our many differences, the Hungarian theatres of Transylvania, Partium, and Banat are striving toward the same goals, and over the past decades, the pursuit of quality has become a defining common feature of their work,” said István Bessenyei Gedő, director of the Harag György Company and president of MASZÍN – the Hungarian Theatre Association.