The Csokonai Theater will be developed into a three-department theater, whose official name will now be Csokonai National Theater – Debrecen – announced the new director of the institution, Mátyássy Szabolcs, at the press conference announcing the next season’s performances on Tuesday in the theater’s renovated Kossuth Street building.
As he said, in addition to the strengthening of the prose department and the development of the opera department, the dance department will be created, the joint presence of which is essential for a nationally classified theater.
The goal of the new management of the Csokonai National Theater – Debrecen is to raise the multi-departmental, five-seat, open-air stage institution to a prominent place on the domestic, regional and international cultural map by respecting local traditions, but at the same time in the spirit of innovation, he added.
László Papp (Fidesz-KDNP), the mayor of Debrecen, expressed his joy that “acting in Debrecen can return to the theater building built in 1865”, the contractors are still working on the renovation, but it will be completely ready by the beginning of the season in September.
In the past five years, in addition to economic developments, the largest volume of investments were made in the cultural sphere in Debrecen: around HUF 20 billion were spent on theater development, renovation and construction, he added.
According to the mayor, the two theaters in Debrecen, the Csokonai Theater and the Csokonai Forum, are today among the most modern theater buildings in Hungary, “if not the most modern”.
With the new buildings and the new management, the acting in Debrecen will reach a new level, which “according to our hopes, in 4-5 years, it will make its mark not only on the domestic but also on the international level”, said László Papp.
István Puskás (Fidesz-KDNP), deputy mayor for culture in Debrecen, said that the new beginning will release new creative energies, and he hopes that the theater will not function as an enclosure, but will become an active cooperative partner of the actors of the local cultural life.
István K. Szabó, the artistic director of the theater, indicated: the next season was put together in accordance with the needs of the folk theater, but they do not want to serve, but to serve, not only to satisfy needs, but also to shape needs. In connection with the fact that they can move back to the big theater in Kossuth Street, which will henceforth be called the Csokonai Theatre, he said, the line written by Zoltán Latinovits for Éva Ruttkai – “let’s move back into each other” – was chosen as the season’s motto.
He added: the season ticket will be restarted, this year there will be 16 season tickets, including a separate opera season ticket. Puccini’s opera Bohémélet will be presented as the first season ticket performance on October 7, directed by János Szikora, director of the Vörösmarty Theater in Székesfehérvár.
The Csokonai Theater will also stage his work Dorottya Csokonai directed by István K. Szabó, Moliere and Lully’s Citizen of Úrhatnám directed by Attila Keresztes and Dostoevsky’s Devils directed by Dejan Projkovski.
Lewis Carroll’s classic, Alice in Wonderland, directed by Csilla Bereczki, will be presented as a youth performance in the Latinovits room of the Csokonai Forum. Astor Piazzola’s opera tango Maria de Buenos Aires is staged by Lórán András, and Euripides’ tragedy The Trojan Women is directed by István K. Szabó.
András Visky’s A test történetei (III-IV) will be presented in the Árpád Chamber Hall in Kóti, directed by Andrej Visky. Borbély Szilárd’s drama Ninctelenek is staged by Bálin Botos, Csaba Kiss’s Perilous Relationships based on Pierre Choderlos de Laclos’s epistolary novel is directed, and Hanoch Levin’s comedy Jákobi és Lájdentál is directed by Árpád Árkosi.
Zsófia Nemes, the head of the theater’s new dance department, indicated: in addition to the four performances of the PR-Evolution Debrecen Contemporary Dance Ensemble, which has been operating for 20 years and is joining the Csokonai theater this season – Blue Men / És Fehér, Agapé, Da Vinci’s Smile and Véztegzár – István Tasnádi’s play Cyber Cyrano, directed by Péter Tasnádi-Sáhy, will be presented as a debut new production in classroom performance.
Dániel Somogyi-Tóth, the head of the theater’s opera department, was happy to confirm that after the reconstruction, the entire number of musicians can be accommodated in the orchestra pit of the Csokonai Theatre. He said that under the new management of the theater, they will “fight with renewed strength” for rural opera performances.
(MTI)
