I believe in human-centeredness, the human actor - Interview with Zoltán Balázs / 2011
Maladype Theatre celebrated its ten-year anniversary this year. With a special gala that moved the industry, they indicated that not only in their name, but also with their existence, they are working to create meetings between the members of the industry, actors and spectators. On this occasion, we spoke with the company's artistic director, Zoltán Balázs.
- How did Maladype's birthday gala show go?
- It was an experience beyond expectations. It is honorable and uplifting that so many people from the theater profession and other fields (music, dance, puppetry) came. I think what really happened was what made us think it was important to organize this "people-centered" gala: the meeting. There was an intense life both on and off the stage. I think the most valuable thing is that people finally came together not against something, but for something .
- The company's name also obliges the company to do so, since Maladype means meeting.
- The theater got this name when our show School for Fools was already being prepared at Szkéné. Before that, we didn't have a company name, since during our first joint work, no one would have thought that there would be a sequel. I was a graduate director when a Serbian producer, Dragan Ristic, approached me to direct Ionesco's play, Jack, or the submission, with amateurs and professionals, gypsies and non-gypsies. This play previously failed almost everywhere in the world, so for me and the team, performing the work was a great challenge and a special adventure. Thanks to our unique concept - which unified the differences of the participants - it was still a success, so the School for Fools, which was spoken in Latin, Gypsy and Hungarian, was born as a result of this spontaneous meeting.
- A book was prepared for the 10-year anniversary. Did you close something? Or are you just focused on the future?
- This and that. Basically, I am a person of the moment, so even now, after ten years, I am still focused on the present, and I do not want to conclude, understand and digest everything. But it is a fact that such an important event unwittingly prompts all of us to interpret and examine the impulses and phases experienced together in its context. Ten years ago, the company set out on a journey and, while remaining true to itself, tried to get from somewhere to somewhere. This anniversary is a great opportunity to do a "big wash".
- Even if they do not draw a conclusion, there are still milestones.
- Naturally. Such were The Blacks, Acropolis or Leonce and Lena. Of course, not necessarily in the sense that these performances were/are being tried to be boxed in by theater analysts. It's true that we didn't make their job easier, because we changed the style or direction of writing that they could have gotten used to. I learned from Ilona Béres that you have to be able to switch and stop in time.
- How did Ilona Béres get in touch with the troupe?
I asked her to play the role of Kronos in Sándor Weöres' play Theomachia. Ilona Béres is both a curious, childlike creature and a determined predator. If she smells blood, she will strike. She made a decision after the invitation and did not look back. As Kronos, she stood motionless in the set for two and a half hours, spoke backwards in the second half of the work, and even had the energy left to provide useful advice to her young colleagues. I think she really knows what endurance is. In Theomachia, she stood not with his feet, but with his "head".
- Did Mari Törőcsik also come as a predator?
- She came back from the death. Who else could do this "stunt"? Mari Törőcsik, like Ilona, is still curious about the new, the ever-changing. Sándor Zsótér and I asked her to play the role of Marcellina in Figaro, and she came to play at Maladype. At Maladype Basis, Mari Törőcsik plays so close to the audience as perhaps never before. A lively and vibrant playmate, an attentive and giving Master. I wish she could be with us as much as possible.
- What is special about Maladype that grabs you so much? How would you define and promote Maladype?
- I don't want to promote it, it's not my job. I don't know what makes you "stick" to it, but I'm sure that Maladype is a community theater where independent and free personalities strive for the experience of performing together night after night. It is important to us to maintain a constant and deep conversation with spectators, for that we developed a strong and direct relationship with our audience. We believe in human-centeredness, the "human actor", which means that during the performance, the actor reminds himself again and again that he was a human before he was an actor.
- Are spectators always open to this game? Wasn't it the case that the audience just didn't want to play along? After all, the performance of Leonce and Lena wouldn't even work if the audience didn't participate.
- Fortunately, spectators are extremely open-minded. However, the actors of Maladype must also be able to handle situations when the audience has difficulty opening up for some reason. In such cases, a lot depends on the actors' intelligence, ability to create relationships, as well as their sense of rhythm and style. It's a matter of continuous conditioning. We cannot pretend that the spectators are not in the same space as us and that we do not notice when they sneeze, ask for a tissue or go out. In recent decades, the theater has, unfortunately, placed the spectator further and further away from the happenings on stage, in an observational position. We want players and spectators to be able to get closer to each other again during the game.
- In the troupe young people make the majority. Is it something that changes constantly?
- Continuously, but that's okay, because theater itself is change, metamorphosis. If it is not capable of renewal, it feeds itself and dies. Sometimes it's brutally hard and too fast, but it's necessary. It is important for a troupe to dare and offer something new to itself and the audience, because if it is not able to do this, it will become worn out and remain introverted. Young people are perhaps the most suitable for this risky business.
- Can you accept it if someone suddenly quits, for example Leonce and Lena and goes to another troupe?
- I can/could accept it, but this has never happened before and I believe that it cannot happen, since the actors of the troupe didn’t sign on to Maladype in search of an easy adventure. They know what they are doing, but if it doesn't turn out the way they planned or the way we wanted, there are people who are so honest that they don't let down either the company or their playmates with whom they previously built the performance. With Leonce and Lena, we are at the 83rd performance and it is the most specific piece of Maladype's eight-piece repertoire; it is not as easy to jump out of it as it is to jump in. We currently play our shows in three different locations: Maladype Base, Thália and Trafó. I consider this important because our actors can try themselves in several plays at the same time in several locations. Unlike the majority of Hungarian actors -whose university training basically prepares them for safe acting-, the Maladype troupe is committed to surprising, unpredictable and constantly changing theater situations. It is impossible that while everything around us changes, we ourselves do not change...
- You recently stated that "it's an extreme situation" and it's hard to run an independent theater under such conditions.
- Hard as a rock. We are trying to stay alive, move forward and show new things, while our work is being less and less supported and our room for maneuver is becoming more and more narrow. Materially, the situation is clearly "extreme".
- You are one of the prominent independent theaters.
- Yes, we are highlighted with a "surplus" of 500,000 HUF. It doesn't matter what domestic and international successes we can show, it doesn't matter whether we have a long-term strategy and concept, operating principle, infrastructure and sensible, verifiable economic operation, unfortunately all of this is not what matters. What matters is who's who you are and what circles you belong to. The more you're around, the more certain survival seems - apparently. Certain achievements, values and results should speak for themselves. Those theater communities and intellectual workshops that have already proven themselves and that believe in consistent team work and want to develop, whose goals are characterized by innovative tendencies and the continuous pursuit of quality, should be given the opportunity - as, for example, in Poland - to continue to develop and fulfill themselves. In Poland, they say to a beginning company manager/director: our friend, you get five years, and when it is over, we will see what has been realized of your plans; where is your talent, your momentum, and what is the new perspective of the company you lead. If we see that you were able to run your theater business efficiently and successfully, you will get another 5-10 years, if not, thank you very much. But at least that person got a chance.
- But the possibility of “Barn’s warmth” is also there.
- Sure, it's everywhere. I don't think this is the case only here, but I live in this country. I would be proud if things didn't work that way in this country. It's like Orwell's Animal Farm: all animals are equal, but the pigs are a bit more equal. However, there are other people working on the farm. The independent theater sphere is no more valuable than any other theater environment, the different areas of the theater structure cannot be distinguished and subordinated to each other in this way. I would like those who have already put something on the table to not always have to start from scratch, because that way you can neither plan nor develop - but staying alive is also in question.
- Despite the not very positive picture, what else do you have planned for the second half of this season?
- Now that the Maladype 10-year anniversary celebration is over, we will continue the rehearsal process that has already started. Schiller's Don Carlos and Goethe's Egmont await us.
Beáta Kézdi, hetivalasz.hu, 2011
Translation by Zsuzsanna Juraszek
- How did Maladype's birthday gala show go?
- It was an experience beyond expectations. It is honorable and uplifting that so many people from the theater profession and other fields (music, dance, puppetry) came. I think what really happened was what made us think it was important to organize this "people-centered" gala: the meeting. There was an intense life both on and off the stage. I think the most valuable thing is that people finally came together not against something, but for something .
- The company's name also obliges the company to do so, since Maladype means meeting.
- The theater got this name when our show School for Fools was already being prepared at Szkéné. Before that, we didn't have a company name, since during our first joint work, no one would have thought that there would be a sequel. I was a graduate director when a Serbian producer, Dragan Ristic, approached me to direct Ionesco's play, Jack, or the submission, with amateurs and professionals, gypsies and non-gypsies. This play previously failed almost everywhere in the world, so for me and the team, performing the work was a great challenge and a special adventure. Thanks to our unique concept - which unified the differences of the participants - it was still a success, so the School for Fools, which was spoken in Latin, Gypsy and Hungarian, was born as a result of this spontaneous meeting.
- A book was prepared for the 10-year anniversary. Did you close something? Or are you just focused on the future?
- This and that. Basically, I am a person of the moment, so even now, after ten years, I am still focused on the present, and I do not want to conclude, understand and digest everything. But it is a fact that such an important event unwittingly prompts all of us to interpret and examine the impulses and phases experienced together in its context. Ten years ago, the company set out on a journey and, while remaining true to itself, tried to get from somewhere to somewhere. This anniversary is a great opportunity to do a "big wash".
- Even if they do not draw a conclusion, there are still milestones.
- Naturally. Such were The Blacks, Acropolis or Leonce and Lena. Of course, not necessarily in the sense that these performances were/are being tried to be boxed in by theater analysts. It's true that we didn't make their job easier, because we changed the style or direction of writing that they could have gotten used to. I learned from Ilona Béres that you have to be able to switch and stop in time.
- How did Ilona Béres get in touch with the troupe?
I asked her to play the role of Kronos in Sándor Weöres' play Theomachia. Ilona Béres is both a curious, childlike creature and a determined predator. If she smells blood, she will strike. She made a decision after the invitation and did not look back. As Kronos, she stood motionless in the set for two and a half hours, spoke backwards in the second half of the work, and even had the energy left to provide useful advice to her young colleagues. I think she really knows what endurance is. In Theomachia, she stood not with his feet, but with his "head".
- Did Mari Törőcsik also come as a predator?
- She came back from the death. Who else could do this "stunt"? Mari Törőcsik, like Ilona, is still curious about the new, the ever-changing. Sándor Zsótér and I asked her to play the role of Marcellina in Figaro, and she came to play at Maladype. At Maladype Basis, Mari Törőcsik plays so close to the audience as perhaps never before. A lively and vibrant playmate, an attentive and giving Master. I wish she could be with us as much as possible.
- What is special about Maladype that grabs you so much? How would you define and promote Maladype?
- I don't want to promote it, it's not my job. I don't know what makes you "stick" to it, but I'm sure that Maladype is a community theater where independent and free personalities strive for the experience of performing together night after night. It is important to us to maintain a constant and deep conversation with spectators, for that we developed a strong and direct relationship with our audience. We believe in human-centeredness, the "human actor", which means that during the performance, the actor reminds himself again and again that he was a human before he was an actor.
- Are spectators always open to this game? Wasn't it the case that the audience just didn't want to play along? After all, the performance of Leonce and Lena wouldn't even work if the audience didn't participate.
- Fortunately, spectators are extremely open-minded. However, the actors of Maladype must also be able to handle situations when the audience has difficulty opening up for some reason. In such cases, a lot depends on the actors' intelligence, ability to create relationships, as well as their sense of rhythm and style. It's a matter of continuous conditioning. We cannot pretend that the spectators are not in the same space as us and that we do not notice when they sneeze, ask for a tissue or go out. In recent decades, the theater has, unfortunately, placed the spectator further and further away from the happenings on stage, in an observational position. We want players and spectators to be able to get closer to each other again during the game.
- In the troupe young people make the majority. Is it something that changes constantly?
- Continuously, but that's okay, because theater itself is change, metamorphosis. If it is not capable of renewal, it feeds itself and dies. Sometimes it's brutally hard and too fast, but it's necessary. It is important for a troupe to dare and offer something new to itself and the audience, because if it is not able to do this, it will become worn out and remain introverted. Young people are perhaps the most suitable for this risky business.
- Can you accept it if someone suddenly quits, for example Leonce and Lena and goes to another troupe?
- I can/could accept it, but this has never happened before and I believe that it cannot happen, since the actors of the troupe didn’t sign on to Maladype in search of an easy adventure. They know what they are doing, but if it doesn't turn out the way they planned or the way we wanted, there are people who are so honest that they don't let down either the company or their playmates with whom they previously built the performance. With Leonce and Lena, we are at the 83rd performance and it is the most specific piece of Maladype's eight-piece repertoire; it is not as easy to jump out of it as it is to jump in. We currently play our shows in three different locations: Maladype Base, Thália and Trafó. I consider this important because our actors can try themselves in several plays at the same time in several locations. Unlike the majority of Hungarian actors -whose university training basically prepares them for safe acting-, the Maladype troupe is committed to surprising, unpredictable and constantly changing theater situations. It is impossible that while everything around us changes, we ourselves do not change...
- You recently stated that "it's an extreme situation" and it's hard to run an independent theater under such conditions.
- Hard as a rock. We are trying to stay alive, move forward and show new things, while our work is being less and less supported and our room for maneuver is becoming more and more narrow. Materially, the situation is clearly "extreme".
- You are one of the prominent independent theaters.
- Yes, we are highlighted with a "surplus" of 500,000 HUF. It doesn't matter what domestic and international successes we can show, it doesn't matter whether we have a long-term strategy and concept, operating principle, infrastructure and sensible, verifiable economic operation, unfortunately all of this is not what matters. What matters is who's who you are and what circles you belong to. The more you're around, the more certain survival seems - apparently. Certain achievements, values and results should speak for themselves. Those theater communities and intellectual workshops that have already proven themselves and that believe in consistent team work and want to develop, whose goals are characterized by innovative tendencies and the continuous pursuit of quality, should be given the opportunity - as, for example, in Poland - to continue to develop and fulfill themselves. In Poland, they say to a beginning company manager/director: our friend, you get five years, and when it is over, we will see what has been realized of your plans; where is your talent, your momentum, and what is the new perspective of the company you lead. If we see that you were able to run your theater business efficiently and successfully, you will get another 5-10 years, if not, thank you very much. But at least that person got a chance.
- But the possibility of “Barn’s warmth” is also there.
- Sure, it's everywhere. I don't think this is the case only here, but I live in this country. I would be proud if things didn't work that way in this country. It's like Orwell's Animal Farm: all animals are equal, but the pigs are a bit more equal. However, there are other people working on the farm. The independent theater sphere is no more valuable than any other theater environment, the different areas of the theater structure cannot be distinguished and subordinated to each other in this way. I would like those who have already put something on the table to not always have to start from scratch, because that way you can neither plan nor develop - but staying alive is also in question.
- Despite the not very positive picture, what else do you have planned for the second half of this season?
- Now that the Maladype 10-year anniversary celebration is over, we will continue the rehearsal process that has already started. Schiller's Don Carlos and Goethe's Egmont await us.
Beáta Kézdi, hetivalasz.hu, 2011
Translation by Zsuzsanna Juraszek