Szigligeti Theatre of Oradea reports on its past year

Szigligeti Theatre Oradea has well exceeded its target revenue for 2023, announced the manager of the institution, Katalin Czvikker, at the annual press conference.

The Hungarian theatre, which is subordinate to the Bihor County Council, has estimated its revenues for the year ending now at 970,000 lei, which is the amount it has committed to the county government. In 2023, a total of 57,700 spectators saw the theatre's performances, and 3,650 people bought season tickets which is 18 percent more than the number sold last year" – said Katalin Czvikker. She also added that the theatre's companies have performed 362 shows this year, 249 of them in Oradea, 85 in other parts of Romania and 28 in Hungary. The number of student season tickets sold this year increased dramatically, and the theatre has also announced new rural season tickets: the companies are offering 3-4 performances to audiences in Săcueni, Zalău, Carei and Salonta.

Eszter Novák, Artistic Director of Szigligeti Company, said that the company will close a very busy year, as not the number of home and away performances was high in 2023. It is a pleasure that in the spring, together with the Romanian Theatre, we managed to make use of the space of the former Transilvania cinema, which was converted into a theatre studio, where the company's previous performances found a new home, and at the end of March a new production, Én, a féreg – Kafka Kabaré, was presented here. It is also good news that at the beginning of the new season, two young actors joined Szigligeti Company: Klaudia Ilyés and Zsolt László Nagy first appeared in A padlás and now they will play in one of the casts of Csárdáskirálynő. This year's production of Magyarosaurus Dacus, written and directed by Gianina Cărbunariu, has been met with great professional interest and has been invited to the National Theatre Festival (FNT). Eszter Novák stressed that this year the theatre has favoured the fans of more classical, musical performances – both Csinibaba, presented at the end of the previous season, and the first production of the new season, A padlás, are huge successes, played every time on front of full houses, and the same interest is also shown in the New Year's Eve production, Csárdáskirálynő. "The audience should be proud of the strength of the company," said the artistic director.

Dalma Kerekes, dance artist, representing the Nagyvárad Dance Company, reported on this year's results. She said that two young dancers, Virág Fodor and Márton Csomor Nagy, had joined Nagyvárad Dance Company (NTE) from the new season , and have joined the cast of VANmeSE. The dance theatre production aimed at young people, directed by Jolán Foltin, has been revived this year and has reached a total of almost 100 performances. A great success for the dance company this year was that the physical theatre production Le Schmürz won the Grand Prize at the ATELIER International Festival of Performing Arts in Baia Mare. Dalma Kerekes also spoke about the company's series of educational lectures on folk music, folk dance and folk traditions, which was seen by 1300 students this year. In addition to its own productions, the company has collaborated on several occasions with the two other companies of the institution: with Szigligeti Company, they have created Figaro házassága, Csinibaba and recently Csárdáskirálynő, whereas with Lilliput Company they have co-produced the musical Tüskevár.

Réka Botházy-Daróczi, Artistic Director of Lilliput Company, thanked the school principals and teachers for the fact that the interactive classroom show petőfisándor@arany.hu, created for the Petőfi Bicentenary, has been performed 60 times for elementary school students in the city and the surrounding area. Verselő verserdő, also interactive , aimed at younger children, , was presented on Poetry Day. Lilliput's season started with the musical Tüskevár, which was a great success both with outdoor performances and on the big stage, followed by Ludas Matyi and most recently Rumini.The Artistic Director highlighted the success of the 6th Fux Festival in October and the cooperation with the Roman Catholic Diocese of Oradea and Ort-Iki Puppet and Street Theatre, which meant the presentation of several outdoor performances during Advent and Easter. At the same time, on Christmas Day, several of the company's artists answered the calls coming in to the Charity Helpline – reading stories and poems to the callers.

The press conference was also attended by two artists of the Lilliput Company, Tibor Sándor Lélek and Emese Németi, and two actors of Szigligeti Company, István Hunyadi and József Szotyori. Lilliput's puppeteers reported on the success of their theatre workshop for 9-13 year olds. István Hunyadi recalled that his production of Bányavirág had recently reached its 60th performance, and the second part of the trilogy, Bányavakság, will reach its 34th performance in January. It is planned that when the combined number of performances of the two productions reaches 100, the character Féleszű Sánta Feri (Gyula Kocsis), who appears in both, will also celebrate his jubilee.