National English Language Drama Festival in Veszprém

The third day of the festival was all about community – we went together for an interactive English-language sightseeing around Veszprém, while getting to know more about the city and each other.

The second day of the festival was filled with a high range of emotions. The five performances – own and adapted plays – were met with great success and were discussed during interactive forum sessions with the troupes, the experts and the members of the audience.

The first day of the festival brought together 15 elementary school troupes from 3 cities in Hungary. The wonderful performances included adaptations and own compositions as well, showing the creativity of the troupes in interpreting plays in their own way and creating fully new ones. It has been a truly incredible day and we hope to see you all next year too!

We kicked off Drama in Veszprem! – 16th Theatre Festival in English with an energetic opening ceremony where no one knew anyone's name and people kept making mistakes – still it turned out to be perfect. After welcoming the troupes and the audience, Melissa Quartell cultural attaché from US Embassy Budapest gave her opening remarks, pointing out that this festival was the festival of anniversaries: beside that the drama festival has been organized for the 10th year in Agóra (woohoo) and that the experts has been with us for also the 10th year (double woohoo), the US celebrates is 250th anniversary. Lastly, we made a roll call for the troupes and officially opened the festival.

Plunge into this stunning all-singing, all-dancing, dynamic stage show! When the citizens of Bikini Bottom discover that a volcano will soon erupt and destroy their humble home, SpongeBob and his friends must come together to save the fate of their undersea world. With lives hanging in the balance and all hope lost, a most unexpected hero rises up. The power of optimism really can save the world!

A family dispute surfaces after the passing away of the prestigious grandfather, and the rest of the family learns about the family secrets through the grandmother's diary entries. Emotions are heightened scene by scene, truth unfolds through self-reflection, and everyone gets to learn about themselves while attending the aftermath of Bernard's death. Is this the end, or is there a way to break the generational course of not talking to one another? Grand Fraud will surprise you with how shallow one's family can be in the 80s of Austria.

Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead by Tom Stoppard is an absurdist play that retells parts of Hamlet from the perspective of two minor characters, Rosencrantz and Guildenstern. The play follows them as they wander in confusion, unable to fully understand their role in the events of Hamlet or control their own fate. They engage in philosophical conversations about existence, free will, and identity, while repeatedly encountering the main plot of Hamlet without grasping it, and also encountering some tragedians on their way to the royal court to perform in front of the king and the queen... Ultimately, they are sent to their deaths in England, seemingly powerless to change their destiny. The play emphasizes themes of absurdity, uncertainty, and the inevitability of fate.

The story is about a seemingly simple game of chess between a mysterious old woman and a young adult man named Mark. As the story progresses we learn more and more about Mark's life and his painful past. Is it really just a chess game, or is there more behind their dialogue?

Rest in eternal glory, Sir Tom Stoppard.

Somebody. In this room. Must the murderer be. The murderer of the body is somebody in this room, which nobody must leave...
I'm afraid I must not ask anyone to leave the room. No, I must ask nobody ... no, I must ask everybody to... I must not ask anyone to leave the room. No one must be asked by me to leave the room. No, no one must ask the room to leave.
I ... I ... ask the room shall by someone be left. Not. Ask nobody the room somebody leave shall I. Shall I leave the room? Everyone must leave the room... as it is... with them in it. Phew. Understand?

(Monty Python's Flying Circus ep. 11.)

A totally normal family: mom makes pancakes, dad goes missing, and the little brother occasionally turns into a zombie… which, of course, requires casual tasering before breakfast. Nothing unusual.