Sunday, January 13, 2008

Course on Contemporary Theatre, in Kaposvar (Hungary)

I was invited by the students of the Kaposvar (Hungary) College of Theatre Arts to give a course on contemporary theatre. I stayed in this pretty, small town for a week, starting on the 3rd of January, 2008. .............. As a prelude of the course I presented my 'Theremin', 'Downtown Blues' and 'The Mistery of the House of Bloom' books, and gave a preview of the 'YIPPIE! - The Disobedient Citizen' book (to be published in Hungary, by Golyós Toll Kft., in March, 2008), on which I am collaborating with Zsolt Prieger and Gabriella Schuller. ............... As part of the theatre course we staged two of my plays - 'Block' and 'The Chekhovs' with the students. Both plays premiered on the night of 10th of January, 2008, at the College of Theatre Arts (Kaposvar, Hungary). ................ It was a revitalizing experience to work with such talented, creative kids. The highlight of 'The Chekhovs' show was a thundering, wet fart, created by one of the students, to accompany the painful monologue of the great Russian writer, Lev Tolstoy's neglected wife, Sophie. ............... After returning to Budapest (Hungary), with the designer Gaso I started to prepare the 'YIPPIE!...' book for printing. I still have to complete the illustrations for the book. .............. I am still waiting the word from the Kalligram publishing house, regarding the fate of two of my book projects: 'The Caribbean Book' (my Caribbean travel journals) and 'DJ NoMore' (a techno novel). I submitted both manuscripts last summer to the publisher. They promised an answer for last November, about if they would publish any or both of the books, but I haven't heard from them since. If properly advertised both books could bring a huge commercial success in my opinion, yet they were refused by a number of publishers in the past years. The main problem with the Hungarian publishers is that they are not interested in selling their products. They are entirely dependent on government grants, which cover their salaries and the printing of a few hundred copies of each book they publish. They don't like to work on the distribution of their books. They just let the printed copies collect the dust in their warehouses. None of the publishers of my previous books put much effort into the PR work. I had to organize promotion tours for the books myself, often conflicting with the publishers, who usually don't even bother to send the books to the country towns, where I do the multi-media (video projections, theremin concerts, lectures on the book's theme, etc.) promotion shows. They refuse to cover my PR expenses. All the publishers do is bitching about their "dire" financial situation and complain that my books don't make a fortune within weeks after they come out. They don't inform me about the actual sales numbers. ............ Besides writing books, doing art, video works, theremin concerts and theatre I am working as a journalist too. I write articles about the American art-scene and do monthly AudioGuides (small musical radio-plays, audio poems) on New York, for the artportal.hu. My English and Hungarian language CVs are updated regularly. My mixed language homepage is on freewebs, my Hungarian language homepage is on one of my publishers' server.

No comments: