In the last few days before the Shakespeare festival, the near-panic, the tension over myriad final details, started to give way to a sense that it was all going to come together and that everyone would help make it a great day. I had all sorts of help: an assistant director for my students’ performance (Viktória Botka, one of the students, who played the narrator as well); my colleague Zsuzsanna Kovácsné Boross, who directs the Varga Drama Club; our principal, László Molnár; lots of students who helped out with various things, including keeping track of the props; our stage manager, Zsombor Górán (also a student), who arranged the lighting and many other details; the people at the library, who did most of the organizing work; and the Szigligeti Theatre, who let us use the Szigligeti Színház Színműlely, their beautiful little theatre house across the street from the majestic main theatre, and helped us out with lighting, sound, scenery, and logistics during the event itself. There were a few tiny glitches—for instance, group from Sárospatak, who had set out at 5 a.m., arrived a few minutes early and found the building locked, with no one in sight—but by the time we arrived there, an hour before the start of the festival, the place was humming with groups, plans, questions.

And then it took off. I said a few words and then introduced Mr. Molnár, who gave the opening remarks. The Varga Drama Club took the stage and gave a commanding performance of “Lady Macbeth,” their adaptation of Macbeth. The other performances—by groups from Szolnok, Tiszasüly, Tiszafüred, Sárospatak, and Debrecen—followed one by one after that, with only minor hitches and no delays; the variety was quite enjoyable, with some performances in Hungarian, some in English; some focusing on sonnets, others on scenes or monologues; some traditional, others playful and experimental in their approaches. You can see the full program here. (I took just a few photos and a couple of videos; there will be more later.)

My students performed “Othello Interrupted,” in which several scenes from Othello (all scenes involving repetition of particular words, “honest,” “handkerchief,” and “husband”) are interrupted by outside characters who try to stop or change the action: a fortune-teller, a pirate, and an angel and devil. Three different Othellos play in this, one for each scene. They can be known by their long cloak. The second Othello joined the cast close to the last minute and had very little rehearsal time; we are grateful to him for this brave and generous scramble.

At the end of the morning program, we had a special surprise: Botond Barabás, director of the Szigligeti Theatre, appeared to give us a formal greeting and to invite us to hold next year’s festival in the main theatre itself!

After a lunch and rest break, we came together at the library for an address by the library’s director, Katalin Czakóné Gacov and a fascinating lecture by Dr. Natália Pikli on what it means to be a Shakespeare researcher. We then split up for workshops; I led a workshop (in the Drama room at Varga) on Shakespeare/Renaissance songs and dance.

At the end we reassembled at the library for the jury’s comments and then the presentation of certificates, an award for the best performance (the Varga Drama Club won), and gifts. The jury emphasized (in front of a full audience) what could have been done differently or better; I think all of the critique was worth considering, but it came as a slight letdown at the end of a joyous and full day. I was left struggling with this for much of the evening. In the future we might handle this differently; maybe there could be briefer commentary at the end of the day, and then groups could receive more extensive written comments the following week.

Also, the jury and the organizers should agree in advance about what to look for and value; as the festival’s co-founder, I should take part in this discussion. For instance, one comment from the jury was that my students had too much Shakespeare to struggle with (i.e., the scene excerpts were too hefty) and that they should instead have worked with adapted, simplified text or with much shorter excerpts. I respectfully disagree: the scene excerpts were already quite short (much shorter than our Shakespeare performances in previous years), and this engagement with Shakespeare’s language, challenges and all, is one of the foundations of the festival, even if some groups use adaptations or Hungarian translations. Students in past festivals have spoken about how much it meant to them to read and perform these plays. Most of the jury’s critique was helpful, though, and I am grateful for it. I can certainly see ways to help students go farther into the text: with careful study of particular words and phrases, practice with intonation and pronunciation, and emphasis on making the words their own. We did all of this, but we can do much more.

As I headed out to Budapest for the Platon Karataev concert at the Müpa, I kept thinking about the role of criticism in what we do. Why is it so hard to receive sometimes? When is it legitimate to disagree with it, and when is the disagreement an expression of pride, stubbornness, or self-defense? In the moment of criticism, it’s common to feel misunderstood: “You have no idea how much thought, work, and love went into this” or “You don’t know what kinds of obstacles we faced.” To receive criticism properly, one must use good judgement and set pride aside; one must also accept criticism’s purpose, which is not to make the recipient feel loved, appreciated, and understood but rather to point out what could be better. If the criticism, or some of it, seems to miss the point, then find the useful parts.

As the concert began, I still had this on my mind. I realized that I was not alone—that behind the scenes, Platon Karataev routinely received detailed critique, from the members, from people close to them, from their sound engineer, manager, and others. On the surface, it seems that they receive nothing but glowing praise, but that is far from the whole picture. They are used to facing and working on their weaknesses; they do this incessantly. This time I was especially aware of their intensity of focus, their adjustment to each moment. The performance built and built. Soma Bradák, the drummer—whom I rarely can see well, since he’s hidden behind the others—was in full view on that expansive stage, and not only was his drumming astonishing, with subtle changes of texture, rhythm, sound, even within a song, but I knew that this had come out of years of work and study. The songs themselves have a trajectory (in the moment and over time); some of them had new details that I hadn’t heard before, others had subtle changes, and still others were unchanged but still transformed, because I was hearing them differently. The Müpa is a rather formal place, but the music filled and expanded the space; there were moments when I wanted to move to it, but the stillness itself began to dance, and the applause at the end was genuinely thunderous.

I let go of the thoughts of critique (and the day as a whole) and sank-soared into the concert. Fortunately it wasn’t permitted to take photos, and I had decided not to do so anyway. But I took some pictures of the Müpa before the concert started.

Now I can relax a little bit. Next week I have to confer with my colleagues about the festival and give thanks to all those who took part and helped. This spring we will start planning for next year, but otherwise, festival-wise, we can expect a bit of a lull until the fall, when we send out our initial announcement.

It is fair to call the Shakespeare festival a success. Success does not imply perfection. There’s much that we can do better. But it’s a feat in itself (with many levels of meaning) and a big step from the previous year. I think this festival will persevere and persist, getting better and better, for many years.

P.S. Lilla Laura Kocsis-Szabó gave us a lovely write-up in Szoljon.hu.

P.P.S. Here are some stunning professional photos of the Platon Karataev concert.

P.P.P.S. Speaking of stunning professional photos, here are some of the Shakespeare festival (courtesy of the library).