OUR HISTORY

Actress and theatre pedagogue Yvette Feuer founded the Group in 2010. In the first years of its existence, Yvette and her colleagues, under the name “Clowns on the Horizon”, performed comedy shows for children throughout impoverished regions of northeastern Hungary. Nearly 14,000 viewers had seen the Group’s performances by 2014. From 2014 to 2017, the Group created participatory-theatre and Theatre in Education (TIE) productions highlighting critical social and family issues for high-school audiences and performed at theatres, high schools, and children’s homes in Budapest and the countryside alike. Since 2017, the Group started creating productions for adult audiences and launched performances on topics such as relationships, families, transgenerational trauma, mid-life crisis, democracy – often with participatory elements, targeting a broad adult audience.

Actress and theatre pedagogue Yvette Feuer founded the group in January 2010, under the name “Clowns on the Horizon.” Yvette brought the idea and inspiration from the United States, where she worked for seven years with the humanitarian aid organization Clowns Without Borders. In 2009, Yvette and Erika Manyasz, one of the group’s founding members, toured in the Cserehát region, with a commedia dell’arte production. Here they became acquainted with László Siroki, the area’s Roma leader, who told them much about the local community’s life. For Christmas that year, Erika, Yvette, and Siroki László, in addition to many volunteers and donors, brought together a large Christmas celebration in the Rom-Som House of Tomor for 100 of the area’s disadvantaged children. Erika and Yvette created a short clown show, while the children of Tomor, Lak, Szakács, and Selyeb prepared a program. Also, plenty of donations were collected, so 40 children received a personalized Christmas package, and all the members of the community received some of the proceeds. The experience meant so much to everyone that they determined to continue this work. In January 2010, they began looking for a male Roma actor. Erika is half Roma, Yvette is not; yet, they consider it important for the viewers (especially the children) to see Roma and non-Roma artists working and playing together. Luckily, they found Tamás Szegedi and started to rehearse. The group’s first production, Circus Edmond’s Parcel, was ready in May of 2010.

During this initial period, the group’s umbrella organization was the Manna Cultural Association (Manna Kulturális Egyesület).

We performed Circus Edmund’s Parcel on more than 100 occasions and practically only in the countryside, mostly in Borsod-Abaúj-Zemplén County. More than 11,000 children and adults saw it between 2010 and 2013. We created our second play, Alaska, Ho!, in 2011. The premiere took place in Ózd at the Pope John Paul II Catholic Elementary School on September 23, 2011. Between 2011 and 2016, we performed the show altogether 52 times for nearly 5,000 viewers.  With these two productions, we appeared in many schools, villages, community centers and public squares throughout the country, but mostly in northeastern Hungary.

On October 6, 2013, we premiered our third children’s performance, Space Turmoil, in the Thália Theater’s New Studio. Here we could use live music and visual effects that were more sophisticated than in our previous comedies. We performed this show until the end of May 2016, largely at the Thália Theater. We held 55 performances altogether for nearly 3,000 spectators.

Our Other Programs:

• Every summer from 2011 to 2014, we held a free drama camp in Ózd for 12-15-year-olds. We financed, planned and executed this ourselves. The camp had many returning children.

• Starting in 2014, we held a Theatre pedagogy workshop series at pre-schools and elementary schools in Ózd, Magyarmecske, Bánszállás, and Gyöngyöspata at the request of the Manna Cultural Association. The program’s title was “You Are Different, You Aren’t Different”

• In 2012, we held Theatre pedagogy workshops in Bódvalenke for several groups of the village’s children. Our local partner was Nóra Esti, a Waldorf teacher, who led classes for the children under the name “Magic Garage.”

• On several occasions during 2012-2013, we held community children’s programs in Bódvalenke and Gyöngyöspata – for example outings, cooking, and picnics.

Our Organization’s Development:

In 2011, we became a public association, an official NGO. Between 2011 and 2013, the Open Society Institute’s Basic Needs program and then the Open Society Fund of Hungary supported us. Since 2013, we have regularly applied for funds and grants to the National Cultural Fund (Nemzeti Kulturális Alap) and the Ministry of Culture and Innovation.

Our group’s first change of profile occurred during this period. We created a series of performances for elementary- and high-school students. Part of the reason was, with our children’s shows, we gathered plenty of experience traveling the country. We knew the problems and difficulties that communities, schools, families, and youths were combating. We wished to craft performances that spoke to and about young people who had advanced beyond the first few years of school. Thus, the following productions were born.

February 2015: A Window

July 2015: Matthias, the Non-King

October 2015: Our Lady

November 2015: I Stand Up For You

April 2016: Seventh Heaven

October 2016: Witch Laundry

Among our productions in this period, we created Matthias, the Non-King and I Stand Up For You with the support of the Norway Grants (EEA) and in the framework of two larger, overarching projects. The format of Matthias, the Non-King was forum theatre for youth, which was a rarity in the theatre world of Hungary. Our actors were young people (11-16 years old) living in deep poverty in Cserehát. The problems they brought up became the theme of the production, which ran for 7 performances altogether.

Our Other Programs:

• At the request of the Manna Cultural Association, in 2014, we continued our Theatre pedagogy workshop series, which we began at local pre-schools and elementary schools in Ózd, Magyarmecske, Bánszállás, and Gyöngyöspata. The program’s title was “You Are Different, You Aren’t Different”

• In 2015, we held the “Through a Window” Theatre in Education (TIE) workshop series based upon our production entitled A Window. The central element was facing realities. We offered this program to students at the Dr. Ámbédkar Secondary School in Sajókaza and the János Harsányi Technical School in the 9^th district of Budapest. Our expert leader was Ádám Bethlenfalvy.

• In 2015, we held a three-occasion Theatre in Education (TIE) workshop series at the Saint Lucas Greek Catholic Child Protection Center in Nyírszőlős, together with the KV Company and the expert leadership of Edit Romankovics. The workshop series played an important role in the preparation of our production entitled I Stand Up For You. We worked together with the home’s young residents on the themes of vulnerability and human trafficking, and we also performed a work-in-progress version there.

• In 2016, we held a three-occasion Theatre in Education (TIE)workshop series in Homrogd at the Greek-East Elementary School. The theme was bullying, in connection with our production entitled Matthias, the Non-King.

Our Organization’s Development:

We became a performance art organization in 2014. Since then, we have been granted support every year from the Ministry of Culture and Innovation for our operations.

A new period in our group’s history began in 2017. In that year, we premiered two participatory-theatre productions:  I Thought of Prometheus, performed separately for high-school students and adults, and I, You, We, created expressly for a adult audience. Between 2017 and 2024, we premiered the following productions:

April 2017: I Thought of Prometheus

December 2017: I, You, We

September 2018: The Saviour

November 2019: Legacy

February 2020: Pitbull Kamilla High School

September 2021: What Is She Worth? – a woman’s variety show about the fleetingness of time

October 2021: I Stand Up For Myself

January 2022: Cage Fight

September 2022: Breaking Bread

July 2024: Whats Up with You, Everyman?

Additional projects:

“You Are Different, You Aren’t Different”: Throughout this period, we continued our Theatre in Education (TIE) programmes for disadvantaged children and youth aged 3-16 in eastern and southwestern Hungary in collaboration with the Manna Cultural Association.

“It Is Your Business”: In the spring of 2019, we organised a workshop on social consciousness in the arts with the participation of 20 college students in collaboration with Romaversitas and the Moholy-Nagy University of Art and Design.

“A Way Out of Violence”: Between 2019 and 2021, we conducted Theatre in Education (TIE) programmes at a total of 20 high schools in disadvantaged areas of Hungary with the support of the Interior Ministry and the National Crime Prevention Council.

”I’ll Stand up for Myself”: In 2022, we created an online library based on interviews we conducted with people brought up in foster-homes. This documentary material was the base for our production of the same title. Link>>