ON BLEEDING INDEPENDENT THEATRES DRY IN HUNGARY

ANNOUNCEMENT
FOR THE INFORMATION OF THE INTERNATIONAL PUBLIC

The Hungarian independent performers’ scene has been facing serious hardhsips every year as the subsidies received from the state have been erratic or delayed.
The organizations still waiting for subsidies for the year 2012 (amongst them many internationally acclaimed companies such as Béla Pintér’s, Pál Frenák’s, Artus, Szputnyik, PanoDrama and Krétakör) had to face the fact that cuttings announced by the Hungarian Department of Economics on October 5th also endanger their regular yearly support.
On November 8th, the official governmental website announced that there would be further cuts from the already adjudged (and already decreased) operational subsidies.
Up to this date, the companies concerned still have not received any official declaration on the rate of these cuts. A short announcement let independent performers know that this rate would be even higher than the one mentioned on the government’s website: instead of by one third, support will be cut by 36.51%.
By now, most of the independent companies are on the verge of not being able to function any further: according to FESZ’s (Association of Independent Theatres) survey, almost half (45%) of the organizations waiting for support have no reserves. This includes companies like Béla Pintér’s, Pál Frenák’s, Viktor Bodó’s (Szputnyik Hajózási Társaság – Szputnyik Shipping Company), the Stúdió K Színház (Studio K Theatre), and the Sín Kulturális Központ (Sín Cultural Centre). In case the subsidies are not awarded by the end of the year, the proportion of independent companies without reserves will grow to 90%, including Krétakör (Árpád Schilling’s workshop), Kerekasztal Színházi Nevelési Központ (Roundtable Theatre Education Centre), Manna Kulturális Egyesület (Manna Cultural Association), and MU Színház (MU Theatre). One third (32%) of the companies have already had to take out loans in order to be able to carry on with their operations.
The Hungarian government’s unlawful course of action, through the delays and cuts in funding, one-sidedly impairs the freedom of artistic expression and also violates citizens’ constitutional right to self-education, access to culture, and the possibility to choose from a palette of different cultural products and experiences.
In our grave situation, we ask for the solidarity of the international public. Publish and broadcast it through your media, let your audiences know, that post-Soviet Hungary’s most lively and progressive artists, who have therefore also been the most ardent supporters of a democratic value system, are forced to discontinue their operations from January 2013.
Please share and publicize this in any way possible.

More information:
FESZ Secretariat
Szilvia Nagy
fesz2012@gmail.com