Föld Theatre is organizing an international community specific workshop from the 5th until the 19th of August in Roşia Montană (Romania). The village is partly abandoned, because a Canadian company wants to open a gold mine there. On the blog you can find a log-book written by the participants, photos and other background information about the project.
The site specific theatre works inspired by the givens of a concrete place. Such like this the fundament of the creation can be a community: the inner system of relations, or those that link it to world, its problems, traditions or vision of future. Living together for a shorter or longer period can provide the experience from which the performance is born.
In 2010 Föld Theatre held two community specific workshops: one in Copenhagen, at FloatingCity. At the place there some former industrial buildings, nowadays about 30 young people live there and work on projects regarding sustainable development. The other’s venue was Roşia Montană, where Hungarian, Danish, Italian and Chilean actors spent two weeks among the local inhabitants, and at the end either for them and for the public of Budapest they showed a presentation based on registered scenes.
The public of such presentations on one hand can be the community: people like to see the familiar reality on stage or screen. The purpose of the company is mainly not about resolving their problems or give advice. (At Roşia Montană it was extremely important to not to take a side in the mine-discussion, because among others it made possible, that the locals open up.) But seeing themselves through the eyes of an outsider can lead to comprehend new things as well.
The other possible aim of the work is to report about the community to the outside world, for example at Roşia Montană we tried to achieve to put the people themselves in spotlight, not as the sustainers of a certain economical-ecological-social situation (the losers or the winners of it), but emphasizing the personal aspects.
Extremely important to involve the locals into the work: in floating city several inhabitants took part in the whole rehearsal process; at Roşia Montană we spent one week to get in contact with the people: talking, making interviews, having a bonfire; and in the short movies that gave the arch of the performance they also acted, more or less playing themselves.
The raw material of the production is not a pre-formed text, but the experience gained there about a heterogeneous and complex reality. This material is continuously changing, „boiling”, and never can be percepted in its wholeness. This uncertainty is inspiring: it strongly stimulates the experimentation with expressing tools of the theatre. (Nádor Zsófi)
The great round of invitations. In pairs we set off in different directions. I go with Morten. We each have a handwritten note explaining who we are, what will happen when and where. We stop at a hay harvesting family, and stop and talk to everyone we meet. People engage us in conversation, not giving up just because neither of us speak Romanian.
Last inhabited house is Cornias in the upper village. She says something about Zeno, pointing further up, saying something about „vaches”. When there are seemingly no more houses, we pause for a while. The stony path continues upwards, but the trees hide its destination. Should we continue? We don’t count on meeting more people, but curiosity spurns us... I think we both realize a curiosity about the area that is still unsatisfied. Hallo! we are in Romania! We sometimes forget, living in a group, not often moving beyond the house and rehearsal spaces and a few familiar points. We continue upwards, soon short of breath.
And reach the lake. Not the one we had the bonfire but a greater lake in the middle of the pastures. Mining remnants in the far off, and a sandy hill in the middle of the forest, we are guessing this is the open cast mine which already exists. 5 haystacks on the steep, steep slope. Can they really cut the grass with a scythe at this angle?
For a long time we stand looking at the scenery. Zeno watching over the herd, a faint sound of his voice reaches us. The cows moving down the hill so slowly, eating meanwhile. We start the descent, full of energy. (Anna Laursen)
It was a good thing we didn’t wake up at 6 o’clock, as it was first planned, but shot the common scene after breakfast. The picture on the wall in the main square served as a base. Basically it is a plan of how the square will look like in the future after all the reconstructions. There are gray figures standing in different positions. We formed similar positions in the middle of the street: some couples, a man playing the violin, an other walking, a lady carrying water on her head. After “action!” we froze for a minute. It seemed that the cars always came when we tried to shoot the scene. Some people took pictures of us as we stood there. I felt like we were forming a living statue park in the middle of the busiest road of the village. We tried an other location as well, in front of the most beautiful but very much ruined Protestant building. On the film we will dissolve out of the picture and people will walk through us. The goal is to demonstrate how people move away and disappear in the future. But there will be other people coming, maybe tourists. Also, the figures we represent are unnatural, just like the gray figures on the plan. The future of people cannot be planned with a 3D architecture program.
In the afternoon Anna lead a discussion about permaculture and transition movement. Since the theme of our workshops is the future, it was nice to expend our views about the future of our planet. Permaculture is both a design method and technical solutions for building sustainable communities. We talked about agriculture as a possible field of application. The idea behind permaculture is that people live in harmony with nature. It is possible to add to the resources instead of exhausting or storing them. Transition movement offers a guideline of how to move from a oil based society to a non oil based society using the knowledge of permaculture.
Anikó and Máté spoke with the elderly Hungarian lady, who is always very pleased to talk to somebody in Hungarian. She really opened up for them but they couldn’t make an interview with her because of her vulnerability.
Coral, Kálmán and I spent the afternoon working on the scene of two tourists lost in the mines. We worked in the dusty room of the borrowed empty house. Aware of the possibility that we are going to die, we wrote messages on the floor with water. Before the rehearsal we took interviews with members of the group and with locals about what they would write. Among a lot of commonplace sentences, I liked this one: I know that it was stupid, but I did it and I am proud of it.(Hinsenkamp Fanni)
I didn't sleep very well this night. The Hay Festival’s noise crept into my dreams and woke me up several times with different music, load drunk people and late night telephone calls. Laila was sure she heard techno-psychedelic music – however I cannot confirm this.
Attila, Bálint’s roommate arrived around four o'clock at night he said. He looked quite tired at 8.30 when I met him in the corridor. But happy! I hadn’t seen him for about two years. After a brief meeting at the warm up I found myself in a forest. A very special and noise-forest, I must say. It felt magical and ever changing – It cannot be compared to any forest I've visited before! I heard several rare birds, and I'm quite sure, I heard a mouse. However, when I opened my eyes, I was in an abandoned house with Bence, Zita and Zsófi next to me. Quite a surprise! All together we took upon a journey to a very dusty place in Africa. Smiling and dancing – the day had begun.
We split up into groups, and everybody seemed busy with different missions. The mission I was upon demanded a certain amount of patience. In the burning midday sun we were looking for local people among the great amount of festival people to participate in our short movie. Three travelers are eager to figure out if Joanna Andreaz had been to the seaside. I lost track of time, but mission completed successfully. Soup, bruschettas, beanmix and watermelon was very welcome at two o'clock. After lunch I had a surprisingly relaxing afternoon with three palinkas served by different people.
We had plans to go to the church during the afternoon, but the information in the Magazine Mix was: “priest, crazy, with key, to Campeni!” So instead we shot the “backwards scene” with the guy whose name I'll never be able to remember (Csongor, a szerk.). Romanian and Hungarian names just don't seem get stored in my system. Well, I guess, people who know me, might say that this applies to names in general. However, I do feel that my brain seems to fail even quicker with Romanian and Hungarian names.
Anyway, we had a fantastic dinner which woke up my tongue and made my nose run a bit. Palinka and beer gave me the strength to climb up to the lake where the Hay Festival was taking place. Music wasn't really for dancing, but people seemed to be enjoying themselves and so was I. We left the lake while the party was still on – for us it was way past bedtime! (Esther Kristensen)
Long evening, ended up chatting till late, in spite of sleepiness. Now everybody is sleeping, and I am pretty sure about this, since the toilet is free! We had two new entries today: Coral and Javier, actor and technician, from Chile and Spain. I had no time to gather with them, but they seem to match they average madness of the group. They are sleeping in my room, which is getting pretty crowded (you must keep in mind the three/four people always queuing for the toilet).
There is another person, who finally arrived in Roşia Montană, to help organizing the Hey Festival. It is Stephanie, the girl we saw in the New Eldorado movie, who spent part of her life here, fighting against the Corporation. She is a really direct and strong person with clear ideas, that she has no hesitation to express.
So this Hey fast began this afternoon at 3 o’clock. It means that the square of full of parked cars, there are tourists everywhere, and a policeman every ten meters. I really don’t like it, I preferred the silence and the emptiness we had during our days here. By the way, I didn’t go up to the lake, so I have no idea about what the festival is, and how it will develop during the next days.
The day went this way: after physical training in the Unitarian church, Bálint divided us in three groups. My group (I was together with Kálmán and Zita) had a wonderful task: build a Music House! We started to search sounds... creaking doors, tinkling windows, clicking light triggers... So after and entire morning’s work we ended up with: a unique nail-xylophone, another xylophone made from beer bottles, hanged on a rope and filled with water at different levels, a bottle-flute, synchronized with the bottle-xylophone (which took us a lot of time), a kind of light-percussion made sliding an old broken liner over the wooden ceiling. The house was getting alive with sounds. But something was missing, so we added the Devil’s Dance, a traditional Csángó dance that filled the rooms of the empty house with and evil rhythmic stomping.
So more or less that’s it for today, or not? Let me see... I played with the children and Zita in the playground... I had a late improvisation session with Morten and Bálint after dinner... and yes, that’s all, time to sleep now, good night.
Pam pa ram pa pam pa ram pa ra pa pa
This is the Devil’s Dance, and I’m dancing.
Pam pa ram pa pam pa ram pa ra pa pa
This is the Devil’s Dance, and Kálmán and Zita are dancing with me.
Pam pam pa ra pa pam pam parapa
Nails are playing the Devil’s Dance, and we are dancing.
Pam pam pa ra pa pam pam parapa
Ceiling and floor are playing the Devil’s Dance, and new people come to join us.
Pam pam pa ra pa pam pam pam
This is the Devil’s Dance, and together we dance in the Music House.
Here everything is alive and singing:
glass jars for the wind,
wooden sticks in the ceiling for the water,
howling bottles for the wolves, tinkling bottles for the bones,
Wednesday we arranged a celebration for the villagers up by the lake. It was the first time I went there. It is always a small wonder to see a great mass of water lifted above the level of the ground.. here was a small lake with a far reaching view over wood clad mountainsides. The sun was orange, veiled by the evening mist, the mountains a sign of constancy, comforting to the eyes. There’s old men and women, children and their parents, foreign students around the tables, besides ourselves. But if we were not all here, if the village was all together abandoned, would this place be desolate?
Roşia Montană is Romania’s oldest documented settlement and was known from old times to be rich in gold and silver. Mining goes back centuries and has continued until recently. Now the village is being depopulated, a mining company is buying the properties. But the permission to start the project has not been given by the Romanian government, and it has already been years of struggle between the company and the several opponents.
Since the gold ores are exhausted there is need for a modern and massive technique: washing out the gold from crushed mountain stone with cyanide. This technique requires the construction new roads for the several-ton-vehicles, of a plant, of an entire pond and dam to catch the waste water; it entails the devastation of the mountain landscape around the village, resulting in four huge pits; and the filling up of the Corna Valley with waste material.
The mining company is visibly present in the village. The golden ring-logo of Gabriel Resources (GR) appears on many houses and there’s a museum and an info-point to explain to the visitors what the company plans to do here. At the info-point a young woman shows me around. She is from Roşia Montană, her father was a miner here, and her grand-fathers. She says she hopes the project will be realised and that the opposition has been a help in assuring the continued existence of the village. In the museum an archeologist explains about the archeological research that was a condition for the company to proceed with the project. He has been here for many years and has formed an opinion in favor of the company.
Since yesterday there hangs a banner on the house next to the museum (also owned by GR) put up by the ‘future miners’ union’ – local, unemployed miners who want jobs - alongside banners announcing two other local events sponsored by the company - a response to the FanFest (Hay Festival), which is taking place these days. FanFest is an event to mark the resilience of the local community and an opposition to the mining project. It has transformed the simple pattern of the village, weaving in lots of new threads and connections. The gendarmerie is patrolling in the village, a three-man band at the local pub has been playing all day, there’s music rolling down the mountain from the Taul Brazi lake further up.
The promises of the company are overwhelming: 4 billion USD to the national economy; over 2,000 jobs in the construction period; Education of the local population, not just for mining jobs but to ensure the business of the village after the mining is over; Restoration of the ‘protected areas’ and infrastructure to make tourist trails; Re-forestation of the area and improvement of the environment; health programme, summer school for children;... and it has so far payed an archeological research and restoration of some historical houses at the cost of $ 10 mio. But the architects restoring another house in the village contest the quality of the company’s work.
And who will ensure that the promises are kept? “It is possible that Gabriel Resources would become a senior company were the project to win all of the approvals necessary to proceed. But it is more likely that the company would sell the project to an established senior company. At that point, all of the promises that Gabriel has made would pass to someone else to fulfill” (GR is at present a junior company).
Where are all the people who were in the houses? Well, many of them have chosen to be resettled nearby or in a nearby town, where the company have built over 125 houses in one neighbourhood. Would be interesting to visit them there and hear what this move has meant to them. (Anna Hoegsbro Laursen)
2000-2004: University of Desarrollo, studying acting
2005: seminaries of direction, Argentina
2005-2008: actress (in her own company)
2005-2008: teaching theater in different schools of Chile theatre to schizophrenic and Dawn-sindrome children
2008: studying traditional theatre, percussion and martial art in Kerala (India)
2009: teaching theater to Maori children in New-Zealand
Good morning Thursday, it’s 8.30 – Laila is writing, in queue for toilet, no surprise! Have been back and forth since 7.50, every time finding new morning troubled, pee filled people waiting, some with more pressured facial expressions than others. In the meantime my patience have shrunk into non-existing, and I’ll guard this spot on the carpet in front of toilet not letting any more people to pass before me. – I guess you must have heard this story plenty times before by now, right? Well, it is a very tough life, dealing with theater...
Just a little bit later, 8.47 –DEJA VU! The queuing feeling hunts me this morning, appearing several times, in queue for water tap, in queue for boiled water, in queue for a moment of free space to open the oven and check the bread I’m baking... Deep breaths, Laila, what are all this people doing in the kitchen this early? All I want is a cup of tea for my smoke-destroyed sore throat after too much singing, too many cigarettes and too much inhaling bonfire-smoke while trying to explain Romanian kids not to put their stickbread in the flames – all taking place yesterday at the lake event. But every time I return to the kitchen, the boiled water have disappeared somewhere, for something I don’t know. This time I’ll keep my eyes on it.
9.07 – I made it! Was almost tricked by the kitchen lady speaking only Romanian, while disabling my hands and mind with a pot of sausages for a reason I never understood – while trying to figure out what she wanted me to do with it, in the background I could watch the water boiler being carried away for an unknown task, out of my reach. But for a minute I managed to think fast and multitask – some Romanian words go with pot and sausage, then cup and running, and now I have a wonderful cup of tea in front of me... I’m happy!
But wait... There is still bread in the oven, when did I check last time? Oh, I guess I have to run again.
Later.... Freshly baked bread turned out to be a hit, and there is a happy atmosphere now when the worst toilet-stress is over. I’m enjoying tales from yesterday’s experiences and more or less drunken experiences.
15.18, time is running! After a hectic morning with too many balls in the air it was just grand to let the church affect calmness and silence upon the group. Bálint apparently had other and less calming plans for us, directing us trough a sweaty warm up with crawling, kicking and jumping, as to get yesterdays palinka out of the body. Now the theater part of our Roşia Montană stay are kicking in, and in groups we’ve been working with different ideas creating scenes. Personally I’ve been very busy and amused by trying to prevent the old Unitarian church from falling apart. It have been hours of climbing around searching possibilities in the church space, a game I really enjoy a lot! The appearance of an amazing amount of homemade Romanian doughnuts, made by the kitchen lady and our two Romanian translators, only made this part of the day even better, mm...
Lunch is now over, and I’m trying to convince myself to go to the internet – the frightening thought of dealing with at least two weeks of unread and unanswered mails have been working very hard against me for several days now. And thinking about it, a few more days wouldn’t harm anyone. I guess it’s the kind of faraway reality, which I can’t really connect myself to up here in the Romanian mountains. Roşia Montană workshop is this big intense bubble, where it’s hard to imagine that time and the world outside actually exists. So much is happening here all the time.
But what does exist here is the heat of the sun, and besides tiredness the only thing in my mind right now is ---> ICE CREAM.
21.47 – Yes, believe it or not, still the same day. Just thought about this morning’s warm up, and it seems like days ago I was kicking and hitting people to the rhythm of „Humpty Dumpty sat on wall...” This is how the days go by here, full of stuff! Right now I’m full of lasagna, with a slight stomachache caused of overeating. I should note here, that the wonderful menu was prepared dancing, by me and Esther, turning the kitchen into a dance floor featuring Santogold. We’re both lying in bed now exhausted, and I just received a big juice kiss on my cheek from Esther – who is also talking to other people in the room. We live quite close here in Roşia Montană, you see. In our room is four double beds, currently hosting seven people, six birds, an elephant, a deer and four statues of pretty girls. Morten is present in this moment, striking some chords on his exotic instrument which I have forgotten the name of.
The afternoon went with more group theater work, for my sake back in the lovely Unitarian church – I guess the amount of time in church during this workshop tops the total amount of church time in my whole life.
Esther is giving a very good proposal this very minute, she thinks I should write down all ingredients used for this evenings menu down in the logbook – which I actually agree with, though the 1,5 min I have left until Bálint starts a movie screening at 22.00. SHARP! Won’t do for this task. Now it would be a surprising new experience if this time limit was actually held punctual for once.
00.43, I can smell myself, and it’s not a good sign. Intended to take a shower before, but was falling a sleep in the bathroom queue, and my mind tricked me into believing, that if I went to bed now, maybe I could get up early, before everyone else, and have a unstressed bathroom experience in the morning. At least a have my intentions right, though deep down inside I know that there’s no such thing as an unstressed bathroom experience at this place.
The movie screening was (of course) not sharp due to technical complications, but the movies shown was more than worth the waiting time – especially „The cost of living” by DV8, which have once before given me great inspiration. Thanks to Bálint and co. for this initiative and the whole group for a grand day!
Now there’s only a drop-dead fast-asleep goodnight left to be written from here. (Laila Sigrid Rosholm)
The village is in an interesting situation. More than half of its population, about 600 people left in the past years. A Canadian-Romanian company, Roşia Montană Gold Corporation intends to create one of the biggest gold mines of Europe on the place of the village, so they offer houses in Alba Iulia for the inhabitants of the village.
Roşia Montană is strongly present in the media, but only regarding ecological, economic and social problems. We on the other hand are interested in the people who live there, in their dreams, their fears and their everyday life. How do they handle this uncertainty that has been going on for years? What makes them stay in the village even though a Canadian company offers them an apartment in the town of Alba Iulia? How do they imagine their future?
The research of the local community and the communication with them follow some anthropological and ethnographical principles; one of them is that “you can get if you give”: by organizing common events – bonfire, film projection, playing music – on one hand the life of the village becomes more vivid, on the other hand people open up more, if they don’t feel like some kind of spectacularity, but part of a natural, mutual communicational process. The research partly proceeds by interviews with the help of interpreters. The interviews do not focus on the mining project, most of the locals are already fed up with reporters and tourists, who are willing to know only that – but they open up much more, if they are asked about their everyday life, childhood or their future.
The workshop goes on parallelly with the similar research of the Romanian „dramAcum” group, who are also collecting materials at the place for their play about the actual social situation of Roşia Montană, which will be presented in Cluj Napoca in November.
The initiative makes part of theatrical trend that involves outsider groups (for example a village) in the work, and with this and fieldwork it examinates actual social phenomenons with theatrical tools. Therefore the raw material of the production is not a pre-formed text, but the experience gained there about a heterogeneous and complex reality. This material is continuously changing, „boiling”, and never can be percepted in its wholeness. This uncertainty is inspiring: it strongly stimulates the experimentation with expressing tools of the theatre.
2010: graduated in Literature and Aesthetics at Eötvös Lorand University, Budapest
2009-: editor, Scolar Kiadó
2008-: member of Föld Theatre
2007-2008: improvisation course on the role of "Clown", Trento (Italy)
2006, 2007: leading theatre workshops in children camps
Since October 2009 - Project assistant, Krétakör, Budapest Hungary
Since September 2009 - Artistic manager of Bakelit Muti Art Center, Budapest, Hungary
Spring semester 2009 - Teaching acting for adults at Melchiades Group, Budapest, Hungary
2008, 2007 - Organizing and leading several international theatre workshops in Denmark and in Hungary (final performances made at Vestjyllands Højskole, Denmark; Hantos and Merlin International Theatre, Budapest, Hungary)
Fall 2006 - Teaching drama for 7 - 8 years pupils, Prím Art School, Budapest, Hungary
Since 2004 - Leading the ensemble of Föld Theatre, directing several performances
Workshops led by him
August 2008 - “How beauteous mankind is” - international theatre workshop, Hantos, Hungary
April 2008 - Body and Space - theatre workshop for the students of Vestjyllands Højskole, Ringkøbing, Denmark
August 2007 - The Journey of Odysseus - international theatre workshop, Hantos, Hungary
February - May 2007 - The Homecoming of Odysseus - for international students of Højskole, Ringkøbing, Denmark
2007: Vestjyllands Højskole, theater workshops
2007: International Theatre Workshop at Hantos, organized by Föld Theatre
2008-2009: Academy of Untammed Creativity, Coppenhagen, studying circus art
2007: Vestjyllands Højskole, theatre workshops
2007, 2008: International Theatre Workshop at Hantos, organized by Föld Theatre
2009: Theater in Education programme at the University of Cape Town, South Africa
Today was about preparing and realizing the bonfire. After breakfast we went up to the Unitarian church, where we started with physical training the day. After having warmed up our body parts, we warmed up our voices too, and at the lake all morning we were practicing some Hungarian and Danish songs, all the mountain resounded them.
All of a sudden the noise of a car interrupted the music, a policeman stopped by, who told us with our invitation card in his hand, that we cannot hold the party in the evening, if we didn’t arrange the police, the ambulance, and even the firemen for the venue. The communication was not easy, because none of the interpreters were there with us, and the policeman could only talk in Romanian. So Bálint had to get into the car, and go down to the interpreters. Thanks God, with their and Sorin’s and Csongor’s help we got the permission for the evening. After the singing we split up in groups, some were collecting woods, and we started to prepare the most important part of the evening: the game machine.
About six in the evening the guests started to arrive (we tried to invite as many of locals as possible). Andrei was already baking the Romanian sausages called “mitches”, some of us were preparing the bonfire. We served wine and talked with the guests, sometimes only with arms and legs... When enough people have arrived to the lake (we were quite a lot, and some of the locals opened even a little bar, they were selling drinks), first we sang a Spanish song, “El Cantante”. After that the game started. The volunteers could play “rock-scissors-paper” with Fanni, or “pen to the bottle” with Esther (a pen was hung on the waist of somebody, and he had to put it in a bottle without using his hands). Laila, Andrea and me put our faces into the wholes of the paper boxes that we had prepared, so in the machine. If the volunteer won in one of the games, could push the arm of the machine (Andrea’s arm), and after shaking a little bit our heads, we made a smiley, a sad or a surprised face. If we had the same expressions, we gave a song, a circus attraction or an evil trick... In the beginning the guests came a little bit uneasily to play, but after a while the machine started, and I think they really enjoyed playing together. When we finished with the machine, in the rest of the evening we served mitch, we talked to them and played music.
Really a lot people gathered there this evening, and I really enjoyed that we are so different in nationalities, in the age or in our interests. Rózsika néni came, who was happy to talk in Hungarian, Zénó bácsi was giving us palinka with a huge smile on his face, Kornya who, as usually, sang to us.... After we left the lake, we closed the evening in the pub in the square, playing with children, drinink with the actors from Cluj and some locals. (Szenteczki Zita)
Arrived yesterday after a day and a half of travelling. Everybody’s busy this late afternoon so I went for a walk. To grasp the situation of Roşia Montană, I picture the village as a person, her story as a life story. I see houses falling apart and new houses being built, an uncertain future that is unspoken, a resource that has become a threat to her survival.
Again today the group starts with the physical training, I spend the morning reading and hurrying to take a cold shower while there’s not a line of people waiting. For hot water we need to first light a fire in the oven in he courtyard.
They are just finishing the training when we join them. We are asked to write down questions, in silence, anything that comes to mind. All, I think, are wondering why. On the way to the church a few minutes later, Bálint is carrying a chair that we will use for something
The chair is thoroughly tested for durability. And then we are told the task: working in pairs, one goes to the floor and must all the time keep moving, staying connected to the chair and answering the questions put forth by the partner.(see the photos)
Questions are banal, emotional, intriguing. It’s great to see how people invent elegant moves, awkward postures and fine balances with the chair; and curious how much easier it is to make fresh and humorous answers when there is this distraction of movement. It seems one can communicate much more straight-forward in this manner; maybe Freud should’ve thrown out his divan for some floor space and a chair.
Tomorrow we are inviting the locals to come to the lake further up for a bonfire, music and games. Finishing the preparation for this event, we work in two groups to come up with ideas for the evening’s programme.
Lunch.
Music in the church. The elderly woman who was to teach us some folk songs, never appears, she was too tired when they went to pick her up. But we rehearse some songs we know already, and that resonate well in the small church, where the priest must perform all duties from giving the sermon to playing the organ, even when the church is empty of people except for this servant of God.
Instead of learning the new songs both groups present the mornings work. The first group has written down a load of ideas for games and spectacles. The other group presents a living one-armed robber: three faces next to each other, framed by carved cardboard boxes. Three identical face expressions cash out a small performance..
Then it’s time for the guided tour of the upper village. G. is Hungarian, employed by the Gold Mine Corporation and, as happens, married to the chief architect of the corporation. Mocking the fools who splashed cement on the old stone walls, (causing the wood to rot and the stone to burst, because the water cannot pass through the material), he takes us from house to house that is now property of the corporation. They all need restoration, many of them are supported by wooden beams. The cement has been taken off the walls, revealing straw nailed to the surface to catch the plaster. His comments are full of film references and slang, Fanni does a good job translating. Some questions are not really answered.. in the end nobody really understands the logic of the restoration project. Is it to get goodwill, to appease opponents?
Dinner. Discussion about the evening and about tomorrow.
It’s dark and a little chill, it is evening. Right now S., our host is screening film in the small square outside. Quite a few people have turned up. Chatter from the courtyard. How many of the locals will come? People start going to sleep. Goodnight, goodnight. (Anna Laursen)
I am sitting for myself at the dinner table in S., our hosts yard, starring aimlessly out into the air in front of me. Around me, people are moving, cleaning their plates, talking, laughing, drinking their tea, and I just sit here and stare. And Bálint asks me how I feel. A perfectly normal question I guess, not strange in any way – perfectly natural. In any other situation it could be a throw-away enquiry, made mostly out of politeness, but here, now, there’s much more to it; the words that form in Bálint’s mouth has a special ring to them, a concern playing in the spaces between the letters. Today it is three days since I arrived in Roşia Montană, coming directly here from travelling Italy, not really knowing what to expect, and without knowing anyone but Bori, that I met two days before. I had only met Bálint once before and had no experience at all with The Föld Theatre, this kind of workshops, and actually, very little experience with acting in general. And here I sit, starring. What do I think about? What’s going on inside my head?
Today we started doing acting-stuff. And what better place to start doing your acting stuff than at the church? So we went to the church, first thing after breakfast. The Unitarian one, not the greco-catholic, or the orthodox, or the normal catholic or other orthodox one. And we started the warm up. Now, I have been in a church a lot of times in my life, but never had I thought I should be playing around like this in a church, and yet, here I was, standing with my eyes closed, in front of Laila, making all the weird noises I could stretch my mind to think of. Here I was, sitting on a church bench, improvising song over the chanting of the others of the group. Here I was popping up from my hiding behind a bench, to start singing a Romanian children song that I could not pronounce the words of. Here I was, within the rein of the Roşia Montană Föld Theatre.
I really need to learn Romanian. Really. Our translators are doing an amazing job, but seriously, how can you hope for people to pour out their dreams and hopes in front of you, when you can’t even tell them bless you, when they sneeze. But of course, I didn’t find the time for Romanian lessons today either. I guess I have been trying to find the time for three days now, but nope, still no success – all I have learned is yes, no and good day. You can have all the good intentions in the world, but it will do you no good. Time is a luxury here in Roşia Montană. When I first arrived, I decided to write a bit every day about my experiences. Helps to process everything. Helps you realizing what you have learned. Helps me stay sane. Okay, Morten, now really? Well, apart from it being hopelessly naive of me, to believe that I could actually manage to write just a bit about a whole day in Roşia Montană, the time, when nothing you for all in the world would want to be a part of, is not taking place, doesn’t exist. It is always there. Whether it’s doing a headstand, building a tower out of people or learning an Argentinean song, it’s always there.
There are so many interesting places here. It’s like in a fairy tale. Like something I have only ever had the pleasure of imagining. But it’s all for real here. The mountains, the woods, the cows walking around in the streets and the abandoned houses. And the abandoned houses. Right here in front of me, Roşia Montană stretches out like an enormous playground.
We were playing today. The kind of playing that’s still so very new to me, but seems to be perfectly natural to the others. Dividing into three groups and with the only instructions, to dig for an experience in our memories, that seemed to us, parallel to the events taking place in Roşia Montană, we went out into this grand playground, to make some kind of scene to present to the others. It’s an enchanting freedom; having nothing restraining you. And yet so scary it is, to have to stare hard into the void of your own imagination until something forms out there; something you can catch and tame, and then throw it out into the light of the world. But enchanting it is. Hours of exploring and adventuring in an old abandoned house, imagining how the inhabitants had walked around and packed their stuff, preparing to leave and arguing about, if they should bring the old sofa. And then, to transform the whole thing into theater... Not the worst way at all to spend your afternoon, I’d say..!
So what am I thinking sitting here starring out into the air? What is going on inside my head? Am I feeling alone, alienated, insufficient, homesick? I am seldom feeling so much at home as I do here, so satisfied and happy with how things are. No.
I am not sad.
I am the incarnation of all of my experiences. The sum of the storm of things happening all the time all around me. Of constant adventure and the impressions left by wondrous places. Of 13 great persons exploring the unknown with me, and putting all of themselves out there in front of me and into this project. I am a product of staying up late yesterday night: talking, playing, drawing; the day before: reading Danish folktales. Of the sheer multitude of new things tried and learned. Of physical training today – hard physical training and acrobatics... Learning to build a tower out of people and to stand on each other’s shoulders. I’m not sure I have ever learned so much in such a short time in my entire life, and I am wasted.
Bálint asks me how I feel. And I turn to him and tell: Tired. (Morten Andersen)
2009: 3 months living in a theater in Bolivia, participating in various workshops and making theater sports-workshop for kids
2010: „Teater and social justice” – course at Malmö University
In the morning the group of Laila, Esther, Martin and Diana went to see the Gypsy whom Bálint and Zsófi already met. He talked about how he found God, about the bad relationship with his wife who drank too much and cut herself. He wanted a new wife. He played the accordion but didn’t have an instrument. He was in a good relationship with the priest who gave him cigarettes. But sometimes only half a pack so that he will work because he always had a break when he smoked. Then they spoke to the Orthodox priest who was 39. He just won a trial and with it the right to build a church. He was scared that they were from the press and publishing unreal information. He invited the group to have from his home made palinka. He built the main part of the church from his own money. He was the son of the priest. It wasn’t good to be the son of a priest in the army. In order to avoid this, he studied theology and law. His wife is a schoolteacher. He would like his son to study theology but will not force him. When he lost his church, the people of Roşia Montană helped him a lot. He is trying to repay them this loyalty. He cannot say for or against. He said that the situation is very uncertain.
On the mine trip the joined group of Bálint and Diana went on a mine trip. Their guide told many stories, for example about the man, who was pretending to be very rich by putting stones in a sack an some gold on the top of it, and he hide it in a room. Since he was also all the time visiting the doctor, everyone thought that he is seriously ill. So this way he got five wives – all of them died in the same way: they searched for the sack, and when they found the stones, they got a heart attack. The weirdest theory that we’ve heard of him is that the Corporation is not there for the gold but for the uranium and the plutonium and they are cooperating with the NASA). (Hinsenkamp Fanni)
We made some interviews today in groups, I was with Andrej, Andrea and Bence. On the way we said hi to the man with the two cows who worked in the mine as a driver 40 something years. We had an interview with him yesterday. After a big hike up the mountains we found somebody in a garden. We asked for directions. Soon a man came there and we had a chat with him. The view was breath-taking from there. The windows of the house looked upon the hill where the remains of an ancient volcanic eruption formed huge rocks with caves. He came to Roşia Montană when he was a child. He has lived there ever since. He is Hungarian, but cannot speak Hungarian. I guess at that time the Hungarian school and library was already closed. He is retired. He worked at the coal mine in Petrila and then he worked at the copper mine nearby as an electrician. We asked where he played with his friends when he was a child. He showed the mountain with the rock and he said that they were making bombs from carbide as children. Nowadays he goes drinking with friends. He said that he doesn’t know any songs and people don’t sing in the pubs anymore as in the days of his parents. He would like to remain there for the rest of his life if he is not obliged to leave by the Gold Corporation.
Then we did some climbing we had to do to get up to the lake. The cow stamps were showing us the way. The lake was surrounded by grassy hills, with some cows here and there in the distance. We discovered two figures on the hill nearby. They were cutting grass. Sitting on the hill, watching the beautiful view of the lake and the hills, I sometimes got lost in the long long legend of Roşia Montană. The story started some 6-700 years B.C. with the Daks. When the Romans learned about the gold of the area they came to occupy the land. The famous Dak character has managed to change the river`s route, and the people hid their treasures under it. But a traitor told the Romans where to find it. It seemed that the man labels people easily as traitors. Those that have left Roşia Montană are not his friends anymore. There are three things you cannot sell – told us: the house of your parents, the church and the cemetery. We walked down together and he invited us for palinka and coffee. His wife came home too. We got to know how they met in the school and how the man asked her wife’s hand in the 10th grade very simply. The woman’s nickname was Mici. She was always complaining to her mother when she was a little girl, because the donkey in the street was called Mici. The donkey belonged to a man, who was a strongman His story was funny. He didn’t speak proper Romanian. Once he took the little train from Turda to Abrud and the driver asked: “Kobor....?” Which means: Are you getting off? Since “Kobor” was also a family name in the region, he said: no, no, my name is not that. And he missed his stop. After he never took that train again. Under the influence of the sweet palinka with fruits it became quite difficult to communicate in Romanian, Hungarian, English and Italian. “Parlamento!” – said the man to the confusion. We all became very excited. Personally I had to stand up and clap every now and then because of the adrenaline. The couple was open to any questions. They are willing to participate in our play. They won a theater competition in the region when they were in the 8th grade. They started to teach us a song and tomorrow we plan to sing it together on the main square. The woman also agreed that Anikó and Máté can shoot how she is singing while milking the cow. She was worried that she will not be able to see us if we have our performance around 19, because that is the time for the evening milking. (Hinsenkamp Fanni)
7:00 Bálint, Zsófi and Andrei got up to meet the major to discuss about renting the community house for the rehearsals.
9:14: Breakfast is ready, Bálint, Zsófi and Andrei are waiting for the major.
10:00 Meeting, we go together to the community house, where we can see a short presentation about traditional female clothes.
11:15: Physical training led by Fanni; weather: sunny, there are a few clouds, running is difficult up to the lake, Bálint, Zsófi and Andrei are waiting for the major.
12:17: Gathering on the terrace, task: find interesting places in the village.
Personal note: after 900 m to North-East I reached the edge of the village, 80% of the houses are abandoned; on the right of the road I found an opened wooden house: interesting place for rehearsal. After I left the village, I found some falling rocks. I didn’t find any gold.
14:50: Lunch is ready; Bálint, Zsófi and Andrei are waiting for the major.
16:00: Gathering and short presentation about the morning task, making groups, interviewing the locals. Storm clouds appear above us.
Personal note: It’s hard to discuss about the food, a simple shopping list makes a huge flow of words, after explaining for quarter of an hour, we manage to agree that they bring us 8 kg of bread. Acquisition of vegetable and milk products postponed.
19:00 Playing music on the street – rather an opened rehearsal on the street. Bálint, Zsófi and Andrei are waiting for the major.
20:10: For the reason of raining street music adjourned, Bálint, Zsófi and Andrei give up the waiting.
20:30: Dinner is ready, after that presentation of the evening task
21:30: For the reason of rainstorm presentation replaced to the inside
23:00: The planned projection is postponed, retreat
Roşia Montană lays about approximately 450 kms from Budapest (by car). We had a stopover in Cluj which made the journey even a bit longer. Cluj is the largest city in the area of Roşia Montană; and we were hosted there at a charming family. Ferenc, the father is a professor of Ethnography, we got the contact of one of his daughters, while we were looking for interpreters. Viola, the daughter promised us, that she will find someone for us, who will help with translating on our visit. Finally we didn't just get a help of a young Ethnography student, but the family hosted us in their appartment, and we were offered several affluent meals, crowned by a diner cooked by the academic of the family.
Next morning, after meeting with our hosts and having a wonderful breakfast at them we set out for Roşia Montană with Tamás, the ethnography student, and with a load of infos from Ferenc.
Tamás had been to the village several years ago. He had some preconceptions about the situation in the township, as probably the majority of the Romanians does. It has been a permanently returning media issue for them in the last decade. For me one of the greatest experiences of our short visit was seeing Tamás's point of view smoothly shifting, how it became more particular after talking with more and more various people from the town. He even stated himself, when we were leaving the village, that he had a different image at the beginning of the day.
It just started raining when we arrived. We immediately discovered the pub, which is special mixture of a private and public space. I had the feeling the proprietors had turned their living room into a bar. I have seen an amazing painting, showing a transparent pelican, through which you see a naked couple sunbathing on the seashore.
We set down in a circle of middle aged men to have a coffee. I asked Tamás some sentences in Romanian in order to try to trick a smile on the face of the quite crust bartender lady. I wouldn't say I made the biggest success of my life.
After the coffee, we decided to start our discovery tour nevertheless it's raining.
It became clear: looking for accommodation for a group is a good way of making contacts in a village. Or maybe it's even a bit more accurate to say searching for 'Eugene' is a good way of making contacts. Roşia Montană lays in a valley of two hillsides. It is rather steep, which means going from one end to another is either a descend or a good climb. Our first discussion was with some youngsters who run a hostel at the entrance of the village. They mentioned that Eugene runs a similar hostel but with larger space. And after this point trying to find him, we went up and down on the hillside. It seemed everyone had a different conviction about where Eugene lived actually.
Finally we have found his house a little bit outside of the village at the end of a road, where we have tried earlier, just gave up when the road left the houses. By that time the rain stopped and the sun was about to set.
While searching for Eugene we met with several captiving figures of the village. We saw the wonderful pond above the village, abandoned houses, and some others, when it was difficult to decide whether there lives someone, or not. It used to be a very elegant village. Gold-mining was a well-paying job. Now the one-time elegance melts into the beauty of ruination. We also considered to visit the ancient mine from the Roman age, or the museum in the center established by the Gold Corporation. (Apparently they invest a lot of money to preserve or even create an attracting outfit for the township.) I was strict, and said we should rather aim for our goal: making contacts and finding accommodation. So we left these adventures for our common time there...
There are so many different situated people living there, and all of them had time to talk with us. This is how we found our accommodation as well.
For me the greatest thing in this visit was the simple experience of having success all the time when we initiated a conversation. I find great challenge in starting a contact with a completely unknown person. And our visit revealed for me Roşia Montană is offering us a lot while we intend to experiment with this. I think a theatrical encounter goes the same way as an encounter of two persons, just in a larger scale. One has to take the initiating role (the first step) in making the contact and the next person will open as an answer for this. Typically the actors are the ones who will initiate, and (if it the start is sincere and strong enough) the spectators will follow. While doing this as theatre, I hope we develop in our human relations. I hope we will understand and undertake the challenge one always has to take to role of the initiator.
