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Gábor Tompa
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Name
Gabor Tompa
Role
Director
Movies
Chinese Defense
Parents
Miklos Tompa, Gaby Mende
Similar People
Andras Visky, Zsolt Bogdan, Andras Hathazi, Andras Csiky, Victor Rebengiuc
Interview with Gábor Tompa, director of the festival Interferences
Gábor Tompa (born 8 August 1957 in Târgu Mureș) is an internationally renown Romanian-Hungarian theater and film director, poet, essayist and teacher. Since 2007 he has been Head of Directing at the Theatre and Dance Department of the University of California, San Diego. He is the general and artistic director of the Hungarian Theatre of Cluj since 1990, the theatre is member of the Union of the Theatres of Europe (UTE) since 2008.
He graduated in stage and film directing at the I.L. Caragiale Theatre and Film Academy in Bucharest in 1981 as a student of Liviu Ciulei, Mihai Dimiu, Cătălina Buzoianu, founders of the world-famous Romanian school of stage directing. Since 1981 Tompa has directed plays at the Cluj-Napoca Hungarian Theatre in Cluj-Napoca. In 1987 he became the artistic director of the theatre, after the Romanian Revolution of 1989 he became the managing director of the theatre as well. He has staged more than 80 plays and produced other 80 in the United Kingdom,France, Germany,Spain,Austria,Serbia,Czech Republic,Canada,South Korea and the U.S. in addition to Romania and Hungary - in English, French, German, Romanian, Hungarian,Catalan and other languages. His feature film, Chinese Defense (1999), a Hungarian-Romanian-French coproduction has been presented at the Festivals of Berlin, Karlovy Vary, São Paulo, Trieste, Istanbul, Budapest, Soci and has been awarded the Best First Feature in Salerno,Italy.
Since 1989 he has been professor at the Szentgyörgyi István Theatre Academy in Târgu Mureş. He founded the Faculty of Dramatic Art in Cluj and has run its directing programme since 1991. From 1990–1995 he was head of directing at the Theatre Academy in Târgu Mureş; in 1991 he founded the Theatre and Drama Faculty in Cluj-Napoca. In 2005 he directed the M.A. program at Brunel University, London, UK. He has taught classes and workshops for actors and directors in Spain, the UK, Germany, Hungary,France and South Korea. From 2007-2015 he served as Head of Directing at the Theatre and Dance Department of the University of California, San Diego, where he keeps teaching Theatre Directing and History of Directing.
From March 2006 to April 2008 (when the Hungarian Theatre of Cluj joined the UTE), he was an individual member of the Union of the Theatres of Europe. Founder in 2007 and artistic director to the present of the biennial Interferences International Theatre Festival in Cluj.
Works Worldwide
Saviana Stanescu: Toys - Hudson Theatre, Los Angeles (USA, 2015)
Chekhov: Cherry Orchard - SNG Maribor, Slovenian National Theatre (Slovenia, 2015)
Büchner: Danton's Death (adapted by András Visky) - Seoul Arts Center (Seoul, South Korea, 2013)
Pirandello: Tonight We Improvise - La Jolla Playhouse-UCSD- Potiker Theatre (San Diego, USA, 2013)
Ionesco: Rhinoceros - National Theatre of Prague (Czech Republic, 2012)
Dido and Aeneas - Bach Collegium (San Diego, USA, 2011)
Ruins True – Coproduced by the Sushi Center for the Urban Arts, San Diego, USA and the Hungarian Theatre of Cluj (2010)
Büchner: Woyzeck - La Jolla Playhouse-Potiker Theatre (San Diego, USA, 2009)
Mrozek: Tango - Theatre & Dance Department of the University of California (San Diego, USA, 2008)
After Euripides: Medea Circles – Municipal Theatre (Novi Sad, SERBIA, 2005)
Ionesco: The New Tenant – Northern Stage Ensemble (Newcastle, ENGLAND, 2004)
Beckett: Play – Hungarian Theatre of Cluj, Theatre Thália (Budapest, HUNGARY, 2003)
Beckett: Waiting for Godot – Vígszínház (Budapest, HUNGARY, 2003)
L. Pirandello: Tonight We Improvise – Staatsteather Freiburg (GERMANY, 2003)
András Visky: Juliet – Theatre Thália, Budapest – Hungarian Theatre of Cluj (2002)
A. Camus: The Misunderstanding – Vígszínház (Budapest, HUNGARY, 2002)
A. P. Chekhov: Three Sisters – Staatstheater Freiburg (GERMANY,2002)
W. Shakespeare: King Lear – Vígszínház (Budapest, HUNGARY, 2001)
Beckett: Waiting for Godot – Manitoba Theatre Centre (Winnipeg, CANADA, 2001)
Ionesco: The Bald Prima Donna – Athéneé Théâtre Louis Jouvet (Paris, FRANCE, 2000)
Molière: Tartuffe – Théâtre de l`Union (Limoges, FRANCE, 2000)
Beckett: Endgame – Teatre Principal de Palma (SPAIN, 2000)
Beckett: Waiting for Godot – Lyric Theatre Belfast (UK, 1999)
Mrozek: Tango – Teatre Lliure (Barcelona, SPAIN, 1999)
Molière: The Pretentious Ladies – Teatre Alegria (Barcelona, SPAIN, 1999)
Mrozek: Tango – Pesti Színház (Budapest, HUNGARY, 1997)
Camus: The Misunderstanding – Akademietheater (Wien, AUSTRIA, 1997)
Ionesco: The Bald Prima Donna – Théâtre de l`Union (Limoges, FRANCE, 1996)
Beckett: Happy Days – Theatre Academy (Bucharest, 1979)
Movies
Shorts:
Behind the Mask - director (Romanian Television) 1978,
Fugue - director (Romanian Television) 1979
Features:
Chinese Defense – director (Hungarian-Romanian-French coproduction) 1999
Published works
Gábor Tompa : The workpiece of a director- from the Three Sisters to the Cherry Orchard (performance photos, edited by Mirela Sandu, with a foreword by Georges Banu,Romanian Cultural Institute, Bucharest,2016)
Label-curtain - a private theatrical dictionary (English version, Bookart, 2014)
Transylván pót-depressziók - Transylvanian back-up depressions (four-handed sonnets with András Ferenc Kovács,Bookart,2011)
A hűtlen színház – The Unfaithful Theatre (An essay on stage direction, Bucharest, 1987)
Teaching Experience
* Head of directing at the Theatre Academy in Tg-Mures, Romania, 1990-1995
* Founder of the Theatre and Drama Faculty in Cluj, Romania, 1991 * Classes for actors at the State Theatre School in Freiburg, Germany, 1995-1999 * Theatre Academy, Barcelona and Institut del Teatre, Terrassa, Spain, 1999–2000 * Workshops for directors: International Workshop Festival, Manchester, UK 1993 * International Workshop Festival, Glasgow, UK 1994, International Workshop Festival, Belfast, UK 2000 * Festival de la Francophonie, Limoges, France 2003 Workshop on Shakespeare's Clowns, Palma de Mallorca, Spain 2003 * Brunel University, London, UK 2005 (directing MA programme) * Festival Iberoamericano de Teatro, Bogota, Columbia (2012)' * Workshop for young directors on Hamlet (National Theatre Company of Korea, Seoul, 2015)
Awards
UNITER (Romanian Theater Union)
- Nominated for Best Performance Award, 2011 (Leonce and Lena) - Nominated to the Best Performance Award, 2005 (Waiting for Godot) - Nominated to the Best Performance Award, 2003 (Jacques or the Obedience) - Award for Excellence – 2002 - Best Director of the Year in Romania (1984–ATM, 1987–ATM, 1993, 1997 and 2008) - Best Performance of the Year (1989, 1992, 2008)
Hevesi Sándor Prize - ITI (International Theatre Institute) Award (2011)
Ambassador of Hungarian Culture (Carnegie Hall, NY-2009)
Media Excellency Prize (2008)
International Festival of Short Plays(2013) - Best Directing
The Festival of the Romanian Comedy (2007) – Best Directing
Golden Apple Award (2007)
The Festival of the Romanian Dramaturgy (2004) – Best Directing
Szabadság Prize (2004)
Artist Meritorious of Hungary (2002)
The Distinction of the Romanian President (2000)
Critics' Award (ITI Romania, 1997)
“Interference”- Price of Romanian Culture Foundation (1997)
Best Performance of the Year in Yugoslavia (1990)
Best Foreign Performance of the Year in England (1993)
”I. L. Caragiale" National Theatre Festival – Best Directing (1992, 1996)
Hungarian National Theatre Festival (1996) – Best Director
International Theatre Festival - Chişinău (1994)
- Best Director - Best Performance
Theaterpreis, Stuttgart (1995)
EMKE-Prise (1992)
Kriterion-Prise (1997)
“Cuvîntul“- Prise, (1996)
Open Society Foundation Romania - Prize for Contemporary Arts theatre, 1998
Nomination for The Irish Times Award - 1999 for Waiting for Godot
Best First Feature Award, International Film Festival, Salerno, Italy, for Chinese Defence