This year’s second general assembly of the Union of the Theatres of Europe proceeded in an unusual manner. The conference that was planned to take place in Athens was carried out online on October 18 because of the epidemiological restrictions. At the general assembly, the member theaters elected a president and also a board of directors. Gábor Tompa, the director of the Hungarian Theatre of Kolozsvár/Cluj, was elected by the representatives of the member theaters by a unanimous vote for a new mandate of two years. The new board of directors of the Union of the Theatres of Europe are the following: Amalia Kondoyanni (National Theatre of Northern Greece, Thessaloniki), Nuno Cardoso (Sao Joao Theatre, Porto, Portugal), Florian Hirsch (National Theatre of Luxembourg), Irina Tokareva (Stanislavsky Electrotheatre, Moscow, Russia) and Francisca Carneiro Fernandes (Porto, Portugal).
As president, Gábor Tompa would like to continue his work as the head of the Union that he began two years ago, putting into practice as efficiently as possible international cooperation programs and organizing on a regular basis summer universities, artistic exchange programs and workshops. He also considers it to be extremely important for the festival of the Union of the Theatres of Europe to take place, which was held in the Hungarian Theatre of Kolozsvár/Cluj-Napoca in 2019 after a break of 11 years.
The Union of the Theatres of Europe/Union des Théâtres de l’Europe has nearly 40 members. It was founded in 1990 by French Minister of Culture Jack Lang and Giorgio Strehler, director of the Piccolo Teatro in Milan. The organization establishes sustainable forms of international collaboration on groundbreaking projects that offer a critical reflection of society today. Among the past presidents of the theatrical organization are Gábor Zsámbéki, who led the UTE after Strehler’s death until 2004, as well as Alexandru Darie, the director of the Bulandra Theater in Bucharest, and Israeli director Ilan Ronen, former manager of the Habimah Theatre.
Ethnic Hungarian theatrical and film director Tompa (63), is credited with making the Kolozsvár Hungarian theater into a European artistic workshop, though his modern vision has also raised eyebrows among the more traditionalist viewers and art critics.
Related: Gábor Tompa on political correctness and hypocrisy
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