A Conversation with Hungarian Theatre Artists
A Conversation with Hungarian Theatre & Performance Artists:
Theatre From The Streets After Regime Change
When political realities shift, how do artists respond?
On June 8, 2026, New Perspectives Theatre Company’s Gilder-Coigney International Theatre Forum hosted an international panel bringing together artists from the second round of Theatre From The Streets to reflect on the years since the original project, the evolving landscape of Hungarian theatre, and the role of artists in times of political and social change.
Originally created during Viktor Orbán’s rule in Hungary, Theatre From The Streets documented urgent conversations around censorship, artistic resistance, nationalism, identity, and survival within the arts.
Following Hungary’s recent election cycle, this panel revisited those conversations with the artists who lived them. Together, participants explored what has changed, what has remained the same, and how developments in Hungary may resonate with artists and activists around the world.
Featured artists included Martin Boross, Márton Illés, Zsófi Rebeka Kozma, Veronika Szabó, Réka Szabó, and Mikolt Tózsa. The conversation was moderated by Anikó Szűcs.
Panelists reflected on where their artistic journeys have taken them since Theatre From The Streets Round Two, how their work has evolved within changing cultural and political realities, and whether moments of transformation in one country can inspire artistic and social change internationally.
Presented by NPTC’s Gilder-Coigney International Theatre Forum, whose mission is to connect theatremakers globally through conversation, collaboration, and activism, the event continued the Forum’s commitment to fostering cross-cultural exchange and artist-to-artist dialogue across borders.
This conversation was livestreamed through HowlRound and remains publicly archived and available for continued viewing.
The Artists
Martin Boross is an award-winning film and theatre director, currently pursuing his MFA in Film Directing at New York University's Tisch School of the Arts. Founder of STEREO AKT, a progressive theater collective established in 2013. He has directed 22 original theater productions including on-stage, site-specific, opera, documentary, and participatory works. His work has been presented in over 40 cities in 13 countries in Europe and the United States. Martin began filmmaking in 2017. He has since directed six short films and a feature-length documentary. His debut feature, Raw Material, received the Special Prize at the 44th Hungarian Film Festival and is currently streaming on HBO in Europe.
Marton Illes – dramaturge, playwright, sociologist, trainer. He was born in 1980 in Hungary. He graduated as sociologist, communication expert and television director. He has written over 12 theater plays and also directed performances. He focuses on contemporary social topics and the challenges of social inclusion. He works for Independent Theater Hungary over 15 years. This theater is an interethnic initiative of Roma and non-Roma theater artists and educational experts. He developed numerous international artistic and educational projects – including the Roma Heroes International Theater Festival – the first international encounters of Roma Theater artists in the European Union. Besides artistic work his main field is non-formal education empowering diverse groups of the society.
Zsófi Rebeka Kozma is a performance artist, theatermaker and organizer based in Budapest. She believes that theatre can serve as a space for highlighting social inequalities and igniting change. She uses the presence of the audience and performative actions to bring attention to exploitative working conditions, the withdrawal of the state and explores the role of the embedded artist. She collaborates with people from different backgrounds, including trade unions, social movements, social scientists, dancers, filmmakers, musicians, and other theatre makers.
Panni Néder is a Hungarian theatre director, writer, and performer, trained at the University of Theatre and Film in Budapest and at HfS Ernst Busch in Berlin. Her diploma project was performed for ten years at Budapest’s largest theatre. She is working as a freelance multidisciplinary artist developing documentary/ autobiographical performances that interweave text, physical theatre, video and music. Her Berlin debut piece, “When was the last time you had sex on top of a mountain?” has received multiple awards and continues to tour internationally. Panni’s artistic work spans stage productions, performative actions, installations, audio-visual works, community-based projects, and site-specific interventions. At its core is a desire to create spaces of radical honesty, intimacy and socio-political resonance—blending personal material with broader historical and communal narratives. Alongside her artistic work, she is often engaged in cultural and political discourse, taking an active stance when necessary. In 2017, she was the first to publicly expose systemic abuse of power in the Hungarian theatre scene.
Dr. Aniko Szucs is an Assistant Professor of Drama and Theatre Dramaturgy at Queens College, CUNY. She holds a Ph.D. in Performance Studies from New York University and an M.F.A. in Theatre Studies and Dramaturgy from the University of Theatre and Film Arts in Budapest. Her research centers on Central and Eastern European political theatre, feminist protest performance, and the genealogy and critique of state surveillance. She has published widely in peer-reviewed journals and edited collections on political art from the region. She is currently completing a book manuscript, tentatively titled Gestures of Radical Care: The Affect and Aesthetics of Political Resistance in Hungary, which focuses on performances of resistance and radical care in contemporary Hungary and Central-East Europe.
Réka Szabó’s work as a dancer, choreographer and director led to the foundation of her own contemporary performing arts company, The Symptoms in 2002. The Symptoms quickly became one of the most defining companies on the Hungarian performing arts scene, and it held that prominent position for over 20 years. In its prime Szabó’s company performed 70-90 times per year in Hungary and abroad, built a steady following, premiered 45 productions, and won numerous Hungarian and foreign awards. The Symptoms was invited to various festivals and venues in Europe.
Szabó’s works are thought-provoking, dramatic, as well as liberating, marked by a certain ease, an almost child-like sense of abandon, and presented with a healthy dose of irony and humor. Composed of actors and dancers, Szabó’s troupe relied on all its members as creative collaborators, each show building heavily on the distinctive personality and imagination of the performers. Szabó perfected blending physical and verbal expression seamlessly. The Symptoms refused to obey any boundaries between genres, treating text, movement, sound, music, visuals, and technology-intensive special effects as equal components of the whole.
Veronika Szabó is a freelance actor, director, clown and theatre lecturer. She graduated at the Royal Central School of Speech and Drama, London studying physical theatre and contemporary theatre practices. Before she studied Applied Theatre at Goldsmiths University. She was a member of the London Clown School and from 2019 she is member of the Red Nose International Clown Network. In her theatre performances (Warpaint (2015), A kisbaba (2016), The Timestealers(2016), Queendom (2017), Animal City (2018), Dino Coming Out (2018), Candle-Lit dinner (2020), Sirens (2022) ) she works around topics of gender identity and she likes breaking the 4th wall, creating playful, grotesque and visceral shows often inviting the audience to play. Her show, Queendom has won the Audience Award at Theatre Festival. Her works have been presented at theatres and festivals in the United Kingdom (Camden People’s Theatre, Roundhouse, BikeShed Theatre, The Space, Southbank Centre, ICC Speak), Germany (Let me in Festival, Collegium Hungaricum, Montag Modus festival, Off Europa) Hungary (Bankito Festival, Kolorado Festival, Sziget Festival, Artus, MU theatre, Trafo) Czecz Republic (Prague, Venuše ve švehlovce), Serbia (Desire Festival), Romania (Teszt), Kosovo (FemArt). She is a theatre lecturer on the Performance and Theatre course at FreeSZFE.
Mikolt Tózsa is a performer and theatre maker whose work explores the intersections of theatre, politics, and everyday life. A graduate of the Theatre and Performance Program of the Freeszfe Association, she creates participatory performances that invite audiences to engage as active contributors rather than passive spectators. Drawing on her background in social and theatre studies, her practice investigates collective dilemmas, gender roles, and the ways political realities shape personal experience. Committed to collaborative forms of creation, she is a co-founder of the National Performance Theatre Collective. Her solo performance God, Homeland, Kitchen has been presented at leading national and international festivals, including THEALTER (Szeged), TESZT (Timișoara), Dream Factory (Ostrava), HAU (Berlin), and Alone On Stage (Trenčín).