Attila Nagy

Anyone picking up the book Kalandozás Shakespeare idő-univerzumában (Adventures in Shakespeare's Time and Universe), published in 2006 by Attila Nagy – Shakespeare researcher and university professor – will get an accurate picture of the author and his multi-faceted interests from the very first paragraph of the Preface. Dezső Mészöly, the best-known Hungarian Shakespeare translator, characterises him as follows: “Attila Nagy is an engineer, a teacher of cultural history sciences, but – as I hear – also an art company organiser, founder of a literary workshop, and theatre founder, who, for a long time, toured the regions, villages, and remote corners of Székelyföld (Szeklerland) with a team of amateur actors: areas where Hungarian-language drama might never have reached without their work. [...] Names like these come to mind when I see his multi-directional, passionate work: Farkas Bolyai, Balázs Orbán, Miklós Bánffy, Károly Kós... These are telling names! They tell us that their patria can only flourish if its guiding spirits find inspiration and creative joy in everything, from mathesis to dramaturgy, from astronomy to stove building, from novel writing to set design, all of which may benefit the former Fairy Garden.”

In the foreword to his first book, Ezerszer az évezred emberéről (A Thousand Times on the Man of the Millennium), published in 1999, his former Hungarian language teacher, Zoltán Berde, wrote of him: “Attila Nagy was captivated by BEAUTY as early as secondary school. This muse, at first unnameable, gradually took on an intellectual form. Its name: the SHAKESPEAREAN OEUVRE. It would take too long to recount all he has done so far, with so many activities of excellent quality and variety dedicated to this genius of world literature and his oeuvre, to ensure that the attention of the luminaries of the international Shakespeare cult is drawn to the Szekler town of Sfântu Gheorghe. The Shakespeare Kingdom House foundation he created already enjoys an outstanding reputation across Europe, especially since it has been accepted into that very exclusive and most prestigious international artistic community, the International Shakespeare Association.”

Career

Over the last twenty years, Attila Nagy gave lectures on Shakespeare's works and the history of the reception and naturalisation of the oeuvre in Hungary, Romania, and internationally, at several universities in Romania and Hungary (Sfântu Gheorghe, Bucharest, Cluj-Napoca, Târgu Mureș, the Károli Gáspár Református Egyetem (Károli Gáspár University of the Reformed Church) in Budapest, and the Eötvös Loránd Tudományegyetem (Eötvös Loránd University) in Budapest). In 2002, for example, he was invited to teach for one semester as a guest professor at the Faculty of Humanities of the Pázmány Péter Katolikus Egyetem (Pázmány Péter Catholic University) in Piliscsaba.

In 1992, he gave two lectures on the Transylvanian Shakespeare cult at the University of Birmingham. In 1993, he attended a two-week Shakespeare seminar in Cambridge, England, where he spoke on the rich history of Hungarian and Romanian translations of Shakespeare's plays. In the same year, he was elected an honorary member of the Deutsche Shakespeare Gesellschaft. In 1994, he gave another lecture in Birmingham, England, at a seminar titled Találkozásunk Shapespeare-rel (Our Encounter with Shakespeare). At the same time, he met personally with the great English Shakespeare scholar, writer, and editor Stanley Wells, and in that year he was elected a member of the Birmingham Community for Reconciliation, the artistic committee of the association promoting ethnic reconciliation.

In 1994, the Reuters News Agency made a documentary film about his activities and The Shakespeare Kingdom House foundation for Euro News TV, and he was invited to the Shakespeare at Greenwich Theatre international meeting in London, where he presented the plan and model for the Nemzetközi Nagy Shakespeare Garden (Great International Shakespeare Garden) he had designed.

Between 1970 and 1977, Attila Nagy directed 17 plays from Hungarian and world literature, in which he played various leading and supporting roles. In 1972, he made his first short film at Székely Mikó Kollégium (Székely Mikó High School), based on Gyula Juhász's poem Milyen volt szőkesége (What Was Her Blondness Like). This was followed in 1973 by another short film based on Ferenc Balázs's writing Az egyedüllét meséje (The Tale of Solitude), and a year later he adapted his own socially critical writing, Emlék (Memory), into a 12-minute short film.

His theatre productions and roles are also noteworthy: in 1977 he was the director and lead actor of W. Shakespeare's drama Romeo and Juliet, excerpts of which were shown on the Hungarian broadcast of the Romanian Television Channel 1 in Bucharest. (This is notable as 27 minutes were dedicated to these excerpts within the weekly one-hour Hungarian broadcast of the time). Between 1979 and 1982, he was the head of the Brassói Egyetemi Színpad (Brașov University Theatre), where he directed several plays. In 1980, he staged, among others, Shakespeare's comedy The Taming of the Shrew, in which he also played the role of Petruchio, and from which a half-hour teaser was again broadcast in the aforementioned programme slot.

In 1980, upon graduating from the acting department of the Sepsiszentgyörgyi Művészeti Iskola (School of Arts of Sfântu Gheorghe), he compiled a piece for his thesis titled Shakespeare-snittek (Scenes from Shakespeare), in which he also appeared as an actor: playing Romeo, Richard III, Petruchio, and Hamlet (Director: András Simon). As the head of the Brassói Egyetemi Színpad (Brașov University Theatre) and a directing graduate of the Sepsiszentgyörgyi Művészeti Iskola (School of Arts of Sfântu Gheorghe), he staged Shakespeare's drama A Midsummer Night's Dream as his diploma work (and also played the role of Theseus). In 1982, he established the Concordia Színjátszó Társulat (Concordia Theatre Company) in Sfântu Gheorghe, serving as its president until his resignation in 1994.

In 1984, as the director of the premiere of János Székely's drama Caligula helytartója (Caligula's Governor) – performed with secondary school teachers – he was questioned by representatives of the political authorities, threatened with firing, and the performance was banned. [1]

Five years later, at the National Theatre Festival in Mediaș, he was awarded 2nd prize for his direction of Theodor Mazilu's one-act play Az ismeretlen ember és a szerelem (The Unknown Man and Love). In 1991, he revived Caligula helytartója (Caligula's Governor), a production with which he successfully participated in several international festivals in Slovakia and Hungary.

In 1992, he organised the 1st International Concordia Festival at the Kovászna Megyei Alkotók Háza (House of Creators of Covasna County) – with the support of the Romanian and Hungarian ministries of culture – featuring companies from England, Hungary, Slovakia, Russia, and Romania. It was that year that he staged Ronald Harwood's drama The Dresser. He played the role of Norman in the play, winning the award for Best Male Actor at the festival. In 1993, at the Rétyi Nyír (Birch Forest of Reci) nature reserve near Sfântu Gheorghe – with the cooperation of directors Győző Dúró and Miklós Parászka – he staged one of Shakespeare's least-known works, Cymbeline.

In 1993, he participated in a two-week Shakespeare seminar at Cambridge. Here, he gave a lecture on the history of Hungarian and Romanian translations of Shakespeare's plays and on the plan for the Globe Theatre. On this occasion, he met actor-director Sam Wanamaker, the initiator of the construction of the new Globe Theatre in London and supervisor of the works.

In the same year, he organised the 1st International Shakespeare Conference in Romania in Sfântu Gheorghe, where he presented a plan for the unified abbreviation and notation of the titles of Shakespeare's works, proposing it for international adoption to Shakespeare researchers from nine countries. This unified form of title abbreviation was accepted and recommended to all Shakespeare researchers by the international expert committee of the 1996 Shakespeare Conference in Los Angeles.

In 1995, with the cooperation of the Magyar Shakespeare Bizottság (Hungarian Shakespeare Committee), he organised the 2nd, and then in the spring of 1997, the 3rd International Shakespeare Conference. At this time, he presented the plan for the expanded and finalised International Shakespeare Cultural Centre, which included the Great Shakespeare Memorial Garden and the improved, final plan of the Globe Theatre, prepared based on his own research. For his work, in 1997, he was awarded the István Szentgyörgyi Prize by the Erdélyi Magyar Közművelődési Egyesület (EMKE, Transylvanian Hungarian Public Culture Association) for his “activity in preserving Transylvanian theatre traditions and for the creation of the Shakespeare Centre.” [2]

In 1998, the International Shakespeare Association, based in Stratford-upon-Avon and numbering only 34 members worldwide at the time – with Sir John Gielgud as its president – admitted The Shakespeare Kingdom House foundation, established by him in Sfântu Gheorghe, as a full member. He owes his subsequent requests for lectures, radio and TV interviews, and invitations to domestic and international conferences to this international renown and recognition.

In 2000 – as the designer of the Great Shakespeare Garden plan, already recognised in professional circles –, he participated in the Salzburg Global Shakespeare Salon as the holder of Austrian Schloss Leopoldskron scholarship, where he presented his unique concept to experts. Between 2000 and 2005 – as a scholarship holder of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences Domus Hungarica Scientiarum et Artium Programme – he spent one month each year in Budapest, studying the history of Shakespeare's naturalisation in Hungary. Thanks to this, several books were created – initially in Hungarian –, of which two have been translated into English.

Attila Nagy established the Shakespeare foundation in 1992 under the name The Shakespeare Kingdom House, which functions primarily as a documentation centre, but also organises national and international Shakespeare meetings, as well as general knowledge competitions and quizzes. [3]

Also worth mentioning are Attila Nagy's lectures on film art and film history: from February 2010, he regularly gave film reviews on the local radio programme. In June 2010, he launched his lecture series on film technique, film theory, and film history titled Mozivarázs (Movie Magic), several years in the making, for those interested in film art. The lectures took place every two weeks in the new building of the Babeş-Bolyai Tudományegyetem (Babeș-Bolyai University) in Sfântu Gheorghe.

About his books

In his book Shakespeare, a reneszánsz irodalmi zsenije (Shakespeare, the Literary Genius of the Renaissance) (1980), Attila Nagy rediscovers the poet-genius day by day. He takes stock of the wonderful world of Shakespeare's works, their mysteries, and the intellectual-spiritual “shocks” experienced by the portrayed characters. Furthermore, the volume reports on the admiration for Shakespeare of great Hungarian poets and writers, the rich history of Hungarian translation, and the great and renowned enterprises of Arany, Petőfi, Vörösmarty, and others.

The two-volume work Shakespeare-dosszié (The Shakespeare Dossier) (Vol. I and II, 1984) contains notes on impressions that the Shakespearean oeuvre can induce in the reader. The turbulent English history of the era is established as background, but the book also includes various thematically grouped quotations, opinions on Shakespeare written by contemporaries, successors, artists, and literary scholars, as well as Hungarian translation variants, etc.

Ezerszer az évezred emberéről (A Thousand Times on the Man of the Millennium) (1999, 2nd edition 2002; published in English in 2001) – the volume groups twenty individual theoretical units into fifty themes, making a total of one thousand, while processing biographical information in a new form, as well as the results of literary history, dramaturgy, and theatre history research that have emerged over the centuries. Besides the processing of lexical data, subjective notes further enhance the original thoughts. We can learn what Shakespeare wrote, for example, about theatre, love, life, and death; or the issues of honour, law, or time. The book reports on the afterlife of the writer-prince's works and his influence on other branches of art.

Attila Nagy's volume published only in English, Under Shakespeare's Magic Mantle, provides detailed information on the 71 works that have been associated with Shakespeare's name in some form over the centuries. Across some 650 pages, it presents the source material, plot, original casting, and circumstances of the first performances and editions of all the works (37 dramas, 5 narrative poems, the sonnets, 16 apocrypha, and 10 satellite apocryphal dramas); it deals in detail with the Hungarian translation and performance history of each individual work.

Shakespeare vonzásában (In the Pull of Shakespeare) is an unconventional Shakespeare biography based on original documents, which deals with the question of authorship, provides a picture of contemporary acting and companies, and publishes the chronology of works considered authentic and apocryphal today, as well as different grouping variations of the canon. It lists the Hungarian translators of the oeuvre from 1785 to the present day. The second, expanded edition of the volume was published in 2009.

While in Shakespeare-kertek üzenete (The Message of Shakespeare Gardens) (2005) – to which Dezső Mészöly provided a recommendation in the foreword – Attila Nagy presents the purpose, organising principle, and symbolism of his garden designs mentioned above, the first part of the book Kalandozás Shakespeare idő-univerzumában (Adventures in Shakespeare's Time and Universe) (2006) discusses the parallel between biblical time and the Shakespearean concept of time, and the second part provides a detailed presentation of the concept, significance, and representation of Shakespearean time.

Art-related garden designs

1996 International Shakespeare Centre (ISC), plan and model

2002 Nagy Shakespeare Garden (NSG) (Great Shakespeare Garden), plan and model

2003 Shakespeare Nagy Magyar Kertje (HNSG) (Shakespeare's Great Hungarian Garden), plan and model

2005 Nobel-díjasok Nagy Kertje (NNG) (Great Garden of Nobel Laureates), plan and model

2006 Híres Drámaszerzők Nagy Kertje (NFDG) (Great Garden of Famous Dramatists), plan

2007 Székelyföldi Magyarok Nagy Emlékkertje (SZMNE) (Great Memorial Garden of Transylvanian Hungarians), plan

2008 Világirodalom Nagy Kertje (NULG) (Great Garden of World Literature), plan

2010 Bibliai Személyiségek Nagy Kertje (NBPG) (Great Garden of Biblical Personalities), plan

[2017]

[1] Poet Lajos Magyari writes: “Engineer-teacher Attila Nagy leads the Concordia team with immortal vocational dedication, great courage, and faith in the utility of their mission; a team which, in the darkest period of anti-culture and anti-nationality, undertook to present plays such as János Székely's work Caligula helytartója (Caligula's Governor)—as a kind of quiet rebellion against the dictatorship with the weapon of the theatre. [...] This play, which was presented in our country for the first time under his direction, was pruned three times in succession by the official censorship in 1984, only to be banned for good after the first public performance of the time.” (Háromszék daily newspaper, 2 March 1991)

[2] At the award ceremony in Cluj, Attila Nagy concluded his words of thanks with the following: “I thank you for reinforcing in me this belief: there is a future for the intellectual who is not the spokesman of the »uniformised«, ignorant, faceless masses. There is a future for the one who tries not to bow to the market-oriented financial world, who acts without the permission of the political elite and without considering party preferences, and who, even with his meagre talent, represents the interests of human communities formed by autonomous individuals, speaks up, dreams, hopes, and »plants trees«!”

[3] The initiative is also welcomed by István Nánay: “That there is a Shakespeare House in Romania is thanks to an obsessed Shakespeare believer. Engineer Attila Nagy became a Shakespeare researcher through a lifetime of work, and he tries to pass on his acquired knowledge and love for the playwright to others in a unique way. Single-handedly, he created a Shakespeare Centre, the scope of which covers not only Transylvania and Romania, but the whole of Central Europe” (Színház (Theatre), November 1993).