{"id":1095822,"date":"2024-06-22T18:53:54","date_gmt":"2024-06-22T22:53:54","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.bocskairadio.org\/?p=1095822"},"modified":"2024-06-22T19:01:23","modified_gmt":"2024-06-22T23:01:23","slug":"my-mission-is-to-pass-on-my-hungarian-identity-to-children-of-hungarian-origin-living-outside-hungary","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.bocskairadio.org\/en\/my-mission-is-to-pass-on-my-hungarian-identity-to-children-of-hungarian-origin-living-outside-hungary\/","title":{"rendered":"\u2018My mission is to pass on my Hungarian identity to children of Hungarian origin living outside Hungary\u2019"},"content":{"rendered":"

On 19 May, a musical version of Zsigmond M\u00f3ricz\u2019s novel\u00a0<\/em>Be Faithful Unto Death\u00a0was performed in the event hall of the Hungarian American Athletic Club (<\/em>HAAC<\/em><\/a>) of New Brunswick, NJ to celebrate the 50th anniversary of the Sz\u00e9chenyi Hungarian School and Kindergarten. The show, created over months of hard work and performed by students, teachers and parents, was a huge success. It was conceived and put on stage by Bernadett Csizmadia, who has been teaching at the school for ten years and has served as vice principal since 2023. \u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n

***<\/p>\n

Why did you become a teacher and how did you end up in the US?<\/strong><\/p>\n

Before life led me to teaching, I faced a few bumps along the way. I was interested in many things, mostly related to people and acting. I applied to a high school in Miskolc that offered a drama curriculum but didn\u2019t succeed. Then I wanted to be a reporter, but one of my high school teachers told me that I wouldn\u2019t succeed as one, because that implies too much elbowing, which was not part of my character. I also considered majoring in psychology, but I soon dismissed it. During my studies, I always had classmates whom I helped catch up. Thus, it was slowly becoming apparent what I was really made for: teaching. Since I loved literature and grammar, I decided to become a Hungarian language teacher. After graduating at the faculty of the College of Ny\u00edregyh\u00e1za, I came to the US because I always thought that living abroad was my only chance to earn money and learn a language, since I came from a poor family in Mez\u0151cs\u00e1t in Borsod-Aba\u00faj-Zempl\u00e9n County. I started in Lakewood, New Jersey, like so many other people: with cleaning. I\u2019ve never been afraid of physical work, but the harsh treatment was difficult to accept. While cleaning, I also started to babysit, which made it difficult for me to focus on my original chores, but it is due to the love I received from the children that helped me survive those years and so I didn\u2019t give up.<\/p>\n

How did you end up in the Hungarian school? What age group do you teach?<\/strong><\/p>\n

When I found out that there was a weekend Hungarian school in New Brunswick, I sent my CV to the principal at the time, Ildik\u00f3 B\u00e9zi, and soon after I started working as a teacher and I have been teaching here ever since. I\u2019ve worked with children of different ages, but in the end, it always turned out that the children closest to my heart were those aged 6\u201312. I\u2019m that mother hen type of teacher. I consider them not a class, but a family or a team in which everyone is equally important.<\/p>\n

The fact that we are Hungarians unites us, and whatever hardship we may suffer, we must never forget this.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

I\u2019m very grateful to the Sz\u00e9chenyi Hungarian School and to America for showing me what my real mission is. Before I left my homeland, I had no idea how important my Hungarian identity was to me. Over the years, I\u2019ve realized that nothing makes me as happy as holding the hands of these little souls and singing the Hungarian national anthem together. It\u2019s a miracle. Beyond teaching, my mission is to pass on my Hungarian identity to children of Hungarian origin living beyond Hungary\u2019s borders.<\/p>\n

\"\"
A school cookout where traditional Hungarian goulash soup was prepared. PHOTO: courtesy of Bernadett Csizmadia<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Let\u2019s move on to the\u00a0<\/strong>unique event with which you celebrated the\u00a0<\/strong>50th anniversary<\/strong><\/a>\u00a0on May 19.\u00a0<\/strong>How did you have the courage to volunteer for such a big project?<\/strong><\/p>\n

This was an old dream of mine and I thought there couldn\u2019t be a better time for it. The aim of the show is to awaken the slowly fading Hungarian identity of second and third generation Hungarian families, and to practice the Hungarian language in an experiential way in a foreign environment. This is not just a show; it represents the unity of our community, the cooperation of our past and present students, teachers and parents; and, most importantly, our identification as Hungarians in a foreign country. I started here ten years ago with no teaching experience\u00a0\u2013\u00a0<\/strong>which I am very happy about retrospectively, as I didn\u2019t have any fixed preconceptions tied to the Hungarian school system\u00a0\u2013<\/strong>, and worked with several classes, age groups, and tried various methods. I strongly believe in experiential and drama pedagogy, where students are part of their own learning process as active participants in acquiring knowledge. In today\u2019s dynamic and fast-paced world, certain abilities, skills, and competencies, such as effective communication, creativity, ability to collaborate, or critical thinking have become more valuable. At the same time, we shouldn\u2019t forget that Saturday is the sixth day of school for these children, which is not mandatory, so we must make them love the Hungarian school, the Hungarian language and culture. Education can become effective if it responds to these challenges, which is unimaginable with traditional methods.<\/p>\n

I\u2019m in my fourth year teaching my current class. I don\u2019t know if it\u2019s due to my method or the ability of the class, but I remember that during a drama class, while the children were solving the assigned task in groups, I was recording a video of them for the parents and suddenly realized that the kids were instructing themselves as if I had done it myself. From that point, they\u2019ve been happy to perform in any kind of school celebration. Maybe I was confident because I knew they could pull off even this huge show. Honestly, I had no idea whether I would be able to do it, and where the other characters would come from. My belief in children and my \u2018nothing is impossible\u2019 mentality have driven me forward. A few years ago, we performed the musical\u00a0The Jungle Book<\/em>\u00a0directed by Timea Zs\u00e9dely in cooperation with the J\u00f3kai Theatre from B\u00e9k\u00e9scsaba. We played it in an off-off Broadway theatre in Manhattan, New York; I played Ka, the serpent. To be able to perform, we first needed to raise money by touring with smaller shows. I didn\u2019t know what difficulties Timi had to face as a director, but I was part of a large-scale show and could learn from professional actors. It was a great experience and memory. With all these experiences behind me, I took the plunge\u2026<\/p>\n

Why did you choose\u00a0<\/strong>Zsigmond M\u00f3ricz\u2019s novel,\u00a0Be Faithful Unto Death<\/em>?<\/strong><\/p>\n

I was sure I didn\u2019t want a simple children\u2019s piece. I knew I wanted to send a strong message, make people think and convey values. I believe that when we are born, we are good and pure. Then, as the years go by, a series of disappointments come upon us, and life begins to harden us.<\/p>\n

As children, we learn from tales that good always triumphs and evil always gets its just punishment. Today, however, the opposite seems to be true.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Although Misi Nyilas\u2019s fate is not revealed at the end of the script, his truth is revealed, so good triumphs eventually! I also knew that this novel was not for children of my class. But based on the experience of the past few years, I was also aware that there is no text or reading material that children cannot understand or learn. I didn\u2019t throw the whole novel at them; instead, in the first weeks, we slowly got to know Misi Nyilas and his classmates through drama play. We imagined and acted out different characters and situations and shared our feelings and thoughts with each other. I also started using rarely used words and objects from the novel, writing them on paper and putting them in a box that I called\u00a0pakk*<\/em>\u00a0from then on. We could only dedicate an hour of school time to rehearsals as I didn\u2019t want to take more time away from regular teaching, but the play was present in the classroom all the time: songs from the musical were constantly played when they arrived in the morning and during the breaks. Thus, the children absorbed the \u2018feeling of being faithful unto death\u2019 without the slightest effort. When Friday and Sunday rehearsals started, the classroom buzzed with stories about shared moments, exciting events, and tales. I have always considered time spent together outside school important; it bring us closer together.<\/p>\n

\"\"
A scene from the play PHOTO: Sz\u00e9chenyi Hungarian School and Kindergarten<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

How did the casting procedure go?<\/strong><\/p>\n

Since we were preparing for the 50th anniversary of the school, I felt it was important to involve members of the local Hungarian community: past and present students, parents, and teachers. I thought it was a common cause. I also thought of it as a bit of a gift to Gyula Varga, who founded our school 50 years ago. I couldn\u2019t imagine anything better to celebrate! Young and old performing together in Hungarian the musical version of this timeless novel, which is about human attitudes, faith, and love. Since it\u2019s a musical, the casting wasn\u2019t easy, because besides acting, it was important for the actors to be able to sing. I didn\u2019t want to impose any role on anyone. I knew we had a big job ahead of us, and someone who only undertook it out of a sense of duty would not be able to put their heart and soul into it, and without that, it wouldn\u2019t work. There were a lot of changes across the whole process. I had to rewrite the script several times, cutting parts and adding new ones. Nevertheless, those who performed would never forget Misi Nyilas, Zsigmond M\u00f3ricz or his novel. Their Hungarian vocabulary has expanded, their acting skills have improved, and they have been enriched with a community experience that will stay with them for the rest of their lives. They owe this to their Hungarian identity and to their Hungarian weekend school.<\/p>\n

Wasn<\/strong>\u2019t there a regular, all-actor rehearsal process?<\/strong><\/p>\n

Not really. We had to rehearse in many small instalments, because I couldn\u2019t put together a proper reading rehearsal, even online, let alone in person. Some adults had difficulty with reading Hungarian. I couldn\u2019t ask the children to read the whole novel or even to watch the old black-and-white movie because they certainly wouldn\u2019t have wanted to be part of the show afterwards. For a very long time, the children didn\u2019t see the entire performance from start to finish, although they were aware of their own roles. The whole performance consisted of ten scenes, each very long and including choreography, vocals, and prose. I had to break up the scenes into parts, and once the parts were memorized, we rehearsed the whole scene together. I wanted to make the most of our time, knowing how tight everyone\u2019s schedule was, so I planned the rehearsals weekly, usually on Mondays, coordinated with everyone, and held the Saturday scene rehearsals depending on who was available that week. For Saturday mornings, I scheduled singing rehearsals for the adults, with the music director, whilst I rehearsed the scenes with the children, or learned choreography or sang with them, depending on our progress. After school, there were scene rehearsals later on, followed by all-day Sunday rehearsals, and sometimes we had to rehearse on Friday nights as well. Until mid-April, the show wasn\u2019t put together yet, so for a long time, the actors had no idea about the sequence of the scenes. I started every rehearsal by explaining where we were in the story and what everyone\u2019s role was. This required constant consultation and a very systematic approach.<\/p>\n

\"\"
A scene from the play PHOTO: Sz\u00e9chenyi Hungarian School and Kindergarten<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

It wouldn\u2019t have worked if the actors hadn\u2019t given their best, shown up as agreed and taken it seriously. So big kudos to the final cast for their dedication!<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Can you tell us a bit more about the actors?<\/strong><\/p>\n

J\u00f3zsef Petkes Sikl\u00f3di became Misi Nyilas not because he has a superb voice, but because he embodies Misi with his childlike innocence and purity. Choosing the main character required also a supportive parental background, because Misi is present in all ten long scenes, with many prose parts, lyrics and choreography. Her mom, T\u00fcnde Sikl\u00f3di, wholeheartedly supported this effort and gave up all other programs for the whole school year to be able to focus entirely on the show. Besides J\u00f3zsef, her two other children, Nicole and Adam, also acted. The music director was originally supposed to be Anna T\u00f3th, our former school principal, but at the very end of last year she suddenly moved back to Hungary with her whole family, i.e. five actors, so I asked Ildik\u00f3 Rozs to be the music director. She worked with the cast on the songs every Saturday in the Reformed Church for months and she also accepted to play Mrs. Doroghy\u2019s role. Edina Lotzin, who played Viola, brought her two youngest children to rehearsals, and her daughter Violetta was also inspired to join. Lehel Orb\u00e1n, playing J\u00e1nos T\u00f6r\u00f6k, loves to sing. Originally, I didn\u2019t intend this big a role for him; however, by March, I changed his minor role to that of J\u00e1nos T\u00f6r\u00f6k, and in three weeks, he learned all his songs and lyrics. For Teacher Valkay\u2019s role, I casted for a very long time and eventually found D\u00e1niel Jarisz Indri, a KCSP (K\u0151r\u00f6si Csoma Program<\/a>) scholar from New York. He had to commute from the City for rehearsals, which wasn\u2019t easy, but he could manage it.<\/p>\n

What about your role?<\/strong><\/p>\n

I wanted to perform from the beginning; that\u2019s why I started this project. Initially, I planned to have Viola\u2019s role, but Edina Lotzin was much better suited for that. I approached a lot of people for Bella\u2019s role, but teenage girls just weren\u2019t interested, so it remained mine. During the process, however, I realized how difficult it is to perform and direct at the same time. I couldn\u2019t fully immerse myself in my role because I had to oversee the scenes from an external viewpoint. This dual task was incredibly challenging and required a lot of concentration. It didn\u2019t get easier even after setting the scenes since we had to continuously adapt the rehearsal process. We could have full rehearsals on the Hungarian Club\u2019s stage only a few times and we could only start them just a week before showtime. Another challenge was that we had to dismantle and store the whole stage set after each rehearsal, because the main stage was needed for other club events. When we couldn\u2019t rehearse there, we used the nearby Scout Home. Our first major rehearsal was there, sometime in mid-April. Two weeks before showtime, we still didn\u2019t know the transitions between scenes, which also had to be carefully planned, but it was extremely difficult without a stage.<\/p>\n

\"\"
The cast of the play PHOTO: Sz\u00e9chenyi Hungarian School and Kindergarten<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Who helped you during this challenging process?<\/strong><\/p>\n

When I started, I knew I couldn\u2019t do it alone. The most important was the music director\u2019s role, and Ildik\u00f3 Rozs gladly accepted the challenge and worked with the cast on the songs for months. The original set design team started with four people, but in the end only L\u00edvia Schachinger remained, whose two younger children also played. Zsolt Hodossy, the father of one of the children actors, built and managed the woodwork. L\u00e9na Elmes joined them on the day of staging the show. Another crucial help was that of the sound technician. Attila Szab\u00f3 immediately said yes when I approached him about it and assured me he would help with everything. From the moment we started rehearsing with microphones, he was present at every rehearsal, even though he has no connection to the school; he\u2019s a member of the Club. Sometimes, he had to be there at six in the morning so we could start the rehearsal with full sound technology at eight. During the last week before showtime, KCSP scholars\u00a0Lili Balogh and Istv\u00e1n D\u00e1niel Moln\u00e1r<\/a>\u00a0joined Attila as helpers with the technology.<\/p>\n

I already mentioned Edina Lotzin, who was my right hand overall. Initially, she didn\u2019t want to act. She is a working mother of four who also teaches at the school on Saturdays and sings in church on Sundays. But eventually, she joined. She also compiled the program booklet and provided the English translation, with Ildik\u00f3 B\u00e9zi\u2019s help. Since there would have been no performance without a venue, I must thank the leaders of the\u00a0Scout H<\/a>ouse, Reformed Church pastor Zsolt \u00d6tv\u00f6s, Catholic priest Father Imre,\u00a0Denisa Bott-Varga and Istv\u00e1n Varga<\/a>\u00a0from the Club for providing us with a place to rehearse and play. I am immensely grateful to all the parents and grandmothers who supported us, bringing the children to the rehearsals and feeding us along the way. On the day of the show, parents made and sold cakes and sandwiches to support the school in addition to the sale of tickets.<\/p>\n

In summary, it was the dedication of everyone involved as well as of of the whole Hungarian community that made this performance possible,<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

despite all the challenges.<\/p>\n

After the show, people contacted you asking to take the show on the road\u2026<\/strong><\/p>\n

In fact, I was contacted even before by the Liszt Institute and the Hungarian Consulate General in New York. Since I had never directed a play of this size before, and because of the challenges, I couldn\u2019t eat or sleep in the last few weeks before the show. When they approached me, I asked them to come to see it and if they still liked it, we would be happy to perform it again as we put so much work into it. I said this also because at the outset we were not taken seriously by the Hungarian community in New Brunswick. This made me even more determined to prove them wrong. After the performance, Consul Nikolett Sz\u00e1ntovszki and Program Manager No\u00e9mi Sallai wanted us to perform in New York in June. However, we have Memorial Day weekend at the end of May, followed by the Hungarian Festival on the 1st of June, and then the end of the season comes. I even asked the parents, but in the end, I concluded: we were too tired for this. It would have been rushed, and I didn\u2019t want to compromise on quality. So, I replied that from September on we will happily perform anywhere, we only need a month of rehearsals. Since then, Prof. Judit Kerekes has also approached me and asked me to stage the show at the annual meeting of Hungarian American Schools (AMIT) on the first weekend of October. I said yes, and they have already advertised it. The rest is still on the drawing board, but we are happy to take the show to any other Hungarian community in North America.<\/p>\n

\n

*Pakk<\/em>\u00a0is a loan word from German, meaning package, used much less now than in Zsigmond M\u00f3ricz\u2019s time. In the M\u00f3ricz novel, when students received a package from home, it is referred to as a\u00a0pakk<\/em>.<\/p>\n

Source: hungarianconservative.com<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

On 19 May, a musical version of Zsigmond M\u00f3ricz\u2019s novel\u00a0<\/em>Be Faithful Unto Death\u00a0was performed in the event hall of the Hungarian American Athletic Club (<\/em>HAAC<\/em><\/a>) of New Brunswick, NJ to celebrate the 50th anniversary of the Sz\u00e9chenyi Hungarian School and Kindergarten. The show, created over months of hard work and performed by students, teachers and parents, was a huge success. It was conceived and put on stage by Bernadett Csizmadia, who has been teaching at the school for ten years and has served as vice principal since 2023. \u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n

***<\/p>\n

Why did you become a teacher and how did you end up in the US?<\/strong><\/p>\n

Before life led me to teaching, I faced a few bumps along the way. I was interested in many things, mostly related to people and acting. I applied to a high school in Miskolc that offered a drama curriculum but didn\u2019t succeed. Then I wanted to be a reporter, but one of my high school teachers told me that I wouldn\u2019t succeed as one, because that implies too much elbowing, which was not part of my character. I also considered majoring in psychology, but I soon dismissed it. During my studies, I always had classmates whom I helped catch up. Thus, it was slowly becoming apparent what I was really made for: teaching. Since I loved literature and grammar, I decided to become a Hungarian language teacher. After graduating at the faculty of the College of Ny\u00edregyh\u00e1za, I came to the US because I always thought that living abroad was my only chance to earn money and learn a language, since I came from a poor family in Mez\u0151cs\u00e1t in Borsod-Aba\u00faj-Zempl\u00e9n County. I started in Lakewood, New Jersey, like so many other people: with cleaning. I\u2019ve never been afraid of physical work, but the harsh treatment was difficult to accept. While cleaning, I also started to babysit, which made it difficult for me to focus on my original chores, but it is due to the love I received from the children that helped me survive those years and so I didn\u2019t give up.<\/p>\n

How did you end up in the Hungarian school? What age group do you teach?<\/strong><\/p>\n

When I found out that there was a weekend Hungarian school in New Brunswick, I sent my CV to the principal at the time, Ildik\u00f3 B\u00e9zi, and soon after I started working as a teacher and I have been teaching here ever since. I\u2019ve worked with children of different ages, but in the end, it always turned out that the children closest to my heart were those aged 6\u201312. I\u2019m that mother hen type of teacher. I consider them not a class, but a family or a team in which everyone is equally important.<\/p>\n

The fact that we are Hungarians unites us, and whatever hardship we may suffer, we must never forget this.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

I\u2019m very grateful to the Sz\u00e9chenyi Hungarian School and to America for showing me what my real mission is. Before I left my homeland, I had no idea how important my Hungarian identity was to me. Over the years, I\u2019ve realized that nothing makes me as happy as holding the hands of these little souls and singing the Hungarian national anthem together. It\u2019s a miracle. Beyond teaching, my mission is to pass on my Hungarian identity to children of Hungarian origin living beyond Hungary\u2019s borders.<\/p>\n

\"\"
A school cookout where traditional Hungarian goulash soup was prepared. PHOTO: courtesy of Bernadett Csizmadia<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Let\u2019s move on to the\u00a0<\/strong>unique event with which you celebrated the\u00a0<\/strong>50th anniversary<\/strong><\/a>\u00a0on May 19.\u00a0<\/strong>How did you have the courage to volunteer for such a big project?<\/strong><\/p>\n

This was an old dream of mine and I thought there couldn\u2019t be a better time for it. The aim of the show is to awaken the slowly fading Hungarian identity of second and third generation Hungarian families, and to practice the Hungarian language in an experiential way in a foreign environment. This is not just a show; it represents the unity of our community, the cooperation of our past and present students, teachers and parents; and, most importantly, our identification as Hungarians in a foreign country. I started here ten years ago with no teaching experience\u00a0\u2013\u00a0<\/strong>which I am very happy about retrospectively, as I didn\u2019t have any fixed preconceptions tied to the Hungarian school system\u00a0\u2013<\/strong>, and worked with several classes, age groups, and tried various methods. I strongly believe in experiential and drama pedagogy, where students are part of their own learning process as active participants in acquiring knowledge. In today\u2019s dynamic and fast-paced world, certain abilities, skills, and competencies, such as effective communication, creativity, ability to collaborate, or critical thinking have become more valuable. At the same time, we shouldn\u2019t forget that Saturday is the sixth day of school for these children, which is not mandatory, so we must make them love the Hungarian school, the Hungarian language and culture. Education can become effective if it responds to these challenges, which is unimaginable with traditional methods.<\/p>\n

I\u2019m in my fourth year teaching my current class. I don\u2019t know if it\u2019s due to my method or the ability of the class, but I remember that during a drama class, while the children were solving the assigned task in groups, I was recording a video of them for the parents and suddenly realized that the kids were instructing themselves as if I had done it myself. From that point, they\u2019ve been happy to perform in any kind of school celebration. Maybe I was confident because I knew they could pull off even this huge show. Honestly, I had no idea whether I would be able to do it, and where the other characters would come from. My belief in children and my \u2018nothing is impossible\u2019 mentality have driven me forward. A few years ago, we performed the musical\u00a0The Jungle Book<\/em>\u00a0directed by Timea Zs\u00e9dely in cooperation with the J\u00f3kai Theatre from B\u00e9k\u00e9scsaba. We played it in an off-off Broadway theatre in Manhattan, New York; I played Ka, the serpent. To be able to perform, we first needed to raise money by touring with smaller shows. I didn\u2019t know what difficulties Timi had to face as a director, but I was part of a large-scale show and could learn from professional actors. It was a great experience and memory. With all these experiences behind me, I took the plunge\u2026<\/p>\n

Why did you choose\u00a0<\/strong>Zsigmond M\u00f3ricz\u2019s novel,\u00a0Be Faithful Unto Death<\/em>?<\/strong><\/p>\n

I was sure I didn\u2019t want a simple children\u2019s piece. I knew I wanted to send a strong message, make people think and convey values. I believe that when we are born, we are good and pure. Then, as the years go by, a series of disappointments come upon us, and life begins to harden us.<\/p>\n

As children, we learn from tales that good always triumphs and evil always gets its just punishment. Today, however, the opposite seems to be true.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Although Misi Nyilas\u2019s fate is not revealed at the end of the script, his truth is revealed, so good triumphs eventually! I also knew that this novel was not for children of my class. But based on the experience of the past few years, I was also aware that there is no text or reading material that children cannot understand or learn. I didn\u2019t throw the whole novel at them; instead, in the first weeks, we slowly got to know Misi Nyilas and his classmates through drama play. We imagined and acted out different characters and situations and shared our feelings and thoughts with each other. I also started using rarely used words and objects from the novel, writing them on paper and putting them in a box that I called\u00a0pakk*<\/em>\u00a0from then on. We could only dedicate an hour of school time to rehearsals as I didn\u2019t want to take more time away from regular teaching, but the play was present in the classroom all the time: songs from the musical were constantly played when they arrived in the morning and during the breaks. Thus, the children absorbed the \u2018feeling of being faithful unto death\u2019 without the slightest effort. When Friday and Sunday rehearsals started, the classroom buzzed with stories about shared moments, exciting events, and tales. I have always considered time spent together outside school important; it bring us closer together.<\/p>\n

\"\"
A scene from the play PHOTO: Sz\u00e9chenyi Hungarian School and Kindergarten<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

How did the casting procedure go?<\/strong><\/p>\n

Since we were preparing for the 50th anniversary of the school, I felt it was important to involve members of the local Hungarian community: past and present students, parents, and teachers. I thought it was a common cause. I also thought of it as a bit of a gift to Gyula Varga, who founded our school 50 years ago. I couldn\u2019t imagine anything better to celebrate! Young and old performing together in Hungarian the musical version of this timeless novel, which is about human attitudes, faith, and love. Since it\u2019s a musical, the casting wasn\u2019t easy, because besides acting, it was important for the actors to be able to sing. I didn\u2019t want to impose any role on anyone. I knew we had a big job ahead of us, and someone who only undertook it out of a sense of duty would not be able to put their heart and soul into it, and without that, it wouldn\u2019t work. There were a lot of changes across the whole process. I had to rewrite the script several times, cutting parts and adding new ones. Nevertheless, those who performed would never forget Misi Nyilas, Zsigmond M\u00f3ricz or his novel. Their Hungarian vocabulary has expanded, their acting skills have improved, and they have been enriched with a community experience that will stay with them for the rest of their lives. They owe this to their Hungarian identity and to their Hungarian weekend school.<\/p>\n

Wasn<\/strong>\u2019t there a regular, all-actor rehearsal process?<\/strong><\/p>\n

Not really. We had to rehearse in many small instalments, because I couldn\u2019t put together a proper reading rehearsal, even online, let alone in person. Some adults had difficulty with reading Hungarian. I couldn\u2019t ask the children to read the whole novel or even to watch the old black-and-white movie because they certainly wouldn\u2019t have wanted to be part of the show afterwards. For a very long time, the children didn\u2019t see the entire performance from start to finish, although they were aware of their own roles. The whole performance consisted of ten scenes, each very long and including choreography, vocals, and prose. I had to break up the scenes into parts, and once the parts were memorized, we rehearsed the whole scene together. I wanted to make the most of our time, knowing how tight everyone\u2019s schedule was, so I planned the rehearsals weekly, usually on Mondays, coordinated with everyone, and held the Saturday scene rehearsals depending on who was available that week. For Saturday mornings, I scheduled singing rehearsals for the adults, with the music director, whilst I rehearsed the scenes with the children, or learned choreography or sang with them, depending on our progress. After school, there were scene rehearsals later on, followed by all-day Sunday rehearsals, and sometimes we had to rehearse on Friday nights as well. Until mid-April, the show wasn\u2019t put together yet, so for a long time, the actors had no idea about the sequence of the scenes. I started every rehearsal by explaining where we were in the story and what everyone\u2019s role was. This required constant consultation and a very systematic approach.<\/p>\n

\"\"
A scene from the play PHOTO: Sz\u00e9chenyi Hungarian School and Kindergarten<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

It wouldn\u2019t have worked if the actors hadn\u2019t given their best, shown up as agreed and taken it seriously. So big kudos to the final cast for their dedication!<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Can you tell us a bit more about the actors?<\/strong><\/p>\n

J\u00f3zsef Petkes Sikl\u00f3di became Misi Nyilas not because he has a superb voice, but because he embodies Misi with his childlike innocence and purity. Choosing the main character required also a supportive parental background, because Misi is present in all ten long scenes, with many prose parts, lyrics and choreography. Her mom, T\u00fcnde Sikl\u00f3di, wholeheartedly supported this effort and gave up all other programs for the whole school year to be able to focus entirely on the show. Besides J\u00f3zsef, her two other children, Nicole and Adam, also acted. The music director was originally supposed to be Anna T\u00f3th, our former school principal, but at the very end of last year she suddenly moved back to Hungary with her whole family, i.e. five actors, so I asked Ildik\u00f3 Rozs to be the music director. She worked with the cast on the songs every Saturday in the Reformed Church for months and she also accepted to play Mrs. Doroghy\u2019s role. Edina Lotzin, who played Viola, brought her two youngest children to rehearsals, and her daughter Violetta was also inspired to join. Lehel Orb\u00e1n, playing J\u00e1nos T\u00f6r\u00f6k, loves to sing. Originally, I didn\u2019t intend this big a role for him; however, by March, I changed his minor role to that of J\u00e1nos T\u00f6r\u00f6k, and in three weeks, he learned all his songs and lyrics. For Teacher Valkay\u2019s role, I casted for a very long time and eventually found D\u00e1niel Jarisz Indri, a KCSP (K\u0151r\u00f6si Csoma Program<\/a>) scholar from New York. He had to commute from the City for rehearsals, which wasn\u2019t easy, but he could manage it.<\/p>\n

What about your role?<\/strong><\/p>\n

I wanted to perform from the beginning; that\u2019s why I started this project. Initially, I planned to have Viola\u2019s role, but Edina Lotzin was much better suited for that. I approached a lot of people for Bella\u2019s role, but teenage girls just weren\u2019t interested, so it remained mine. During the process, however, I realized how difficult it is to perform and direct at the same time. I couldn\u2019t fully immerse myself in my role because I had to oversee the scenes from an external viewpoint. This dual task was incredibly challenging and required a lot of concentration. It didn\u2019t get easier even after setting the scenes since we had to continuously adapt the rehearsal process. We could have full rehearsals on the Hungarian Club\u2019s stage only a few times and we could only start them just a week before showtime. Another challenge was that we had to dismantle and store the whole stage set after each rehearsal, because the main stage was needed for other club events. When we couldn\u2019t rehearse there, we used the nearby Scout Home. Our first major rehearsal was there, sometime in mid-April. Two weeks before showtime, we still didn\u2019t know the transitions between scenes, which also had to be carefully planned, but it was extremely difficult without a stage.<\/p>\n

\"\"
The cast of the play PHOTO: Sz\u00e9chenyi Hungarian School and Kindergarten<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Who helped you during this challenging process?<\/strong><\/p>\n

When I started, I knew I couldn\u2019t do it alone. The most important was the music director\u2019s role, and Ildik\u00f3 Rozs gladly accepted the challenge and worked with the cast on the songs for months. The original set design team started with four people, but in the end only L\u00edvia Schachinger remained, whose two younger children also played. Zsolt Hodossy, the father of one of the children actors, built and managed the woodwork. L\u00e9na Elmes joined them on the day of staging the show. Another crucial help was that of the sound technician. Attila Szab\u00f3 immediately said yes when I approached him about it and assured me he would help with everything. From the moment we started rehearsing with microphones, he was present at every rehearsal, even though he has no connection to the school; he\u2019s a member of the Club. Sometimes, he had to be there at six in the morning so we could start the rehearsal with full sound technology at eight. During the last week before showtime, KCSP scholars\u00a0Lili Balogh and Istv\u00e1n D\u00e1niel Moln\u00e1r<\/a>\u00a0joined Attila as helpers with the technology.<\/p>\n

I already mentioned Edina Lotzin, who was my right hand overall. Initially, she didn\u2019t want to act. She is a working mother of four who also teaches at the school on Saturdays and sings in church on Sundays. But eventually, she joined. She also compiled the program booklet and provided the English translation, with Ildik\u00f3 B\u00e9zi\u2019s help. Since there would have been no performance without a venue, I must thank the leaders of the\u00a0Scout H<\/a>ouse, Reformed Church pastor Zsolt \u00d6tv\u00f6s, Catholic priest Father Imre,\u00a0Denisa Bott-Varga and Istv\u00e1n Varga<\/a>\u00a0from the Club for providing us with a place to rehearse and play. I am immensely grateful to all the parents and grandmothers who supported us, bringing the children to the rehearsals and feeding us along the way. On the day of the show, parents made and sold cakes and sandwiches to support the school in addition to the sale of tickets.<\/p>\n

In summary, it was the dedication of everyone involved as well as of of the whole Hungarian community that made this performance possible,<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

despite all the challenges.<\/p>\n

After the show, people contacted you asking to take the show on the road\u2026<\/strong><\/p>\n

In fact, I was contacted even before by the Liszt Institute and the Hungarian Consulate General in New York. Since I had never directed a play of this size before, and because of the challenges, I couldn\u2019t eat or sleep in the last few weeks before the show. When they approached me, I asked them to come to see it and if they still liked it, we would be happy to perform it again as we put so much work into it. I said this also because at the outset we were not taken seriously by the Hungarian community in New Brunswick. This made me even more determined to prove them wrong. After the performance, Consul Nikolett Sz\u00e1ntovszki and Program Manager No\u00e9mi Sallai wanted us to perform in New York in June. However, we have Memorial Day weekend at the end of May, followed by the Hungarian Festival on the 1st of June, and then the end of the season comes. I even asked the parents, but in the end, I concluded: we were too tired for this. It would have been rushed, and I didn\u2019t want to compromise on quality. So, I replied that from September on we will happily perform anywhere, we only need a month of rehearsals. Since then, Prof. Judit Kerekes has also approached me and asked me to stage the show at the annual meeting of Hungarian American Schools (AMIT) on the first weekend of October. I said yes, and they have already advertised it. The rest is still on the drawing board, but we are happy to take the show to any other Hungarian community in North America.<\/p>\n

\n

*Pakk<\/em>\u00a0is a loan word from German, meaning package, used much less now than in Zsigmond M\u00f3ricz\u2019s time. In the M\u00f3ricz novel, when students received a package from home, it is referred to as a\u00a0pakk<\/em>.<\/p>\n

Source: hungarianconservative.com<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":43,"featured_media":1095810,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[196],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1095822","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-local-events-and-news"],"yoast_head":"\n\u2018My mission is to pass on my Hungarian identity to children of Hungarian origin living outside Hungary\u2019 – Bocskai R\u00e1di\u00f3<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.bocskairadio.org\/en\/my-mission-is-to-pass-on-my-hungarian-identity-to-children-of-hungarian-origin-living-outside-hungary\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"\u2018My mission is to pass on my Hungarian identity to children of Hungarian origin living outside Hungary\u2019 – Bocskai R\u00e1di\u00f3\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"On 19 May, a musical version of Zsigmond M\u00f3ricz\u2019s novel\u00a0Be Faithful Unto Death\u00a0was performed in the event hall of the Hungarian American Athletic Club (HAAC) of New Brunswick, NJ to celebrate the 50th anniversary of the Sz\u00e9chenyi Hungarian School and Kindergarten. The show, created over months of hard work and performed by students, teachers and parents, was a huge success. It was conceived and put on stage by Bernadett Csizmadia, who has been teaching at the school for ten years and has served as vice principal since 2023. \u00a0 *** Why did you become a teacher and how did you end up in the US? Before life led me to teaching, I faced a few bumps along the way. I was interested in many things, mostly related to people and acting. I applied to a high school in Miskolc that offered a drama curriculum but didn\u2019t succeed. Then I wanted to be a reporter, but one of my high school teachers told me that I wouldn\u2019t succeed as one, because that implies too much elbowing, which was not part of my character. I also considered majoring in psychology, but I soon dismissed it. During my studies, I always had classmates whom I helped catch up. Thus, it was slowly becoming apparent what I was really made for: teaching. Since I loved literature and grammar, I decided to become a Hungarian language teacher. After graduating at the faculty of the College of Ny\u00edregyh\u00e1za, I came to the US because I always thought that living abroad was my only chance to earn money and learn a language, since I came from a poor family in Mez\u0151cs\u00e1t in Borsod-Aba\u00faj-Zempl\u00e9n County. I started in Lakewood, New Jersey, like so many other people: with cleaning. I\u2019ve never been afraid of physical work, but the harsh treatment was difficult to accept. While cleaning, I also started to babysit, which made it difficult for me to focus on my original chores, but it is due to the love I received from the children that helped me survive those years and so I didn\u2019t give up. How did you end up in the Hungarian school? What age group do you teach? When I found out that there was a weekend Hungarian school in New Brunswick, I sent my CV to the principal at the time, Ildik\u00f3 B\u00e9zi, and soon after I started working as a teacher and I have been teaching here ever since. I\u2019ve worked with children of different ages, but in the end, it always turned out that the children closest to my heart were those aged 6\u201312. I\u2019m that mother hen type of teacher. I consider them not a class, but a family or a team in which everyone is equally important. The fact that we are Hungarians unites us, and whatever hardship we may suffer, we must never forget this. I\u2019m very grateful to the Sz\u00e9chenyi Hungarian School and to America for showing me what my real mission is. Before I left my homeland, I had no idea how important my Hungarian identity was to me. Over the years, I\u2019ve realized that nothing makes me as happy as holding the hands of these little souls and singing the Hungarian national anthem together. It\u2019s a miracle. Beyond teaching, my mission is to pass on my Hungarian identity to children of Hungarian origin living beyond Hungary\u2019s borders. A school cookout where traditional Hungarian goulash soup was prepared. PHOTO: courtesy of Bernadett Csizmadia Let\u2019s move on to the\u00a0unique event with which you celebrated the\u00a050th anniversary\u00a0on May 19.\u00a0How did you have the courage to volunteer for such a big project? This was an old dream of mine and I thought there couldn\u2019t be a better time for it. The aim of the show is to awaken the slowly fading Hungarian identity of second and third generation Hungarian families, and to practice the Hungarian language in an experiential way in a foreign environment. This is not just a show; it represents the unity of our community, the cooperation of our past and present students, teachers and parents; and, most importantly, our identification as Hungarians in a foreign country. I started here ten years ago with no teaching experience\u00a0\u2013\u00a0which I am very happy about retrospectively, as I didn\u2019t have any fixed preconceptions tied to the Hungarian school system\u00a0\u2013, and worked with several classes, age groups, and tried various methods. I strongly believe in experiential and drama pedagogy, where students are part of their own learning process as active participants in acquiring knowledge. In today\u2019s dynamic and fast-paced world, certain abilities, skills, and competencies, such as effective communication, creativity, ability to collaborate, or critical thinking have become more valuable. At the same time, we shouldn\u2019t forget that Saturday is the sixth day of school for these children, which is not mandatory, so we must make them love the Hungarian school, the Hungarian language and culture. Education can become effective if it responds to these challenges, which is unimaginable with traditional methods. I\u2019m in my fourth year teaching my current class. I don\u2019t know if it\u2019s due to my method or the ability of the class, but I remember that during a drama class, while the children were solving the assigned task in groups, I was recording a video of them for the parents and suddenly realized that the kids were instructing themselves as if I had done it myself. From that point, they\u2019ve been happy to perform in any kind of school celebration. Maybe I was confident because I knew they could pull off even this huge show. Honestly, I had no idea whether I would be able to do it, and where the other characters would come from. My belief in children and my \u2018nothing is impossible\u2019 mentality have driven me forward. A few years ago, we performed the musical\u00a0The Jungle Book\u00a0directed by Timea Zs\u00e9dely in cooperation with the J\u00f3kai Theatre from B\u00e9k\u00e9scsaba. We played it in an off-off Broadway theatre in Manhattan, New York; I played Ka, the serpent. To be able to perform, we first needed to raise money by touring with smaller shows. I didn\u2019t know what difficulties Timi had to face as a director, but I was part of a large-scale show and could learn from professional actors. It was a great experience and memory. With all these experiences behind me, I took the plunge\u2026 Why did you choose\u00a0Zsigmond M\u00f3ricz\u2019s novel,\u00a0Be Faithful Unto Death? I was sure I didn\u2019t want a simple children\u2019s piece. I knew I wanted to send a strong message, make people think and convey values. I believe that when we are born, we are good and pure. Then, as the years go by, a series of disappointments come upon us, and life begins to harden us. As children, we learn from tales that good always triumphs and evil always gets its just punishment. Today, however, the opposite seems to be true. Although Misi Nyilas\u2019s fate is not revealed at the end of the script, his truth is revealed, so good triumphs eventually! I also knew that this novel was not for children of my class. But based on the experience of the past few years, I was also aware that there is no text or reading material that children cannot understand or learn. I didn\u2019t throw the whole novel at them; instead, in the first weeks, we slowly got to know Misi Nyilas and his classmates through drama play. We imagined and acted out different characters and situations and shared our feelings and thoughts with each other. I also started using rarely used words and objects from the novel, writing them on paper and putting them in a box that I called\u00a0pakk*\u00a0from then on. We could only dedicate an hour of school time to rehearsals as I didn\u2019t want to take more time away from regular teaching, but the play was present in the classroom all the time: songs from the musical were constantly played when they arrived in the morning and during the breaks. Thus, the children absorbed the \u2018feeling of being faithful unto death\u2019 without the slightest effort. When Friday and Sunday rehearsals started, the classroom buzzed with stories about shared moments, exciting events, and tales. I have always considered time spent together outside school important; it bring us closer together. A scene from the play PHOTO: Sz\u00e9chenyi Hungarian School and Kindergarten How did the casting procedure go? Since we were preparing for the 50th anniversary of the school, I felt it was important to involve members of the local Hungarian community: past and present students, parents, and teachers. I thought it was a common cause. I also thought of it as a bit of a gift to Gyula Varga, who founded our school 50 years ago. I couldn\u2019t imagine anything better to celebrate! Young and old performing together in Hungarian the musical version of this timeless novel, which is about human attitudes, faith, and love. Since it\u2019s a musical, the casting wasn\u2019t easy, because besides acting, it was important for the actors to be able to sing. I didn\u2019t want to impose any role on anyone. I knew we had a big job ahead of us, and someone who only undertook it out of a sense of duty would not be able to put their heart and soul into it, and without that, it wouldn\u2019t work. There were a lot of changes across the whole process. I had to rewrite the script several times, cutting parts and adding new ones. Nevertheless, those who performed would never forget Misi Nyilas, Zsigmond M\u00f3ricz or his novel. Their Hungarian vocabulary has expanded, their acting skills have improved, and they have been enriched with a community experience that will stay with them for the rest of their lives. They owe this to their Hungarian identity and to their Hungarian weekend school. Wasn\u2019t there a regular, all-actor rehearsal process? Not really. We had to rehearse in many small instalments, because I couldn\u2019t put together a proper reading rehearsal, even online, let alone in person. Some adults had difficulty with reading Hungarian. I couldn\u2019t ask the children to read the whole novel or even to watch the old black-and-white movie because they certainly wouldn\u2019t have wanted to be part of the show afterwards. For a very long time, the children didn\u2019t see the entire performance from start to finish, although they were aware of their own roles. The whole performance consisted of ten scenes, each very long and including choreography, vocals, and prose. I had to break up the scenes into parts, and once the parts were memorized, we rehearsed the whole scene together. I wanted to make the most of our time, knowing how tight everyone\u2019s schedule was, so I planned the rehearsals weekly, usually on Mondays, coordinated with everyone, and held the Saturday scene rehearsals depending on who was available that week. For Saturday mornings, I scheduled singing rehearsals for the adults, with the music director, whilst I rehearsed the scenes with the children, or learned choreography or sang with them, depending on our progress. After school, there were scene rehearsals later on, followed by all-day Sunday rehearsals, and sometimes we had to rehearse on Friday nights as well. Until mid-April, the show wasn\u2019t put together yet, so for a long time, the actors had no idea about the sequence of the scenes. I started every rehearsal by explaining where we were in the story and what everyone\u2019s role was. This required constant consultation and a very systematic approach. A scene from the play PHOTO: Sz\u00e9chenyi Hungarian School and Kindergarten It wouldn\u2019t have worked if the actors hadn\u2019t given their best, shown up as agreed and taken it seriously. So big kudos to the final cast for their dedication! Can you tell us a bit more about the actors? J\u00f3zsef Petkes Sikl\u00f3di became Misi Nyilas not because he has a superb voice, but because he embodies Misi with his childlike innocence and purity. Choosing the main character required also a supportive parental background, because Misi is present in all ten long scenes, with many prose parts, lyrics and choreography. Her mom, T\u00fcnde Sikl\u00f3di, wholeheartedly supported this effort and gave up all other programs for the whole school year to be able to focus entirely on the show. Besides J\u00f3zsef, her two other children, Nicole and Adam, also acted. The music director was originally supposed to be Anna T\u00f3th, our former school principal, but at the very end of last year she suddenly moved back to Hungary with her whole family, i.e. five actors, so I asked Ildik\u00f3 Rozs to be the music director. She worked with the cast on the songs every Saturday in the Reformed Church for months and she also accepted to play Mrs. Doroghy\u2019s role. Edina Lotzin, who played Viola, brought her two youngest children to rehearsals, and her daughter Violetta was also inspired to join. Lehel Orb\u00e1n, playing J\u00e1nos T\u00f6r\u00f6k, loves to sing. Originally, I didn\u2019t intend this big a role for him; however, by March, I changed his minor role to that of J\u00e1nos T\u00f6r\u00f6k, and in three weeks, he learned all his songs and lyrics. For Teacher Valkay\u2019s role, I casted for a very long time and eventually found D\u00e1niel Jarisz Indri, a KCSP (K\u0151r\u00f6si Csoma Program) scholar from New York. He had to commute from the City for rehearsals, which wasn\u2019t easy, but he could manage it. What about your role? I wanted to perform from the beginning; that\u2019s why I started this project. Initially, I planned to have Viola\u2019s role, but Edina Lotzin was much better suited for that. I approached a lot of people for Bella\u2019s role, but teenage girls just weren\u2019t interested, so it remained mine. During the process, however, I realized how difficult it is to perform and direct at the same time. I couldn\u2019t fully immerse myself in my role because I had to oversee the scenes from an external viewpoint. This dual task was incredibly challenging and required a lot of concentration. It didn\u2019t get easier even after setting the scenes since we had to continuously adapt the rehearsal process. We could have full rehearsals on the Hungarian Club\u2019s stage only a few times and we could only start them just a week before showtime. Another challenge was that we had to dismantle and store the whole stage set after each rehearsal, because the main stage was needed for other club events. When we couldn\u2019t rehearse there, we used the nearby Scout Home. Our first major rehearsal was there, sometime in mid-April. Two weeks before showtime, we still didn\u2019t know the transitions between scenes, which also had to be carefully planned, but it was extremely difficult without a stage. The cast of the play PHOTO: Sz\u00e9chenyi Hungarian School and Kindergarten Who helped you during this challenging process? When I started, I knew I couldn\u2019t do it alone. The most important was the music director\u2019s role, and Ildik\u00f3 Rozs gladly accepted the challenge and worked with the cast on the songs for months. The original set design team started with four people, but in the end only L\u00edvia Schachinger remained, whose two younger children also played. Zsolt Hodossy, the father of one of the children actors, built and managed the woodwork. L\u00e9na Elmes joined them on the day of staging the show. Another crucial help was that of the sound technician. Attila Szab\u00f3 immediately said yes when I approached him about it and assured me he would help with everything. From the moment we started rehearsing with microphones, he was present at every rehearsal, even though he has no connection to the school; he\u2019s a member of the Club. Sometimes, he had to be there at six in the morning so we could start the rehearsal with full sound technology at eight. During the last week before showtime, KCSP scholars\u00a0Lili Balogh and Istv\u00e1n D\u00e1niel Moln\u00e1r\u00a0joined Attila as helpers with the technology. I already mentioned Edina Lotzin, who was my right hand overall. Initially, she didn\u2019t want to act. She is a working mother of four who also teaches at the school on Saturdays and sings in church on Sundays. But eventually, she joined. She also compiled the program booklet and provided the English translation, with Ildik\u00f3 B\u00e9zi\u2019s help. Since there would have been no performance without a venue, I must thank the leaders of the\u00a0Scout House, Reformed Church pastor Zsolt \u00d6tv\u00f6s, Catholic priest Father Imre,\u00a0Denisa Bott-Varga and Istv\u00e1n Varga\u00a0from the Club for providing us with a place to rehearse and play. I am immensely grateful to all the parents and grandmothers who supported us, bringing the children to the rehearsals and feeding us along the way. On the day of the show, parents made and sold cakes and sandwiches to support the school in addition to the sale of tickets. In summary, it was the dedication of everyone involved as well as of of the whole Hungarian community that made this performance possible, despite all the challenges. After the show, people contacted you asking to take the show on the road\u2026 In fact, I was contacted even before by the Liszt Institute and the Hungarian Consulate General in New York. Since I had never directed a play of this size before, and because of the challenges, I couldn\u2019t eat or sleep in the last few weeks before the show. When they approached me, I asked them to come to see it and if they still liked it, we would be happy to perform it again as we put so much work into it. I said this also because at the outset we were not taken seriously by the Hungarian community in New Brunswick. This made me even more determined to prove them wrong. After the performance, Consul Nikolett Sz\u00e1ntovszki and Program Manager No\u00e9mi Sallai wanted us to perform in New York in June. However, we have Memorial Day weekend at the end of May, followed by the Hungarian Festival on the 1st of June, and then the end of the season comes. I even asked the parents, but in the end, I concluded: we were too tired for this. It would have been rushed, and I didn\u2019t want to compromise on quality. So, I replied that from September on we will happily perform anywhere, we only need a month of rehearsals. Since then, Prof. Judit Kerekes has also approached me and asked me to stage the show at the annual meeting of Hungarian American Schools (AMIT) on the first weekend of October. I said yes, and they have already advertised it. The rest is still on the drawing board, but we are happy to take the show to any other Hungarian community in North America. *Pakk\u00a0is a loan word from German, meaning package, used much less now than in Zsigmond M\u00f3ricz\u2019s time. In the M\u00f3ricz novel, when students received a package from home, it is referred to as a\u00a0pakk. 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The show, created over months of hard work and performed by students, teachers and parents, was a huge success. It was conceived and put on stage by Bernadett Csizmadia, who has been teaching at the school for ten years and has served as vice principal since 2023. \u00a0 *** Why did you become a teacher and how did you end up in the US? Before life led me to teaching, I faced a few bumps along the way. I was interested in many things, mostly related to people and acting. I applied to a high school in Miskolc that offered a drama curriculum but didn\u2019t succeed. Then I wanted to be a reporter, but one of my high school teachers told me that I wouldn\u2019t succeed as one, because that implies too much elbowing, which was not part of my character. I also considered majoring in psychology, but I soon dismissed it. During my studies, I always had classmates whom I helped catch up. Thus, it was slowly becoming apparent what I was really made for: teaching. Since I loved literature and grammar, I decided to become a Hungarian language teacher. After graduating at the faculty of the College of Ny\u00edregyh\u00e1za, I came to the US because I always thought that living abroad was my only chance to earn money and learn a language, since I came from a poor family in Mez\u0151cs\u00e1t in Borsod-Aba\u00faj-Zempl\u00e9n County. I started in Lakewood, New Jersey, like so many other people: with cleaning. I\u2019ve never been afraid of physical work, but the harsh treatment was difficult to accept. While cleaning, I also started to babysit, which made it difficult for me to focus on my original chores, but it is due to the love I received from the children that helped me survive those years and so I didn\u2019t give up. How did you end up in the Hungarian school? What age group do you teach? When I found out that there was a weekend Hungarian school in New Brunswick, I sent my CV to the principal at the time, Ildik\u00f3 B\u00e9zi, and soon after I started working as a teacher and I have been teaching here ever since. I\u2019ve worked with children of different ages, but in the end, it always turned out that the children closest to my heart were those aged 6\u201312. I\u2019m that mother hen type of teacher. I consider them not a class, but a family or a team in which everyone is equally important. The fact that we are Hungarians unites us, and whatever hardship we may suffer, we must never forget this. I\u2019m very grateful to the Sz\u00e9chenyi Hungarian School and to America for showing me what my real mission is. Before I left my homeland, I had no idea how important my Hungarian identity was to me. Over the years, I\u2019ve realized that nothing makes me as happy as holding the hands of these little souls and singing the Hungarian national anthem together. It\u2019s a miracle. Beyond teaching, my mission is to pass on my Hungarian identity to children of Hungarian origin living beyond Hungary\u2019s borders. A school cookout where traditional Hungarian goulash soup was prepared. PHOTO: courtesy of Bernadett Csizmadia Let\u2019s move on to the\u00a0unique event with which you celebrated the\u00a050th anniversary\u00a0on May 19.\u00a0How did you have the courage to volunteer for such a big project? This was an old dream of mine and I thought there couldn\u2019t be a better time for it. The aim of the show is to awaken the slowly fading Hungarian identity of second and third generation Hungarian families, and to practice the Hungarian language in an experiential way in a foreign environment. This is not just a show; it represents the unity of our community, the cooperation of our past and present students, teachers and parents; and, most importantly, our identification as Hungarians in a foreign country. I started here ten years ago with no teaching experience\u00a0\u2013\u00a0which I am very happy about retrospectively, as I didn\u2019t have any fixed preconceptions tied to the Hungarian school system\u00a0\u2013, and worked with several classes, age groups, and tried various methods. I strongly believe in experiential and drama pedagogy, where students are part of their own learning process as active participants in acquiring knowledge. In today\u2019s dynamic and fast-paced world, certain abilities, skills, and competencies, such as effective communication, creativity, ability to collaborate, or critical thinking have become more valuable. At the same time, we shouldn\u2019t forget that Saturday is the sixth day of school for these children, which is not mandatory, so we must make them love the Hungarian school, the Hungarian language and culture. Education can become effective if it responds to these challenges, which is unimaginable with traditional methods. I\u2019m in my fourth year teaching my current class. I don\u2019t know if it\u2019s due to my method or the ability of the class, but I remember that during a drama class, while the children were solving the assigned task in groups, I was recording a video of them for the parents and suddenly realized that the kids were instructing themselves as if I had done it myself. From that point, they\u2019ve been happy to perform in any kind of school celebration. Maybe I was confident because I knew they could pull off even this huge show. Honestly, I had no idea whether I would be able to do it, and where the other characters would come from. My belief in children and my \u2018nothing is impossible\u2019 mentality have driven me forward. A few years ago, we performed the musical\u00a0The Jungle Book\u00a0directed by Timea Zs\u00e9dely in cooperation with the J\u00f3kai Theatre from B\u00e9k\u00e9scsaba. We played it in an off-off Broadway theatre in Manhattan, New York; I played Ka, the serpent. To be able to perform, we first needed to raise money by touring with smaller shows. I didn\u2019t know what difficulties Timi had to face as a director, but I was part of a large-scale show and could learn from professional actors. It was a great experience and memory. With all these experiences behind me, I took the plunge\u2026 Why did you choose\u00a0Zsigmond M\u00f3ricz\u2019s novel,\u00a0Be Faithful Unto Death? I was sure I didn\u2019t want a simple children\u2019s piece. I knew I wanted to send a strong message, make people think and convey values. I believe that when we are born, we are good and pure. Then, as the years go by, a series of disappointments come upon us, and life begins to harden us. As children, we learn from tales that good always triumphs and evil always gets its just punishment. Today, however, the opposite seems to be true. Although Misi Nyilas\u2019s fate is not revealed at the end of the script, his truth is revealed, so good triumphs eventually! I also knew that this novel was not for children of my class. But based on the experience of the past few years, I was also aware that there is no text or reading material that children cannot understand or learn. I didn\u2019t throw the whole novel at them; instead, in the first weeks, we slowly got to know Misi Nyilas and his classmates through drama play. We imagined and acted out different characters and situations and shared our feelings and thoughts with each other. I also started using rarely used words and objects from the novel, writing them on paper and putting them in a box that I called\u00a0pakk*\u00a0from then on. We could only dedicate an hour of school time to rehearsals as I didn\u2019t want to take more time away from regular teaching, but the play was present in the classroom all the time: songs from the musical were constantly played when they arrived in the morning and during the breaks. Thus, the children absorbed the \u2018feeling of being faithful unto death\u2019 without the slightest effort. When Friday and Sunday rehearsals started, the classroom buzzed with stories about shared moments, exciting events, and tales. I have always considered time spent together outside school important; it bring us closer together. A scene from the play PHOTO: Sz\u00e9chenyi Hungarian School and Kindergarten How did the casting procedure go? Since we were preparing for the 50th anniversary of the school, I felt it was important to involve members of the local Hungarian community: past and present students, parents, and teachers. I thought it was a common cause. I also thought of it as a bit of a gift to Gyula Varga, who founded our school 50 years ago. I couldn\u2019t imagine anything better to celebrate! Young and old performing together in Hungarian the musical version of this timeless novel, which is about human attitudes, faith, and love. Since it\u2019s a musical, the casting wasn\u2019t easy, because besides acting, it was important for the actors to be able to sing. I didn\u2019t want to impose any role on anyone. I knew we had a big job ahead of us, and someone who only undertook it out of a sense of duty would not be able to put their heart and soul into it, and without that, it wouldn\u2019t work. There were a lot of changes across the whole process. I had to rewrite the script several times, cutting parts and adding new ones. Nevertheless, those who performed would never forget Misi Nyilas, Zsigmond M\u00f3ricz or his novel. Their Hungarian vocabulary has expanded, their acting skills have improved, and they have been enriched with a community experience that will stay with them for the rest of their lives. They owe this to their Hungarian identity and to their Hungarian weekend school. Wasn\u2019t there a regular, all-actor rehearsal process? Not really. We had to rehearse in many small instalments, because I couldn\u2019t put together a proper reading rehearsal, even online, let alone in person. Some adults had difficulty with reading Hungarian. I couldn\u2019t ask the children to read the whole novel or even to watch the old black-and-white movie because they certainly wouldn\u2019t have wanted to be part of the show afterwards. For a very long time, the children didn\u2019t see the entire performance from start to finish, although they were aware of their own roles. The whole performance consisted of ten scenes, each very long and including choreography, vocals, and prose. I had to break up the scenes into parts, and once the parts were memorized, we rehearsed the whole scene together. I wanted to make the most of our time, knowing how tight everyone\u2019s schedule was, so I planned the rehearsals weekly, usually on Mondays, coordinated with everyone, and held the Saturday scene rehearsals depending on who was available that week. For Saturday mornings, I scheduled singing rehearsals for the adults, with the music director, whilst I rehearsed the scenes with the children, or learned choreography or sang with them, depending on our progress. After school, there were scene rehearsals later on, followed by all-day Sunday rehearsals, and sometimes we had to rehearse on Friday nights as well. Until mid-April, the show wasn\u2019t put together yet, so for a long time, the actors had no idea about the sequence of the scenes. I started every rehearsal by explaining where we were in the story and what everyone\u2019s role was. This required constant consultation and a very systematic approach. A scene from the play PHOTO: Sz\u00e9chenyi Hungarian School and Kindergarten It wouldn\u2019t have worked if the actors hadn\u2019t given their best, shown up as agreed and taken it seriously. So big kudos to the final cast for their dedication! Can you tell us a bit more about the actors? J\u00f3zsef Petkes Sikl\u00f3di became Misi Nyilas not because he has a superb voice, but because he embodies Misi with his childlike innocence and purity. Choosing the main character required also a supportive parental background, because Misi is present in all ten long scenes, with many prose parts, lyrics and choreography. Her mom, T\u00fcnde Sikl\u00f3di, wholeheartedly supported this effort and gave up all other programs for the whole school year to be able to focus entirely on the show. Besides J\u00f3zsef, her two other children, Nicole and Adam, also acted. The music director was originally supposed to be Anna T\u00f3th, our former school principal, but at the very end of last year she suddenly moved back to Hungary with her whole family, i.e. five actors, so I asked Ildik\u00f3 Rozs to be the music director. She worked with the cast on the songs every Saturday in the Reformed Church for months and she also accepted to play Mrs. Doroghy\u2019s role. Edina Lotzin, who played Viola, brought her two youngest children to rehearsals, and her daughter Violetta was also inspired to join. Lehel Orb\u00e1n, playing J\u00e1nos T\u00f6r\u00f6k, loves to sing. Originally, I didn\u2019t intend this big a role for him; however, by March, I changed his minor role to that of J\u00e1nos T\u00f6r\u00f6k, and in three weeks, he learned all his songs and lyrics. For Teacher Valkay\u2019s role, I casted for a very long time and eventually found D\u00e1niel Jarisz Indri, a KCSP (K\u0151r\u00f6si Csoma Program) scholar from New York. He had to commute from the City for rehearsals, which wasn\u2019t easy, but he could manage it. What about your role? I wanted to perform from the beginning; that\u2019s why I started this project. Initially, I planned to have Viola\u2019s role, but Edina Lotzin was much better suited for that. I approached a lot of people for Bella\u2019s role, but teenage girls just weren\u2019t interested, so it remained mine. During the process, however, I realized how difficult it is to perform and direct at the same time. I couldn\u2019t fully immerse myself in my role because I had to oversee the scenes from an external viewpoint. This dual task was incredibly challenging and required a lot of concentration. It didn\u2019t get easier even after setting the scenes since we had to continuously adapt the rehearsal process. We could have full rehearsals on the Hungarian Club\u2019s stage only a few times and we could only start them just a week before showtime. Another challenge was that we had to dismantle and store the whole stage set after each rehearsal, because the main stage was needed for other club events. When we couldn\u2019t rehearse there, we used the nearby Scout Home. Our first major rehearsal was there, sometime in mid-April. Two weeks before showtime, we still didn\u2019t know the transitions between scenes, which also had to be carefully planned, but it was extremely difficult without a stage. The cast of the play PHOTO: Sz\u00e9chenyi Hungarian School and Kindergarten Who helped you during this challenging process? When I started, I knew I couldn\u2019t do it alone. The most important was the music director\u2019s role, and Ildik\u00f3 Rozs gladly accepted the challenge and worked with the cast on the songs for months. The original set design team started with four people, but in the end only L\u00edvia Schachinger remained, whose two younger children also played. Zsolt Hodossy, the father of one of the children actors, built and managed the woodwork. L\u00e9na Elmes joined them on the day of staging the show. Another crucial help was that of the sound technician. Attila Szab\u00f3 immediately said yes when I approached him about it and assured me he would help with everything. From the moment we started rehearsing with microphones, he was present at every rehearsal, even though he has no connection to the school; he\u2019s a member of the Club. Sometimes, he had to be there at six in the morning so we could start the rehearsal with full sound technology at eight. During the last week before showtime, KCSP scholars\u00a0Lili Balogh and Istv\u00e1n D\u00e1niel Moln\u00e1r\u00a0joined Attila as helpers with the technology. I already mentioned Edina Lotzin, who was my right hand overall. Initially, she didn\u2019t want to act. She is a working mother of four who also teaches at the school on Saturdays and sings in church on Sundays. But eventually, she joined. She also compiled the program booklet and provided the English translation, with Ildik\u00f3 B\u00e9zi\u2019s help. Since there would have been no performance without a venue, I must thank the leaders of the\u00a0Scout House, Reformed Church pastor Zsolt \u00d6tv\u00f6s, Catholic priest Father Imre,\u00a0Denisa Bott-Varga and Istv\u00e1n Varga\u00a0from the Club for providing us with a place to rehearse and play. I am immensely grateful to all the parents and grandmothers who supported us, bringing the children to the rehearsals and feeding us along the way. On the day of the show, parents made and sold cakes and sandwiches to support the school in addition to the sale of tickets. In summary, it was the dedication of everyone involved as well as of of the whole Hungarian community that made this performance possible, despite all the challenges. After the show, people contacted you asking to take the show on the road\u2026 In fact, I was contacted even before by the Liszt Institute and the Hungarian Consulate General in New York. Since I had never directed a play of this size before, and because of the challenges, I couldn\u2019t eat or sleep in the last few weeks before the show. When they approached me, I asked them to come to see it and if they still liked it, we would be happy to perform it again as we put so much work into it. I said this also because at the outset we were not taken seriously by the Hungarian community in New Brunswick. This made me even more determined to prove them wrong. After the performance, Consul Nikolett Sz\u00e1ntovszki and Program Manager No\u00e9mi Sallai wanted us to perform in New York in June. However, we have Memorial Day weekend at the end of May, followed by the Hungarian Festival on the 1st of June, and then the end of the season comes. I even asked the parents, but in the end, I concluded: we were too tired for this. It would have been rushed, and I didn\u2019t want to compromise on quality. So, I replied that from September on we will happily perform anywhere, we only need a month of rehearsals. Since then, Prof. Judit Kerekes has also approached me and asked me to stage the show at the annual meeting of Hungarian American Schools (AMIT) on the first weekend of October. I said yes, and they have already advertised it. The rest is still on the drawing board, but we are happy to take the show to any other Hungarian community in North America. *Pakk\u00a0is a loan word from German, meaning package, used much less now than in Zsigmond M\u00f3ricz\u2019s time. In the M\u00f3ricz novel, when students received a package from home, it is referred to as a\u00a0pakk. 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