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I’ve just done a three day workshop with River Chandler of Theater Works. River is a social worker cum theater artist who has picked up on the power of Augusta Boal’s Theater of the Oppressed as adapted by David Diamond.

I first got interested in using theater in this way when I was studying […]

AppleSeed, a work in progress, Making New Waves Festival workshop performance, February 2006, Photo:Kai Niggemann
View more photos of me in performance here
View more Kai Niggemann photos from the festival here.

Out walking about last evening, Edith and I bumped into a couple of young Hungarian women who had seen Sunday evening’s performances…They recognised me (yikes) and said how much they liked what I had done.
“What did you like?”
“Your energy.”
“Did you understand it?” I asked.
“I got my understanding.”
“What was that?”
“It was a comedy about […]

The Making New Waves Festival continued yesterday with workshops during the day and performances in the evening.
I participated in Swiss artist, Jasch’s Eye and Ear workshop where I teamed with a young musician/composer from Pecs and was introduced to working with the Max/MSP/Jitter software I mention in my preceeding post. We are working […]

Hólyagcirkusz is a company unto itself. The show I saw last Friday - CSŐDCSICSERGŐ - is set in a theater. The characters are all musicans, playing bizarre instruments - conceived by Szőke Szabolcs, based on a dream he had, which arose from his work experience in a music shop where antique instruments were built.

The more I hear - and see - of Erzsi Kiss the more admiration and respect I have for her as an artist. This is a big step for one who did not like her the first time I heard her. That was during Budapest’s French festival along the banks of the […]

I was awed by Dennis’s performances: slide shows accompanied by readings from his writings - presented with the unshakeable confidence and surety that he had a right to be there and do what he was doing. And I’ve always remembered the words he spoke to me after my first performance at Gallery 101 - a reading of my work called ‘Nurse Mary Meets the Sassy Squash’ - accompanied by slides of some surrealist drawings I had done. He said -in that very direct and matter-of-fact way he had of speaking - that made even me pay attention:

Poet, performer, visual artist, socio-cultural commentator seeks patron. (For Real)
Description:
Provides financial/material support necessary to maintain a comfortably luxurious lifestyle befitting a modern day, mature female artist. Immediate needs include a bright, sunny, warm, quiet place to live and work with a water/green view and ready access to pleasant running trails.
This place should […]

I performed last evening on stage at the a38 as a member of Hungary’s newly formed National Howling Theater (Nemzeti Orditoszinhaz). As the only non-Hungarian in the 8 member choir, I feel like last night’s premier was a kind of rite of passage. I’ve performed on Hungarian stages with Hungarian jazz musicians, […]

I haven’t posted much in the past couple of weeks. I’ve had a cold and I’ve been thinking. Colds are good for that, don’t you think? They make us hibernate, and with hibernation comes reflection.
I performed my poetry last Saturday evening at a private party. It was great. The […]

listening to the program reminds me of the live show I saw last evening on the Columbus Jazz Boat. Andre Ochodlo and the Jazzish Quintet from Sopot, Poland are nothing like these ‘out there’ musicians. They come from extreme opposites of the musical spectrum. Where Kevin Blechdom (who is really a woman) performs with an outrageously raw energy, accompanied by music that challenges the boundaries of what is music, Andre Ochodlo and his quintet sing and play with absolute precision.

I’ve just finished a two and a half day theater therapy workshop. I met a lot of beautiful people and shared some intense moments and did not come away unchanged.
The workshop was organised by the European Treatment Centers for Drug Addiction as part of the International Conference on Alcoholism and Addictions. […]

People are always asking me why I chose Hungary.
Today, as I was searching my files for the poems I’ve written since I came here, I stumbled on one titled Canadiana. It was hidden in a folder called poems that need work. I opened the file and […]

Finland’s Kimmo Pohjonen delivered an hour plus long performance this evening on the a38 concert boat as part of Budapest’s Autumn Festival. The program notes said to expect something special, and I was spellbound from start to finish. I usually sit and tap a finger or bob my head in time to […]

I’ve also written about Zoltan Lantos here (do a search) and a link to an article I wrote about him is on my non-fiction links page. (01 November, 2004, 21 String Violin Opens …) Zoltan’s violin has inspired me to write some very unusual nature poetry.

…regardless of age and circumstances.
I opened a new category today, and simply called it Being.
I pondered what to call this category, inspired by 101 year old artist Tamás Lossonczy.
After I wrote about him, I thought about my Mother, another amazing artist - who in her forties joined an […]

So, in true anarchistic style, they had a party and invited everybody to come down to the Gödör Klub - which has its own political cross to bear- and find out what they are all about.

The Budapest (Őszi) Autumn Festival, dedicated to showcasing avante garde art, has already presold 25% or double the number of tickets than last year.
I haven’t yet gone through the program to choose the events I want to see, but my first cursory glance has zeroed in on a sitar concert at Trafo.
The […]

the text is rooted in a story about Austrian physicist Lise Meitner whose Nobel Prize winning research was attributed to one of her male colleagues!

The sex is equally odd in its symbolism. Saurus < ?> has sex - in turn - with three boxes of geraniums, which had previously been watered by the three members of the chorus.