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the Seagull. The main condition was that the young heroine should not notice the affair of her mother and Trigorin. They hada detailed correspondence about this problem, dealing with even the deleting or substitution of certain conjunctions. Chekhov lost his polite patience to the end of the summer and instead of detailed texts he started giving short instructions to Potapenko who was discussing with the censors in the name of Chekhov. Furthermore - that has never happened before to the author scrupulously correcting even the fifth edition of his own works - he wrote to Potapenko:"You can substitute the sentences '1 cannot make out what she is up to. She simply doesn't speak.'with 'You know, 1 don't like her' or whatever you want, you can even quote from the Talmud. Or just insert something like that:'Oh, in her age! Oh, oh, isn't she ashamed!" Ágnes Gereben: Csehov vildga (The World of Chekhov) Europa Publishing House, Budapest, 1980 ÁRPÁD SCHILLING Árpád Schilling was born in 1974 and started his career as an actor at the age of 17. He founded Krétakôr Színház in 1995, before starting his formal directing studies at the Budapest Academy of Drama and Film. During his studies he continued working with Krétakôr, mounting eight acclaimed productions, including Brecht's Baal (1998); he also staged several productions atthe Katona József Theatre, including Tasnádi's Public Enemy and Chekhov's Platonov with students from the Strasbourg National Theatre. His staging of the classics, contemporary drama, devised pieces and adaptations of novels are noted for their focus on the actors and for their careful avoidance of a signature style. His productions for Krétakôr include Tasnádi's NEXXT, Molnár's Liliom, The Possessed (after Miller's The Crucible), W- Worker's Circus (after Buchner's Woyzeck; voted Best Foreign Production in Canada in 2004), Buchner's Leonce and Lena, Fatherland, my all ( Hazámhazám), The Seagull, Molière'sThe Misanthrope and BLACKIand (FEKETEország), Schimmelpfennig's Before/ After (in co-production with the Katona József Theatre); Jerofeyev's Walpurgis Night at the Berliner Schaubühne; Shakespeare's Richard 111 at the Piccolo Teatro, Milan; Hamlet at the Burgtheater's Kasino, Vienna; and Tasnádi's Phaidra at last year's Salzburg Festival. His films include NEXXT (2OOI ), No comment (2003) and Overborder (Határontúl) (2004), which was invited to the Venice Mostré and was awarded as Best European Short Film at the Anger Festival. In 2005 he was awarded the prestigious Stanislavski Prize for his staging of The Seagull.

KRÉTAKÔR SZÍNHÁZ (CHALK CIRCLE THEATRE) Ten years ago Árpád Schilling collected a few of his friends and with an intense team work staged Jean Cocteau's Terrible Children. He named the show The Big Game. This is how Krétakôr (Chalk Circle) was started. This name refers to Brecht's play on the one hand, but its real inspiration was the ancient fable; we designate a circle in space, in which we condense a piece of our existence as long as its truth comes out. The circle drawn with a chalk is a metaphor of transience and constant rebirth - it is easy to draw, but just as easy to erase and redraw somewhere else, where our special space, the theatre will be born. Krétakôr has kept its independence and this flexibility of thought and form to this day, even if it has gradually become a permanent company with a steady repertoire in the meantime. What was once a handful of beginners in an off company, is by now known as one of the best theatres in Hungary. Krétakôr's colourful repertory speaks to everyone, regardless of age or social status, everyone looking for the experience of art In an active manner. The company, is nowadays the prime representative of Hungarian drama theatre abroad. Comparing the knowledge we acquire on the international tours with our experience at home, we are now searching for new interpretations of the theatre as a community forum.