The Hungarian Theatre of Cluj will close its 2024/2025 season with the premiere of Thornton Wilder's classic Our Town. The preview of the performance, staged by American director Jesca Prudencio, will take place on July 4, Friday, at 7 p.m., while the premiere will open on July 5, Saturday, also at 7 p.m., in the theater's Studio Hall. The production's next performance will be presented on August 21, as part of the 16th edition of the Hungarian Days of Cluj.

At the press conference preceding the premiere of Our Town, Tompa Gábor, artistic director of the Hungarian Theatre of Cluj, introduced director Jesca Prudencio, who is collaborating with the Cluj company for the first time: "It is a great pleasure for me to introduce someone who was once my student at the University of California, San Diego. Jesca Prudencio is not only an excellent director, but also has a background in choreography, having worked with renowned American choreographer Ping Chong, among others. Even as a student, she created unique performances and quickly became known to the general public. Since then, she has staged plays at various major American theaters, from the Steppenwolf in Chicago to theaters in San Francisco and San Diego. She is also one of the few young artists to have won the prestigious Julie Taymor Scholarship, which is awarded to only a few outstanding American artists each year.”

After introducing the director, Gábor Tompa also spoke about the play: "Thornton Wilder's Our Town was written in 1938 and has been a favorite in theaters around the world ever since. It has been performed several times in Hungarian, and the Hungarian Theatre of Cluj also having staged it in the 1960s."

Director and choreographer Jesca Prudencio said at the press conference that it was a great honor for her to be invited by Gábor Tompa to work at the Hungarian Theater of Cluj. "It feels like a student receiving their final lesson when they have the opportunity to create at their master's theater," she said.

Prudencio said that she first read Thornton Wilder's play more than twenty years ago and has been deeply impressed by its refined stage design ever since: "At first glance, the world of the characters seems very natural—it's easy to identify with them. But the real challenge lies in creating all this without props, relying solely on the actors' performances. The author imagined all the props, but decided to remove them from the stage. Because in life, it's not the visible things that matter most."

Noémi Vajna, the dramaturge of the performance, said that it is always exciting when a director can work with a text in their native language, as is the case with Jesca Prudencio, who is staging one of the classics of American drama. She added: "At first glance, the text may seem too long and too detailed, but it is precisely its everyday nature that gives the play its authenticity. Although this is not a drama of Shakespearean proportions, the everyday situations resonate deeply within us. The challenge was to make these scenes sound natural and authentic in Hungarian, while ensuring that the true essence of the text – the recognition of the most important moments in our lives – remained palpable."

The director and choreographer of the performance is Jesca Prudencio, with the creative team also including dramaturg Noémi Vajna, set and costume designer Gyopár Bocskai, and composer Norbert Halmágyi, alongside assistant director Orsolya Csengeri, and stage manager Enikő Albert. The performance was created using translations by Marcell Benedek and András Kozma.

The performance features Csilla Albert, Róbert Kardos M., Csilla Varga, Gedeon András, Hannah Daradics, Zsolt Bogdán, Réka Csutak, Eszter Román, Tamás Kiss, Júlia Laczó, Anikó Pethő, Róbert Laczkó Vass, András Buzási and Áron Dimény.

The play’s copyright has been provided on behalf of the author's heirs by Alan Brodie Representation Ltd. (www.alanbrodie.com) and Hofra Kft.

Tickets for the preview and premiere of Our Town, as well as for additional performances, can be purchased at the theater's box office (weekdays between 10 a.m. and 2 p.m.) and online at huntheater.biletmaster.ro.