Szputnyik Shipping Company

WHAT IS SPUTNIK?
The company did not want a stern-sounding, theatrical name, and chose one that is as controversial as its own existence instead. ’Sputnik’ symbolizes motion into the unknown, with the risk of failure and explosion, but also the opportunity to discover something new and wonderful. The term ’modern’ has become overused, and is somewhat hackneyed, so using it might be a gesture towards camp – still, it signals that our activities are untraditional. ’Behavioural research’ is what theatre is all about.

Sputnik is, according to the Act about the Performing Arts, a Category VI., that is, an independent theatre.

Sputnik’s vision is to build and sustain a new theatre workshop environment based on experience gained in institutional, conventional theatrical routine. We seek to establish a form of extra-institutional theatrical existence that facilitates reflective and high-standard workflow. We consider the nurturing of free creative processes, experimentation, and the research and revision of theatrical idioms just as important as the performance of classics and contemporary works alike. We wish to strike a balance between retaining our mobility and thinking inside the box.

The main objective of our foreign strategy is to accentuate transnational communication and communion, and to promote shared tender tendering, joint productions and other forms of casual international co-operation.

THE COMPANY
Sputnik has come together as a company in January 2008. Led by director Viktor Bodó, it is a coalition of young actors who had just started their careers at the time as well as actors who had been carving out their careers for a couple of years. The first concern was developing a creative community ready for cross-pollinating creative interaction and long-term cooperation.

The company’s line-up for the 2011/2012 season:
actors and actresses: Balázs Czukor, Gábor Fábián, Károly Hajduk, Anna Hay, Péter Jankovics, Lőte Koblicska, András Lajos, Gusztáv Molnár, Zoltán Szabó, Rozi Székely, Ferenc Tóth Simon
crew: Gábor Keresztes (sound operator-music), Júlia Róbert (dramaturge), Ildikó Ságodi (international relations consultant), Tamás Turai (blog-editor)
manager: Péter Tóth
company leader-director: Viktor Bodó


We are happy to have a creative crew stay with us in the 2011/2012 season also: Juli Balázs (costume designer), Tamás Bányai (lighting designer), Móni Bujtás (graphic design), Klaus von Heydenaber (composer), Fruzsina Nagy (costume designer), Pascal Raich (set designer), Imre Varga (photographer) Anna Veress (translator, dramaturge)


PREMIERES FOR THE 2011/2012 SEASON:

1. Agatha Christie: Murder on the Orient Express
a joint production of Sputnik and Mainz-Winterthur
director: Viktor Bodó

2.Tom Stoppard: Rosencrantz And Guildenstern Are Dead
director: Attila Gigor

3.Shakespeare: A Midsummer Night’s Dream
a joint production of Sputnik and Schauspielhaus Graz
director: Viktor Bodó

4. Anamnesis
a joint production of Sputnik and the Katona József Theatre
director: Viktor Bodó

FESTIVAL APPEARANCES AND AWARDS

COUNCIL HOUSE STORIES
● Contemporary Drama Festival (2008)
Foreign Critics’ Award
● VIII. Annual National Theatre Roundup in Pécs (POSZT) (2009)
Best actor (József Gyabronka)
Most promising theatrical effort (Sputnik company)
● Deziré Festival, Szabadka (2009)
● KONTAKT Festival, Torun (2010)

THE DICE MAN
● IX. Annual National Theatre Roundup in Pécs (POSZT) (2010)
International Jury Award (Viktor Bodó, direction)
● Alternative Theatre Review (2010)
one of the Grand Prizes
● Critics’ Award (2010)
Best independent theatre performance
● Ljubljana, EX PONTO Festival (2010)
Audience Award
● dunaPart Contemporary Performance Artists’ Platform (2011)
● Small Scene Theatre Festival, Rijeka (2011)
Best Director (Viktor Bodó) and Best Dramaturge (Júlia Róbert, Tamás Turai)
● NET Festival, Moscow (2011)


THE HOUR WE KNEW NOTHING OF EACH OTHER
● Parma (2009)
● Theatertreffen, Berlin (2010)
● Budapest Autumn Festival (2010)
● NET Festival, Moszkva (2010)
Golden Mask National Theatre Award for the Best foreign performance of the season

www.szputnyik.blog.hu