A present-day mining town in Romanian Transylvania has experienced mass unemployment due to its mine closure. Deep poverty and despondency drive many men into alcoholism and suicide. Yet, life stubbornly creeps up. Is there somebody able to mend the fate of a community? The downtrodden, unemployed miner Ivan Vajda takes care of his ill father. Alongside his half-sister, Ilonka, his friend and his neighbors, Ivan copes in a world vastly different from what he had envisioned. Consumed by desires and ideas, all characters try to escape in their own way.
Mine Flowers (2011). Playwright: Csaba Szekely (Hungary). Director: Mary Linehan. Cast: Chris Carfizzi (Illes), Kendra Lee Oberhauser (Irma), Kevin Sebastian (Mihaly), Michael Turner (Ivan), Stephanie Windland (Ilonka). Translated by: Paul Crowson. Running time: 90 min.
A tragicomic tale, Mine Flowers uses clever linguistic humor to explore destructive social issues as well as the emotional tolls that unemployment takes on an individual. “In spite of the characters’ miserable destinies and the multitude of regrets, Mine Flowers is not a gloomy play. The dark humor of the play helps us observe, from a safe distance, the world that we live in. We wake up from a bitter dream from which the characters of the play can never escape,” states the author, Csaba Szekely.
Mine Flowers is the first of a trilogy, followed by Mine Pitch Dark (2012) and Mine Water (2013). It won first prize at the 2011 National Theater Festival in Pecs, Hungary, for best script.
The performance is followed by Q&A. It is free and open to the public.
The event will be broadcasted online, live on Zoom. RSVP is required to receive password for free viewing. RSVP online through Eventbrite.
CHRIS CARFIZZI has been recurring as Rudy on Showtime’s Billions for the past three seasons. Other TV credits include Marvel’s “Daredevil”, “The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel”, “Shades of Blue", and “Limitless”. He also appears in the feature film “The Sunlit Night” which made its world premiere at the 2019 Sundance Film Festival. Chris co-wrote and and produced his short film “The Finger” which appeared at festivals across the country, including the Nantucket Film Festival. Chris earned Best Actor (Short Film) Honors at the Austin Revolution Film Festival. His short, “White Privilege Frankenstein” (featuring 911 Lonestar’s Brian Michael Smith) has appeared at festivals and caught the eye of Washington Post Opinion writer Jonathan Capehart and NY Times Columnist Charles Blow. Chris has trained at the Boston Conservatory and The Catholic University for Musical Theater and at Upright Citizens Brigade for Improv and Sketch Comedy. He has toured the country performing in musicals and has performed Improv and Stand-up throughout New York City.
KENDRA LEE OBERHAUSER was recently seen performing with The Drilling Company in Othello, Hamlet and Romeo and Juliet, as well as in Hamlet with Hamlet Isn't Dead. She has worked with American Conservatory Theater, Berkeley Rep, Magic Theatre, Aurora Theatre, Center Rep, Shotgun Players, Central Works and others. KendraLeeOberhauser.com.
KEVIN SEBASTIAN NYC: The Adding Machine (Off-Broadway), Waiting for the Bus (American Globe Best Actor Award), Samaritans or Where is Sylvia (Best Supporting Actor nom.), Importance of Being Earnest, Intermezzo (Lincoln Center), Rollo’s Wild Oat (Metropolitan Playhouse). Regional: R&G Are Dead (Mirror Rep), Noises Off (Rep Theatre of St. Louis), Death of a Salesman (Arkansas Rep), Sick (NJ Rep), Crimes of the Heart (Arrow Rock Lyceum). TV: CBS’s “Blue Bloods”, “Murphy Brown”, “Bull”, Netflix’s “Club de Cuervos” and “Friends From College”, Amazon’s “Marvelous Mrs. Maisel” and “Producing Juliet,” and a slew of commercials. From one Romanian to another, thanks for being here. You too, Mary. @KevSebastian
MICHAEL TURNER has recently moved from LA to NYC. In LA he most recently appeared at Fountain Theatre in Lighthouse . He also recently appeared on stage in NYC at the Metropolitan Playhouse in Shadow of Heroes, in All the Way at the Actors Playhouse in Miami and in Friends in Transient Places in Los Angeles. His favorite roles include Moody in Golden Boy and Valere in La Bete. Michael has appeared in over 20 national commercials and is the voice of several video game characters including Zero in the Borderlands games. He has also voiced characters in dozens of anime series including “Black Butler” and “Full Metal Alchemist”. As a young man, Michael played Chuck Norris in flash backs on Walker Texas Ranger. Education: BFA Baylor university, MFA UCSD. Thank You CT. For Mom.
STEPHANIE WINDLAND is a NYC based actor. Recent credits include Belle in Beauty and The Beast (La Comedia Dinner Theater), Dead and Buried (Dreamcatcher Rep), My Mother My Sister and Me (Bickford Theater), Henry’s Law (Writers Theater) and the tour of Miss Nelson is Missing. She also performs around NYC with her improv team Bigfoot Slaps, and you can watch her in the web series “P’s in a Pod” on Youtube and Vimeo, which she co-produced and stars in. Thanks to Pavla for this exciting opportunity and Mary for saying yes. StephanieWindland.com.
MARY LINEHAN Select NYC Directing: -30- (Best Director Nomination, Hudson Guild WinterFest), Punchline (13th Street Repertory), Romeo and Juliet (Shakespeare in the Parking Lot). Select NYC Acting: Ophelia (Hamlet, Bryant Park Shakespeare), Hermia (Midsummer…, The Drilling Company). Thanks to Stephanie and Pavla for the opportunity to create for you and to the cast for their willingness to play within this new medium. KP, stay out of the forest and enjoy the brandy. marylinehan23@gmail.com
CSABA SZEKELY (b. 1981) is an award-winning Romanian playwright. His first play Do You Like Banana, Comrades? won the regional prize for Europe at the BBC’s International Radio Playwriting Competition in 2009. The three plays in the trilogy Mine Flowers, Mine Blindness and Mine Water, examining unemployment, alcoholism, nationalism, corruption and high rates of suicide among Hungarian population in Transylvania, have been produced in Hungarian, Romanian and Slovakian theaters. His historical comedy called Michael the Brave about the rise and fall of a medieval Romanian national hero has been produced by Weores Sandor Theatre, Hungary. He has written two musicals: Hogyne, dragam! (“Sure, honey!” produced by the National Theatre of Targu Mures, Romania) and Passio XXI, a contemporary take on Jesus’ last days, directed by Robert Alfoldi at Budapest Sports Arena. Csaba is one of the scriptwriters for the 3rd season of HBO Hungary show Terapia (“In Treatment”).
PAUL CROWSON was educated in Liverpool. Aged 26, he relocated from England to Hungary. He translates dramas, feature films, documentaries and TV series for, among others, HBO and Spektrum. Paul is currently working on his first novel, God’s Own Trash.
ABOUT THE 2020 SPRING WEEKEND
The 2020 Spring Weekend is organized by the Vaclav Havel Library Foundation (VHLF) and Bohemian Benevolent and Literary Association (BBLA), in partnership with Polish Cultural Institute New York and Untitled Theater Company #61. Spring Weekend is part of the annual Rehearsal for Truth Theater Festival honoring the playwright and human rights activist Vaclav Havel. It showcases contemporary European plays through stage readings performed and directed by New York City-based actors and directors. The program has been conceived in consultation with Attila Szabo, Deputy Director, Hungarian Theatre Museum and Institute; Vladislava Fekete, Director, Theatre Institute in Bratislava; Zuzana Ulicianska, Chair of the Slovak Center - International Association of Theatre Critics; and Tomek Smolarski, Performing Arts Programming, Polish Cultural Institute New York.
The program is supported, in part, by public funds from the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs in partnership with the City Council.
All Spring Weekend productions are FREE. Today we ask you to make a donation of $5, or any amount you can. You can donate here or when you register for an event through Eventbrite. All proceeds will benefit children from New York City schools in Elmhurst, Queens, which has been one of the worst hit neighborhoods by COVID-19. Your contribution will allow us to buy colored pencils and other art supplies for children whose parents are often essential workers and first responders. Every dollar counts!