With the motto of cost efficiency, the Bihar county government would merge the Szigliget Theatre, the Romanian Regina Maria Theater and the Nagyvárad State Philharmonic into a single joint institution.
According to the chairman of the county council, the two theaters would operate with a common administrative and technical support staff - both have a puppet company and a dance group - and the philharmonic.
The artists are worried that these institutions would lose their repertoire character and become project institutions.
Even Romanians don't want that. In an open letter, the actors of the Romanian theater that wanted to be merged protested against the plans of the liberal party president, according to which the Regina Maria theater would be merged with two other institutions, including the Hungarian-language Szigligeti Theater.
In an interview published on Tuesday, Katalin Czvikker, the general director of the Szigligeti Theatre, warned that the independent Hungarian theater in Nagyvárád may cease to exist as a result of the planned changes.
"Thus, a significant number of artists would lose their employment contracts for an indefinite period, this status would only go to the most well-known artists, but they did not say on what basis this would be established. After the merger, another 20 percent downsizing is planned. Among the long-term plans is also the creation of a project-based cultural center, so that the actors would be contracted for projects. This means the liquidation of a permanent theater with a prestigious history - one hundred and twenty years in the case of the Hungarian company," Katalin Czvikker told the Maszol.ro portal.
Source: Mandarin
