Gábor Tompa

Professional career

He graduated in stage and film directing at the I.L. Caragiale Theatre and Film Academy in Bucharest in 1981 as a student of Liviu Ciulei, Mihai Dimiu, Cătălina Buzoianu, founders of the world-famous Romanian school of stage directing. Since 1981 Tompa has directed plays at the Cluj-Napoca Hungarian Theatre in Cluj-Napoca. In 1987 he became the artistic director of the theatre, after the Romanian Revolution of 1989 he became the managing director of the theatre as well. He has staged more than 80 plays and produced other 80 in the United Kingdom, France, Germany, Spain, Austria, Serbia, Czech Republic, Canada, South Korea and the U.S. in addition to Romania and Hungary - in English, French, German, Romanian, Hungarian, Catalan and other languages.

His feature film, Chinese Defense (1999), a Hungarian-Romanian-French coproduction has been presented at the Festivals of Berlin, Karlovy Vary, São Paulo, Trieste, Istanbul, Budapest, Soci and has been awarded the Best First Feature in Salerno, Italy.

Since 1989 he has been professor at the Szentgyörgyi István Theatre Academy in Târgu Mureş. He founded the Faculty of Dramatic Art in Cluj and has run its directing programme since 1991. From 1990 to 1995 he was head of directing at the Theatre Academy in Târgu Mureş; in 1991 he founded the Theatre and Drama Faculty in Cluj-Napoca. In 2005 he directed the M.A. program at Brunel University, London, UK. He has taught classes and workshops for actors and directors in Spain, the UK, Germany, Hungary, France and South Korea. From 2007 to 2015 he served as Head of Directing at the Theatre and Dance Department of the University of California, San Diego, where he keeps teaching Theatre Directing and History of Directing.

From March 2006 to April 2008 (when the Hungarian Theatre of Cluj joined the UTE), he was an individual member of the Union of the Theatres of Europe. Founder in 2007 and artistic director to the present of the biennial Interferences International Theatre Festival in Cluj. In 2018 he has been elected President of the European Theatre Union (UTE).

Children

Eszter Tompa (1984), Ábel Tompa (1998), Sára Tompa (2002)

Works worldwide

Ionesco: The Chairs - Theatre National de Luxembourg (LUXEMBOURG, 2022)

Beckett: Waiting for Godot - Teatro Nacional Sao Joao, Porto (PORTUGAL,2021)

Shakespeare: Richard II - Vígszínház, Pesti Színház (Budapest, HUNGARY, 2019)

Dmitri Shostakovitch: Lady Macbeth of the Mtsensk District - Slovene National Opera (Maribor, SLOVENIA, 2017)

Saviana Stanescu: Toys - Hudson Theatre, Los Angeles (USA, 2015)

Chekhov: Cherry Orchard - SNG Maribor, Slovenian National Theatre (SLOVENIA, 2015)

Büchner: Danton's Death (adapted by András Visky) - Seoul Arts Center (Seoul, SOUTH KOREA, 2013)

Pirandello: Tonight We Improvise - La Jolla Playhouse-UCSD- Potiker Theatre (San Diego, USA, 2013)

Ionesco: Rhinoceros - National Theatre of Prague (CZECH REPUBLIC, 2012)

Henry Purcell: Dido and Aeneas - Bach Collegium (San Diego, USA, 2011)

Ruins True – Coproduced by the Sushi Center for the Urban Arts, San Diego, USA and the Hungarian Theatre of Cluj (2010)

Büchner: Woyzeck - La Jolla Playhouse-Potiker Theatre (San Diego, USA, 2009)

Mrozek: Tango - Theatre & Dance Department of the University of California (San Diego, USA, 2008)

Works in Romania

Aischylos - Kali - Tompa : Prometheus'22 an UTE Project - Hungarian Theatre of Cluj, National Drama Theatre Ljubljana, State Theatre Constantza (2022)

Shakespeare: Hamlet - Hungarian Theatre of Cluj (2021)

Mozart: The Magic Flute - Hungarian State Opera of Cluj (2020)

E. Ionesco: Rhinoceros - National Theatre of Timisoara (2020)

W. Shakespeare: The Tempest - Lucian Blaga National Theatre of Cluj (2019)

Marin Sorescu: Jonas - Nottara Theatre, Bucharest (2019)

Maurice Ravel: L'heure espagnole/ L'enfant et les sortiléges/ two operas in one act - Hungarian Opera of Cluj (2018)

W. Shakespeare: The Merchant of Venice - Hungarian Theatre of Cluj (2018)

Max Frisch: Biedermann und die Brandstifter - Deutsches Theater Temeschwaar (2016)

S. Beckett: Endgame - National Theatre of Tg. Mures, Tompa Miklós Company (2016)

A. Jarry/G. Tompa: UbuZdup! - adapted from Ubu Enchained and Ubu Cockhold - Lucian Blaga National Theatre of Cluj (2015)

F. Dürrenmatt: The Visit - Hungarian Theatre of Cluj (2015)

E. Ionesco: The New Tenant - Nottara Theatre, Bucharest (2014)

Manea: The Manea Trilogy (Penelope Remains Thoughtful - The rehearsal - The Eastern Fairy) - Lucian Blaga National Theatre of Cluj (2013)

Movies

Shorts:

Behind the Mask - director (Romanian Television) 1978

Fugue - director (Romanian Television) 1979

Features:

Chinese Defense – director (Hungarian-Romanian-French coproduction) 1999

Published works

Selected Poems (Székely Könyvtár, Csíkszereda, 2021)

Van még könyvtár Amerikában? - Are there libraries left in America? (poems, Kalligram, Budapest, 2020)

Gábor Tompa : The workpiece of a director- from the Three Sisters to the Cherry Orchard (performance photos, edited by Mirela Sandu, with a foreword by Georges Banu, Romanian Cultural Institute, Bucharest, 2016)

Label-curtain - a private theatrical dictionary (English version, Bookart, 2014)

Transylván pót-depressziók - Transylvanian back-up depressions (four-handed sonnets with András Ferenc Kovács, Bookart,2011)

Címke-függöny – Label-curtain (Gábor Tompa's private theatre dictionary, Bookart, Csíkszereda, 2010)

A tatu hozománya – The Armadillo's Dowry (poems for children, Pallas Akadémia, 2007)

Lidércbánya – Mine of Nightmares (poems, Pallas Akadémia, 2004)

Noé Színháza – Noah's Theatre (selected poems, Pallas Akadémia, 2004)

Depressio Transilvaniae – (Four-handed sonnets with A. F. Kovács, Pallas Akadémia, Romania 1998)

Aki nem én – Not I (poems, Târgu Mureş, Romania, 1996)

A késdöfés gyöngédsége – The Tenderness of Stabbing (studies, Cluj-Napoca, Romania, 1995)

Romániai magyar négykezesek – Four-handed Pieces (poems, with András Visky, Pécs, Hungary, 1994)

Teaching experience

Head of Directing at the Theatre Academy in Tg-Mures, Romania, 1990–1995

Founder of the Theatre and Drama Faculty in Cluj, Romania, 1991

Classes for actors at the State Theatre School in Freiburg, Germany, 1995–1999

Theatre Academy, Barcelona and Institut del Teatre, Terrassa, Spain, 1999–2000

Workshops for directors: International Workshop Festival, Manchester, UK 1993

International Workshop Festival, Glasgow, UK 1994, International Workshop Festival, Belfast, UK 2000

Festival de la Francophonie, Limoges, France 2003 Workshop on Shakespeare's Clowns, Palma de Mallorca, Spain 2003

Brunel University, London, UK 2005 (directing MA programme)

Festival Iberoamericano de Teatro, Bogota, Colombia (2012)'

Workshop for young directors on Hamlet (National Theatre Company of Korea, Seoul, 2015)

Workshop for young directors on Woyzeck (National Theatre Company of Korea, Seoul, 2016)

Awards

UNITER (Romanian Theater Union)

- Nominated for Best Performance Award, 2011 (Leonce and Lena)

- Nominated to the Best Performance Award, 2005 (Waiting for Godot)

- Nominated to the Best Performance Award, 2003 (Jacques or the Obedience)

- Winner of Award for Excellence – 2002

- Winner of Best Director of the Year in Romania (1984–ATM, 1987–ATM, 1993, 1997, 2008 and 2019)

- Winner of Best Performance of the Year in Romania (1989, 1992, 2008)

Látó Poetry Award for 2020

Pro Contemporary Hungarian Culture Award in Transylvania, 2019

Hevesi Sándor Prize - ITI (International Theatre Institute) Award (2011)

Ambassador of Hungarian Culture (Carnegie Hall, NY-2009)

Media Excellency Prize (2008)

International Festival of Short Plays (2013) - Best Directing

The Festival of the Romanian Comedy (2007) – Best Directing

Golden Apple Award (2007)

The Festival of the Romanian Dramaturgy (2004) – Best Directing

Szabadság Prize (2004)