
Zsolt Pozsgai
Directing
Zsolt Pozsgai (born 20 September 1960 in PĂ©cs) is a Hungarian freelance writer, playwright, stage and film director, and film producer (Horatio Film). Completed his secondary education in PĂ©cs. At the age of 14 he was already directing an independent amateur theatre company in the city. After secondary school, he tried several jobs as he wished to gain varied experience for his chosen career as a playwright. Thus he was an ambulance man, the director of a village community centre, a teaching assistant in a village school, a driver, a postman and gynaecological theatre assistant. At the same time he studied Hungarian at PĂ©cs University as a correspondent student. The amateur theatre became a recognised alternative company. When he was 24, he âsigned onâ with the PĂ©cs National Theatre, working first as an assistant director and then as the theatreâs secretary and dramaturge. When the theatreâs principal director, whom he regarded as his master, left, he too left the National Theatre and found a position with a book publisher. In the meanwhile he did his national service as an air traffic controller for fighter aircraft. It was then he wrote his first play, Horatio, which was premiered a year later in the Hevesi SĂĄndor Theatre in Zalaegerszeg. In 1988 he was commissioned with founding a contemporary book publishing house in Budapest, of which he was the managing director until 1996. In addition he worked as a dramaturge for a number of theatres â the MadĂĄch Theatre, the Arizona Theatre and the Magyar Theatre in Budapest, and, to the present day, he is honorary dramaturge and resident author at two provincial theatres, the JĂłkai in BĂ©kĂ©scsaba and the Katona JĂłzsef in KecskemĂ©t. Currently he is the artistic director of the Budapest inner city theatre KomĂ©dium Theatre, the artistic director of the PĂ©csvĂĄrad Castle Theatre operating in the summer season and dramaturge at the Magyar Theatre in Budapest. Awards: - Europa Prize â Berlin Playwrights Festival, 1995, for âArthur and Paulâ - SzĂ©p ErnĆ Prize â best new Hungarian play award, 1994, for âWax Birdâ (ViaszmadĂĄr), MadĂĄch Theatre, Budapest - Hungarian Playwrights Festival 1997 â first place, professional and spectatorsâ prizes - Hungarian Playwrights Festival 1998 â first place, professional and spectatorsâ prizes - Hungarian Playwrights Festival 1999 â first place, professional and spectatorsâ prizes - Golden Lion Prize â best dramatist â Grand Prize of the Persian Academy






