CV - Anna Haraszti (festival coordinator)

Anna studied English Literature and Cultural Anthropology at the ELTE university of Budapest. She started writing at the early age of 5 – but couldn’t stand her stories being taken around school from class to class, so decided to stop when she was 12. In her teenage years, however, her family moved to London for four years – and her fate was sealed. Coming back to Budapest, she took part in workshops of creative writing lead by a British professor of literature, John Drew – these workshops entailed various readings in both Hungary and England (with George Szirtes). In 1998, Anna was granted a scholarship in creative writing (the Norwich School of Arts, UK), and her poems appeared in international literary anthologies. It was during the year 2000 that Anna acted in Cityscape, a multimedia performance of British contemporary poetry – but all that’s an old story now, she says, for then she decided to concentrate on theatre only. She attended both World and European Interplays as a playwright delegate of Hungary and, over the years, two of her plays received rehearsed readings. In the summer of 2001, Anna was one of the five alumni involved in Interplay’s cyber play playwriting collaboration over the Internet, and in Townsville (Australia) co-directed the performance with Hank Willenbrink. Supported by the British Council and Keen Meadows, her radio play Eclipses received a professional studio recording with the direction of Ola Animashawun from the Royal Court Theatre (London). Based on the play, an experimental film – with original soundtracks – was made with the direction of Gergely Bényi, and the production will
premiere early next year (2002) at the Royal Court Theatre. Also in 2001, Anna translated into English a celebrated Hungarian writer, Péter Dobai’s screenplay ”Amrita”– that, at the time, she considered her ideal job. Apart from writing, Anna takes annual fieldtrips to Asia working as an anthropologist (creating the literacy of a small tribal community in the Hindukush range), and writes articles on culture/travel. Finally, she says, it is juggling that helps her get away from it all... preferably by the side of the ocean.