The Puppet Designer Tells Tales – book presentation

 

Presentation of the book entitled A bábtervező mesél (The Puppet Designer Tells Tales) by Vera Bródy will start at 4 p.m. on September 30, 2016.

Széchényi Prize-winning art historian Krisztina Passuth will be talking with Mari Jászai Award-winning Hungarian puppet and scenery designer Vera Bródy and with Olga Somorjai, editor of the book.

At the book presentation, details of a portrait film made by Zsófia Rozgonyi about Vera Bródy will also be shown.

A paraván halad (The Caravan Moves On) by György Kardos G. will be recited.

Venue: National Széchényi Library, Boardroom 516

Invitation card

About the book:

Recently, a colorful book was published in cooperation of Móra Publishing House and National Széchényi Library, the Theater Collection of which has been keeping the unmatched designs of Vera Bródy. The volume contains almost 400 puppet and scenery designs, and it presents the entire oeuvre of Vera Bródy, Mihály Munkácsy and Mari Jászai Award-winning puppet artist and puppet, scenery and costume designer.

The artist’s oeuvre covers a period in the history of the State Puppet Theater of Hungary (later called as Budapest Puppet Theater) lasting from 1952 until the millennium. This exciting period is shown through the artist’s own, subjective specs, and her memoirs tell us, with phrases of live speech, about the history of the puppet theater, periods of Bródy’s designer oeuvre, her moving to France, where her career as a designer was made more complete by teaching, directing and book making. The memoir of Vera Bródy is a unique age document, evoking the life of the puppet theater, including both success and failure. Her writing reflects the artist’s attachment to Hungarian culture as well as her deep attraction to French culture.

The book gives a chronological account of Vera Bródy’s designs, major puppet historical presentations and the artist’s favorite designs, being in the focus of her memoir as well. Vera Bródy’s designs are not only charming and beautiful, but her figures also suggest humor and irony. We can follow up the puppet designer’s career from her first known independent design, Misi Mókus kalandjai (The Adventures of Mishi the Squirrel), via numerous major designs including A fából faragott királyfi (The Wooden Prince), to the peak of her career hallmarked by Tűzmadár (Firebird). The book presents sketches and versions, which have not been presented before, and readers can get acquainted with Vera Bródy’s television designs and her works published in France.

The book is made complete by Péter Molnár Gál’s introductory lines, the recollection of István Láng and by Dezső Szilágyi’s speech delivered at the oeuvre exhibition of Budapest Puppet Theater in 1996.

Data of the book:
A bábtervező mesél (The Puppet Designer Tells Tales)
By Vera Bródy
Edited by Olga Somorjai
NSZL–Móra Publishing House, Budapest, 2016
240 pages
ISBN 978 963 200 659 8
HUF 4,999

The event in pictures