Theatre Design & Technology - Oct 1974 - 14

All costumes are stored in the house, in a tightly
packed storage space over the auditorium. Fabrics for the
lavishly costumed productions are either Hungarian or
imported. There are no limits to the variety of materials
Forray can use for costumes or sets, aside from the
customary ones of budget. "Naturally, artists would like
to have unlimited funds and the best of everything. But
we have a financial administration, as well as an artistic
one, in this house, and they tell us how much we can
spend. That is correct."
For eight new productions each year, Forray has some
two million forints to expend for textiles, wood, metal,
cable, and equipment. The official rate of exchange is
twenty-three forints to the dollar. Costs of workers'
salaries, artists' fees, and house maintenance are all taken
care of in other budgets. Thus to note that this money
wou Id pay for one lavish Metropol itan Opera production
is not qu ite fair, since the Met's costs include wages and
fees, too. "You just can't compare our two situations," he
stated.
By Western standards the Hungarian government is very
generous with subsidies. Most theatres, includ ing the
opera, are supported at nearly seventy per cent of annual
expenses. And performers and technicians are understandably well paid in this culture-loving socialist society.
In fact, on 1 April 1974, all theatre salaries were raised by
twenty-five per cent including those of the cleaning

women! The staff and artists needed to keep two large
theatres filled with productions, and aud iences, six days a
week are impressive in their size. Despite all these costs in
wages and materials, prices of opera and theatre tickets
remain low. Thus, annual attendance of 620,000 is not
astonishing. Perhaps the most desirable seats may cost as
much as $2 or $2.50, but there are many seats which sell
for as little as 25 to 50 cents.
Naturally, Forray agrees, even with such handsome
support, one always has to cut corners and use the staff
efficiently. Old costumes may be recut or remodeled for
new productions. In the paintshop, he pointed to new
flats made of a mixture of new lumber and old battle
scarred wood. Some worn flats were being scrubbed clean
for reuse. Forray ticked off his staff: 44 grips at the
National, 34 at the Erkel; 25 electricians at the National,
abou t 20 at the Erkel; 5 in the pa int-shop, some 15
carpenters, 4 metalsm iths, 2 scu Iptors, 2 costume
designers, and assorted seamstresses, tailors, and other
assistants. At the time of our interview, Forray had no
personal assistant. He had one briefly in 1_973, but it
didn't work out. "He wanted to be the boss himself,"
Forray said, shaking his head.
Since Forray's concerns are not just those of creating
designs, but also making sure things get built properly and
used effectively and carefully on the old National stage, it
might seem that he is trying to do too much. It doesn't

THEATRE DESIGN AND TECHNOLOGY

OCTOBER. 1974

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