Zsolt Pozsgai

Biography

Zsolt Pozsgai (born 20 September 1960 in Pécs) is a Hungarian freelance writer, playwright, stage and film director, and film producer (Horatio Film). Completed his secondary education in Pécs. 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 Pécs University as a correspondent student. The amateur theatre became a recognised alternative company. When he was 24, he “signed on” with the Pécs National Theatre, working first as an assistant director and then as the theatre’s secretary and dramaturge. When the theatre’s 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 Sándor 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 – the Madách 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 Jókai in Békéscsaba and the Katona József in Kecskemét. Currently he is the artistic director of the Budapest inner city theatre Komédium Theatre, the artistic director of the Pécsvárad Castle Theatre operating in the summer season and dramaturge at the Magyar Theatre in Budapest. Awards: - Europa Prize – Berlin Playwrights Festival, 1995, for “Arthur and Paul” - Szép Ernő Prize – best new Hungarian play award, 1994, for “Wax Bird” (Viaszmadár), Madách Theatre, Budapest - Hungarian Playwrights Festival 1997 – first place, professional and spectators’ prizes - Hungarian Playwrights Festival 1998 – first place, professional and spectators’ prizes - Hungarian Playwrights Festival 1999 – first place, professional and spectators’ prizes - Golden Lion Prize – best dramatist – Grand Prize of the Persian Academy