I am at the beginning of this journey, and articulating my artistic desires and the aesthetic of Creature feels fragmentary, much like what it feels like to relate to my ancestors. And as the child of Magyar immigrants three times removed, I know that I am also blinded by nostalgia, the feeling that I'm an impostor, even though I have seen pictures and documents of my ancestors. The schism of these feelings, especially as a former runaway who has both longed for home and run from it, feels resonant to me. And though Magyar has no pronouns, it is a highly gendered society. With Viktor Orban’s ‘illiberal democracy’, a government gleefully removing trans rights and inspiring US Republicans “Don’t Say Gay” bills, learning the the legényes feels visceral, a profound reconnection to my ethnicity as a genderqueer body rebelling against prevailing binaries. Creature will be an allegory for these complexities; integrating into the work of queer elder Count Sandor Vey, literature and ethnography to create a cohesive piece.

- Tanya

Creature (in-development)

Creature explores trans-masculinity and Magyar-Hungarian ancestry through a male folk dance called ‘legényes’ and the writings of 20th century transmasc-Hungarian writer Count Sándor Vay.

Devised with Budapest folk dancers Gergö D. Farkás, Bálazs Oláh, and Julcsi Vavra, director zavé martohardjono, sound designer Jaye Kovach, and dramaturge Gyula Muskovics, in-process showings of Creature have been presented at the Banff Centre, the Brick AUX, and at the U500 Fesztival in Budapest; an essay based on the material was published in OffAssignment, which was nominated for a 2022 Pushcart and a Notable in Best American Essays 2022. Upcoming Playwrights Canada Press' anthology Do Trans People Dream of Electric Dream will include an excerpt of the play, and a Magyar translation of the U500 performance was published for the festival.

Creature is supported by the Canada Council for the Arts, Hunter College, and PSC-CUNY and through residencies at The Brick AUX, Banff Centre for the Arts, and Arts Quarter Budapest.

Production History:

June 16, 2024, U500 Fesztival, Budapest, Hungary.

June 4, 2023, Brick AUX, Brooklyn, New York.

May 13, 2023, Banff Centre for Art & Creativity, Banff, Alberta.