Take part!

Act, think, play!

Our overall goal aim is to provide the opportunity to explore and understand the most relevant issues of our time through the form of theatre. We want Hungary to be a place where conscious decision making and taking an active role in society come natural. The clear objective of our artistic concept is to educate for active social participation. 

Theatre is the art of acting. A possible field of social activity. It describes our world but basically gives opportunity to make questions, explore and understand the most relevant ones. It looks for dramatic moments but the aim is not to solve them but to reinterpret them.

Our goal is to encourage people to think and raise questions. Our performances focus on awarness-raising targeting social and moral problems, encourage open-mindedness and concentrate on the consequences of our acts.

Theatre in education has effects on young people’s feelings and thoughts. We strive to create performances in which participants can play an active role.

Due to these performances students can experience things which they cannot at school or in their usual environment and that is the following: they can take an active part and have a say in things. Their decisions directly influence the flow of the performance, their lifes and environment.

We make an effort to enable Hungarian youngsters to take initiative. The performances are open for anyone and we put special emphasis on providing access to disadvantaged schools who would not have the opportunity to see such performances.

REALIZATION

We have a vast and varied repertory of participatory theatre in education programmes for each age group focusing on acute social problems. We offer programmes for young children (in kindergarten) to young adults. We have been working with prominent and acknowledged experts of education and theatre for more than 30 years. Our approach includes different forms of theatre and pedagogical methods. Our headquarter is at Marczibányi Cultural Centre in Budapest but we are happy to tour to other parts of the country or abroad as well.

We believe that all young people have a right to access high quality culture and theatre, irrespective of their social class and financial background and we have been working jointly with others in informal cooperation as well to get to a broader audience.

All our performances are supported by resource material for teachers to stimulate reaction and further participation about which teachers give us reports afterwards.

With the help of our trainings we not only propagate our method but we also increase the number of students, teachers, schools and communities who feel the need to take actions, the initiative and to practise active citizenship.

RESULTS

Each year we produce 100-150 theatre in education programmes and art projects at different locations with around 5000 participants.

The focal points of our performances are current social issues we have to face in our every day lives.

ORGANIZATION AND FINANCING

Round Table Theatre in Education Company was the first theatre in education company to be established in Central Europe in 1992. Our method is unique as it motivates and inspires innovative thinking and acting. We are a public benefit organization. The company was based near Budapest but today our resource base is at the Marczibányi Cultural Centre in Budapest. It is said to be the citadel of drama in education, due to our work as well.

To have significant social impacts it has been Round Table’s policy from its inception not to charge the audience for the TIE programmes. We have been using financial resources for the tender and local resources as it is the only way to provide disadvantaged students with free access to culture and art. It is to be feared that if we change this attitude, we will follow others in the field of culture and education, and we will give up on students not so priviliged.

PRIZES AND ACKNOWLEDGEMENT FROM THE PAST

• Our play Monster Catcher has been invited to participate in the Theater Review of Classroom Performances in the spring of 2026. The jury supports us performing the play free of charge for disadvantaged students.
• Our performance, named Unforgettable, which focuses on the responsibility of generations towards each other and the theme of living with a person with dementia, has won several theater awards: it received the special award for young generations at the Youth Theater Biennale in 2024, as well as an acting award.
• The EdisonPlatform Budapest organization monitors and rewards the most innovative organizations working with children every year. In 2023, the professional jury awarded us the Creativity Award.
• In 2022, the Theater Critics Guild awarded us the Future Prize as one of the most innovative theater initiatives in the country.
• In 2017 our peformance called Silence got into the top performances at the Theatre for Chidren and Youth Festival and our other play The Giant’s Embrace was awarded with the award of excellence by the Secretariat of State for Youth Affairs and Equivalence.
• In 2014 we were invited to perform one of our TIE plays called The longer way at the POSZT Theatre Meeting for the first time in the history of Theatre in Education.
• In 2014 at the Classroom Theatre Festival three of our plays were awarded: The longer way project for youngsters with multiple disadvantages, creating and performing a play called Borderland in the area of Győr and performing a play called Crows in foster homes were supported to a great extent.
• The longer way got the greatest award of ASSITEJ and the grand prize from the Ministry for National Economy. It was the first time that TIE performances were awarded with these honours.
• In 2011 our film called Captivity got the main prize at Independent Film Festival in Budapest.