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“Something has started, and I see imagination in it!” Ilona Várhalmi’s son quoted the favourite phrase of the legendary artistic director of the Ady Endre Grammar School at the award ceremony
On the eve of Hungarian Culture Day, the Ilona Várhalmi Awards were presented at the Vojtina Puppet Theatre. For the first time, Dorottya Danyi and Judit Nagyné Bacsó received the prize, which honours the memory of the legendary artistic director of the Ady Grammar School.
Dorottya Danyi has been teaching biology and Latin at St Joseph’s Kindergarten, Primary School, Secondary School and Dormitory since September 2000. Judit Nagyné Bacsó has been a teacher at the Greek Catholic Nursery and Primary School named after the Blessed Virgin Mary in Újfehértó since 2011. She teaches mathematics, environmental studies, visual culture, technology and design, as well as national and ethnological studies.
Anikó Asbóth, Director of Vojtina Puppet Theatre, presented this year’s six nominees for the award (Katalin Geréné Kristóf, Gergely Kovács, Dorottya Danyi, Attila Engszler, Judit Nagyné Bacsó and Edit Bagossi), and said that the two winners were chosen by the members of the Board of Trustees.
Balázs Szilágyi, son of Ilona Várhalmi, was emotional when he said that his mother loved Debrecen and its culture. As he said, if his mother saw what was happening here from up there, she would probably say what she had said countless times in her life: “Something has started, and I see fantasy in it!”
Deputy Mayor for Cultural Affairs, István Puskás, recalled a personal memory. He met Aunt Cila when he was a student at Tóth Árpád Grammar School (abbreviated as TÁG in Hungarian), when he was a member of the school’s drama team. As he said, you couldn’t help but know about Ilona Várhalmi, they were so curious about her and her students’ work that they even sneaked into the Ady Gala. The Deputy Mayor emphasised that the creation of this prize is the result of an institutional collaboration, and through it the community of Debrecen recognises teachers who introduce and promote culture to students.
In memory of Ilona Várhalmi, who passed away last February, five Debrecen cultural institutions, Modem, Déri Museum, Csokonai National Theatre, the Arts Centre of the Faculty of Humanities of the University of Debrecen and the Vojtina Puppet Theatre, established an award.
The aim of the award is to recognize teachers who follow the programmes of Debrecen cultural institutions with special attention and regularly accompany their students to them. The cooperating parties will award two teachers who carry out public education activities in the region in January of each year, in addition to the commemorative plaque of artist Éva Varga, the parties will also make offerings to the awardees. The institutions’ boards of trustees will present the award on the 21st of January of each year, on the eve of the Day of Hungarian Culture.
The award ceremony will be organised by a different cultural institution each year, the first venue being the Vojtina Puppet Theatre.
Ilona Várhalmi was the Deputy Head of the Ady Endre Grammar School in Debrecen and its artistic director. She graduated from the Tóth Árpád Grammar School and later worked at the institution as well. She obtained a teaching diploma in Hungarian and German and a physical education teaching certificate, and subsequently completed the theater theory program at the doctoral school of the University of Theater and Film Arts. In 2013, at the request of the city, she staged the musical “Légy jó mindhalálig” (Be Good Until Death), which quickly became a favorite performance. She was awarded the first Ady Ring award of the Ady Endre High School, which has been voted by the faculty as the teacher of the year since 2003.
There is no theater in the country that does not have a former student of hers. She taught many subjects, so she was able to get to know the children from as many sides as possible, with whom she had a particularly close relationship. She mostly taught drama students, she was available day and night, even on Saturdays and Sundays. When the Ady Grammar School started up, she was given the task of setting up the drama department. Since then, many of her former pupils have become nationally known theatre artists.
Source and photo credit:debrecen.hu
