What Have You Been Doing for Three Years?

Featuring: Zsolt Csepei, Levente Imecs-Magdó, Bence Molnár, Margit Molnár, Maja Sebők, Emese Simó, Nándor Vetési (former cast: Tekla Ravasz and Andrej Visky)
Set Designer: Zsófia Gábor
Costume Designers: Andrea Kürti and Réka Máthé
Text: Johanna Bertóti
Music: Johanna Bertóti, József Iszlai, Balázs Sándor and Krisztina Sipos
Trailer: József Iszlai
Subtitles: Johanna Bertóti
Lights and Sound: Tamás Imecs
Visual and PR: Júlia Anna Makkai

First run: November 28, 2011, at Tranzit House
Duration: 2 hours with one pause

The Students in Kolozsvár
Are fast in learning the names of pubs
Monthly receive a pack from home,
The mould takes over the content of a forgotten jar (sent from home)
Pays half the price of travel fees
and manage to spent the two weeks’ pocket money in one day
It is very likely that – if this be the case – they will resort to bribing the conductor
Don’t always sleep at home….sometimes they sleep others they don’t
Are longing for a hot meal.

The play aims to describe the daily problems of the students living in Kolozsvár from their first days of accommodation through their struggle with the bureaucratic nets of society to the academic achievements. Despite what the title might suggest the play encompasses more than three years presenting their job seeking process that in many cases turns out to be utterly hopeless as this is the factor that inevitably triggers the infamous exodus of the youth. Even if it mirrors the prevailing image of the student it also speaks to those who wish to become students, to those who have graduated and last but not least it addresses the parents as well.

The play succeeds to develop different situations some of them are realistic some totally utopistic, thus it is mainly dominated by the vivid alternation of the absurd and realistic scenes. The main starting points are almost all the time the well-known elements that make up the life of a student: the pub, the house party, the secretary’s office, cheating at exams, unwanted pregnancy, hunger etc. What Have Your Been Doing for Three Years tackles these issues by shedding a theatrical light on the realities and does this by using the adequate language and music; its aim is, on one hand, to entertain and, on the other hand, to raise the awareness in order for the society to recognize these real problems that students are struggling with day by day.

Festival Participations:
March 27, 2014: Art Days from Cluj-Napoca – Sopron (Hungary)
September 27 – October 13, 2013: TiMAF – Cluj-Napoca
November 17, 2012: Inter-ethnic Theater Festival – Oradea
October 26, 2012: Drama Today (dráMA) Theater Meeting – Odorheiu Secuiesc

Set construction time: 5 hours
Set decomposition time: 2 hours
Stage dimensions: 8 m x 8 m

Lights:
12 pieces. PC 1000W,
5 db. ETC 650W/PC 1000W deflettore
In Total 17 current circuits

Sound:
2 pieces Speakers (min. 300W)
1 min. 8 channel mixer

Photos by Bethlendi Tamás: 1-10; Demes Hanna: 11-13; Kővágó Nagy Imre: 14-19.

Vicsi Judith: What did you do for three years? – University to the third power
“Catchy tunes, humorous lyrics accompanied the two hour play.”

Tamás Lovassy Cseh: Three Years of Store Power
www.jatekter.ro, 17th January 2013

“One of the greatest merits of the theatre company is the fact that with this play they succeed to strike a chord in all of us, that is in every youth studying in from Kolozsvári (and not just in Kolozsvári), and by doing this they attract a totally new layer of society. On the other hand they succeeded to refresh the damp costumes, the dusty attics and the squeaky deck tiles that usually host their Transylvanian productions, they have brought in a breath of fresh air, something different, something cool, something young yet still food for thought. Hence they have given us something that the audience has lacked, and are still lacking today as well, even if the theatre company now celebrates its third birthday. ”

Emőke Kovács: What have you done for three years? – WaitingRoom Project, Cluj Napoca
Ifeszt blog, 17th November 2012
„(…) I’m glad for the Waiting Room Project’s initiative, to open up for different kind of themes.”

Orsolya Réman: A taste of the contemporary world
dráMA 4 blog, 27th October 2012
„ This method of working is very exciting, and it’s a good example of the innovative efforts of today’s independent theater.”

Péter Demény: Columbus in the Waiting Room
Erdélyi Riport, XI. season 22. (428.)issue, 8th of July.

“The performances were all implacable. Sebők Maya bothered me lavishly when playing the last doctor that is preparing to emigrate, the teacher who is wishing to go abroad and after this spree she is lavishly afraid and offended, the equally lavish mother to be who was slapped by her husband because he does not want the child. Molnár Margit is a divine victim in the hitchhiking scene, she is a divine contestant in the student cookery show and last but not least a divine Hungarian custom officer. Ravasz Tekla is a ravishing secretary and mother of the prodigal son.”
Csepei Zsolt is a fine example of a husband, latter on student in the scene with the teacher, and he plays the part of a computer game character rather finely. Imecs Levente is a wonderful prodigal son, partner in the computer game and an equally wonderful American student at the party. Vetési Nándor is a stupendous vandal and a rather stormy bear at the children’s birthday party (he literally looks like a pooh bear), he is furthermore a stupendous custom officer and father. Visky Andrej is a gorgeous policeman, computer character and presenter in the cookery show.”

K. Réka Veres: What Can One Do in Three Years
Szabadság, 2nd of May 2012

“For the outsiders these scenes might seem a little exaggerated, but for some who had once lived in this city as a student would recognise their past or present life on the stage. Behind the humour, however, there are real conflicts that arise from the difficulties of accommodating to the new environment.”

Bea Kovács: Documented or fake?
Helikon, XXIII., 2012. 4. (594.) – february 25.
„It’s about young creators, who feel the arts do not reflect on which essentially consists of, the reality – in our case, the student life in Cluj.”

E. Rózsa Széman: What Has the Waiting Room Project Been Doing for Three Years
Szabadság, 3rd of December 2011

“What could you have done for three years? One complete, complex and wholesome play, lifelike, yet it does not display the traces of perspiration of an improvised performance (…) The WRP members exhibit the student life in a series of episodes, they are neither pro nor con, they impartially let the viewers judge where does the truth lie. On the other hand they remove all possible doubt about what they themselves have been doing for three years: they have been moulded into a homogenous and strong group that can take the challenge of a performance that does not provide a sure safety net. ”