Double Centenary in Kolozsvár in 1892 Celebrating József Katona and the Beginnings of Professional Acting in Transsylvania

Abstract

In 1892 the cultural center of Transylvania, Kolozsvár, held a double celebration: the centenary of the birth of the playwright József Katona and the „birth” of professional acting in Transsylvania – later it proved to be a false coincidence.

The paper examines the fusion of two narratives and the construction of the self-definition of the theatre of Kolozsvár, while analyzing the structure of the festivities that followed the transnational, but at the same time locally adapted patterns of the extremely popular jubilees and centenaries in the 19th century.