The Missing Classmate Social Theatre Program, winner of the Art Category, was established in 2012 by sociologists (Anblokk, Parforum), drama teachers (Káva), and amateur Roma actors, and has thus far been presented on 16 occasions to high school classes. This theatre is not really a theatre. Rather, it is an artistic intervention that utilizes the forms of sociological research and participatory theatre towards common thinking, and seeks to create a shared space of alternative thinking. The program focuses on a single theme: the incongruities of the Hungarian educational system and its mechanisms of selection that sustain and reinforce social inequalities. The participatory theatre dramatizes the key points in the selection processes one undergoes as a student (starting school, being assigned to a group, continuation of studies) as performed by young, talented Roma actors—from their vantage point, presenting their own experiences—to students of “reputable” city high schools, who are just about to graduate.
