writer, creator and director of performances, operas and plays
photo: Sandra Then
JAKAB TARNÓCZI was born in Hungary in 1994. After high school, he was admitted to the University of Theatre and Film Arts in Budapest, where he studied directing with a focus on music-theatre for five years. During his university years, he worked with several theatres, including the Szigligeti Theatre, Oradea; Thalia Theatre, Budapest; the Hungarian State Opera; and Katona József Theatre, Budapest. After graduating in 2019, he freelanced for a year before joining Katona József Theatre, Budapest in 2020, where he has been a permanent director and a member of the Artistic Council since 2021.
Initially directing classics, Tarnóczi has focused in recent years on original stage projects, often as a writer or co-writer. That’s how he created his notable works at Katona Theatre including God, Homeland, Family (2021), Lonely Lives(2022), Ecstasy (2023), and Radical Relax (2024). His experimental production Melancholy Rooms was invited to the Lessingtage Festival, Hamburg in 2023, leading to international collaborations in the German language area. Within a year he developed the production, Das Gastmahl (2024) in Theater Aachen, directed the Austrian premier of Githa Sowerby’s Rutherford and Son (2025) in Schauspielhaus Graz, and directed the first premiere of Asiimwe Deborah Kawe’s The Promised Land (2025) in Residenztheater München. His multimedia installation winterreise.box, based on his Winterreise production at Örkény Theatre, Budapest represented Hungary at the 2023 Prague Quadrennial and won an award.
The Hungarian Theatre Critics’ Association named him the “Most Promising Young Artist” in 2019, and since then, several of his productions and collaborators have been nominated for or received awards from the Association In 2023, he received the Junior Prima Award. Since 2021, he has also been teaching at the FreeSzfe Association.
He is currently working on an adaptation of Marlen Haushofer’s Wir töten Stella for Schauspielhaus Graz, and is also co-writing his newest play, Requiem, for the Katona József Theatre, Budapest.
AWARDS AND FESTIVALS
2025 Hungary Live Festival, New York City, La MaMa Experimental Theatre (US)
LONELY LIVES
2024 Awards of the Hungarian Critics’ Association
EXTASIS
Best Setdesign (Botond Devich) - winner
Best Actress in a Supporting Role (Júlia Mentes) - winner
2023 Awards of the Hungarian Critics’ Association
LONELY LIVES
Best Actress in a Supporting Role (Réka Pelsőczy) - nominated
2023 - Junior Prima Prize
2023 Prague Quadrennial, Prague (CZ)
WINTERREISE.BOX
Best Design in the Exhibition of Countries and Regions - winner
2023 Lessingtage, Hamburg (DE)
MELANCHOLY ROOMS
2022 Via Carpatia Festival, Olsztyn (PL)
MELANCHOLY ROOMS
2022 Awards of the Hungarian Critics’ Association
MELANCHOLY ROOMS
Best Performance of the Year - winner
Best Director - nominated
Best Setdesign (Ilka Giliga) - winner
Best Music for Theatre (Máté Hunyadi, Levente Bencsik) - winner
Best Actress in a Supporting Role (Erika Bodnár) - nominated
GOD, HOMELAND, FAMILY
Best New Theatre Text (Zsófia Varga, Jakab Tarnóczi) - nominated
Best Performance of the Year - nominated
Best Director - nominated
Best Actor in a Supporting Role (Béla Mészáros) - winner
2020 Voila Europe Theatre Festival, London (UK)
FAREWELL CONCERT
OffFest – Theatre Festival Award, London - winner
2019 Awards of the Hungarian Critics’ Association
Most Promising Newcomer - winner