Beth Spisljak is a prominent figure in the Budapest English-language arts and cultural scene. Beth has been involved with BET from the early days. She is best known as a versatile theatre professional, actor, and marketing/front-of-house manager for BET. Over the years, Spisljak has taken on multifaceted roles across the local arts landscape. She has performed in popular BET productions such as the comedy Pretext, Master of his domain. Other than her love for ballet and theatre, she’s a master in sports and a go-to for any guy wanting to know the odds of teams winning or losing.

Balázs Csémy (“Blas”) is a multi-lingual actor, born in the former Czechoslovakia; he resides today in Budapest and Berlin. Balázs/Blas has performed in more than five languages in both Hungarian and several international TV productions. The wide spectrum of his theatrical work spanned from Shakespeare to contemporary musicals and opera. After having finished his second degree at RADA in London, Blas made a seamless transition from stage to the world of television. Balázs will shortly appear in the Hallmark movie: “River Cruise Romance” and the TV-series “Band of Spies”. Currently he appears in the production of Carmina Burana at the Hungarian State Opera and he has just wrapped in the Hungarian movie: “Kegyelem”. Our audience will remember him as Katurian in our production of The Pillowman and Ray Dooley in The Beautiy Queen of Leenane.

Rupert Slade is a prominent English comedian and co-founder of Hot Paprika Comedy, the collective that established the English-language stand-up scene in Budapest. Often focusing on the expat experience, his cultural impact earned him a feature on the cover of Forbes Hungary. Before comedy, Slade spent decades as a senior corporate executive, serving as regional head for PHD Media across Central and Eastern Europe. A Budapest resident for nearly 20 years, he also regularly organizes local charity events.

Rupert appeared in BET’s original production, Master of his Domain.

Declan Hannigan was born in Donegal in north west Ireland and has been writing since he was a young child. His film career began when he was cast in John Sayle’s The Secret of Roan Inish in 1993 and has continued since in films such as The Martian and Atomic Blonde. He played the lead antagonist in the biopic Curtiz about the making of Casablanca. He joined the cast of The Terror for AMC and featured in The Witcher. Declan has also written and directed for the screen, winning the Madrid Film Festival with his short Csapas in 2008 and winning the inaugural Hypewriter contest with his script The Butcher.
– IMDb mini biography by: John Harper

Declan appeared in BET’s original production of “Master of his domain” and Martin McDonagh’s “The Pillowman”

Rebecka Johnston is a Swedish actress based in Budapest. When she was 16 years old, she discovered classical singing and that would bring her to Budapest to study at the Franz Liszt Music Academy, and would soon also lead to the beginning of her acting career. Rebecka is mainly a screen actor with experience from a range of international television series and films. The Beauty Queen of Leenane was her introduction to the world of drama on stage.

Rebecka played Maureen Folan in our production of Martin McDonagh’s, The Beauty Queen of Leenane

Although her background is Hungarian way back, Marta Legrady was born in Austria and lived most of her life in Canada, moving to Budapest three years ago. Most recent Theatre pieces were Miss Lynch in Grease, Mary in The Stain, and the wife in Waking. Film and television include Murdoch Mysteries, Obsession (Lifetime) and Shazam.

Marta played Mag Folan in our production of Martin McDonagh’s, The Beauty Queen of Leenane

Martin O’Regan is a teacher by trade but from listening to his students was convinced back in 2018 to take to the stage. Since then he has been involved in four plays, two as an actor in amateur performances with an amateur acting group, DramaWorks, and two with an independent theatre group, Asterion Project Theatre, the second play of which, Beauty, is still running with prospects of being performed at arts festivals in the spring. He has also done some advertising shoots for online campaigns for start-up companies and has dabbled in film with featured extra roles in a feature film and in an action series. He has even dared to do stand-up but that’s another story.

Martin played Pato Dooley in our production of Martin McDonagh’s, The Beauty Queen of Leenane.

Izak Furstenberg achieved a National Diploma in Performing Arts Technology, majoring in lighting and sound, from the Pretoria Technicon. His career within the Theatre and Television sectors commenced in 2000 in South Africa as a lighting technician, later advancing to the role of a lighting designer and director. After moving to Budapest in 2015, Izak has served as the technical director for Budapest English Theatre since 2015, Production titles include “Master of his domain” and “The Pillowman.” Esö Theatricals’ musicals, “Sweeney Todd” and “The Music Man.” He revived the partnership with BET for the production of “Beauty Queen Of Leenane’ as Technical director and Producer.

Robert Cogo-Fawcett has worked in the theatre all his life. He was a founder-director of Manchester’s Royal Exchange Theatre and went from there to Riverside Studios and the Lyric Hammersmith in London. From this point onwards he began to produce theatre commercially and went on to run Theatre Royal, Bath and to programme the Ambassador Group’s eight regional and nine West End theatres. He was the founding producer of the Barbicans BITE Festival and afterwards artistic advisor to Londons Old Vic before becoming Clear Channel European Theatre Director. He has written seven plays as well as having produced, managed, acted in or directed over 300 others. For most of the year he lives quietly on Lake Balaton with his dog, Fanny.

Robert Cogo-Fawcett directed our production of Martin McDonagh’s, Beauty Queen of Leenane.

Lívia Hábermann’s career as an actress has followed an unconventional path. From 1994, she studied at Margit Földessy’s Drama Studio, where she later worked as an assistant drama instructor. She earned her degree from the International Business School, where she studied between 2000 and 2005. Since 2000, she has worked as a freelance actress, performing in theatre productions, television series, and films. She is best known for her role in the Hungarian TV series Tűzvonalban (In the Line of Fire), and has also appeared in The Bridge Man (Hídember) and The Door (Az ajtó), directed by István Szabó. Thanks to her excellent command of English, she also served as Helen Mirren’s personal assistant during the filming of The Door. In addition to her on-screen and stage work, she is an established voice actress. Over the years, she also completed the Drama Instructor programme at the University of Theatre and Film Arts (SZFE). Alongside her acting work at the Hungarian Theatre, she is responsible for establishing and running the theatre’s children’s studio.

Lívia appeared in BET’s original production, Master of his Domain.

Esther Holbrook was born in Carmel, California, USA on 5 October 1975. She was raised in Ashland, Oregon and moved to Budapest, Hungary in 1998, where she has lived ever since.A program coordinator at Central European University’s Center for Religious Studies, she is also on occasion a writer, actress, and voice artist. She performs as part of the Provocative Giraffe Comedy Show and Literary Event in Budapest and this January 2022, she and her friend Patrick Mullowney have launched the Cipher Theatre Company, which puts on public staged readings of English language playscripts in Budapest.  A long-standing Pester and happily single, she resides in Újlipótváros with her recently adopted pandemic puppy, Cifra. – XpatLoop

Esther appeared in BET’s production, Pretext.

Madeleine Damasdi appeard in BET’s original production, Pretest.

Sasha Wittinski helped realising the dramatised play reading for In the groove of Forgetting. Sasha has an extensive repertoire in film and theatre. She acquired her BA in Authorial Acting in 2023 from the Academy of Performing Arts in Prague (DAMU – Theatre Faculty)