The exhibition will open on Saturday in Zagon, Romania, the town where Kiss (1911-1971) spent her summers in childhood.
The show was created by experts at both museums with the help of Kiss?s grandson Albert Kiss. The Hungarian Theatre Museum and Institute and the Szekler National Museum have cooperated to create a number of successful exhibition over the past five years.
Kiss often visited Zagon with her family in the summers. Today, the Mikes-Szentkereszty manor, which operates as an art centre, houses a Manyi Kiss memorial room. The room will serve as the space for the centenary exhibition.
Kiss started training as a pianist early in her childhood but took her first stage role at the age of eleven in the acting school of Miklós Izsó in Cluj-Napoca, Romania. She left Cluj-Napoca in 1926 to perform in Miskolc, Hungary, then took the stage in Szeged in 1929-1932. After that, she performed for a time in the circus, together with her Italian husband, who was also an artist. Budapest?s Operetta Theatre hired her in 1938, but she also took roles at a number of other theatres. In 1954, she joined the Madách Theatre in the capital.
She took comic roles early in her career but excelled at serious roles, such as in Brecht?s ?Mother Courage and Her Children? in the 50s too.
Over her four-and-a-half-decade career, Kiss worked in film, radio and television as well as on the stage.
She won the Jászai Prize in 1954, the Kossuth Prize in 1957, the award for artistic excellence in 1962 and the award for outstanding artistic excellence in 1964.
Source: Hungarian News Agency (MTI)
