Stephan Balint


Stephan Balint was a writer, actor, theatre director, and playwright. Balint was co-founder of New York's Squat Theatre where he wrote, acted, and directed L-Train to Eldorado and Full Moon Killer.

Life

Istvan Balint was the son of poet and artist Endre Balint. Balint was the founding member of a theater group called the Squat Theater, who performed in the living room of a house after being denied a public broadcast license by the communist regime of Hungary. The group grew into a collective that became well-known to younger artists throughout Budapest for trying to invent a new type of avant-garde production. In 1976, Balint, along with a number of other artists in the collective, toured theater festivals throughout Europe with the troupe, before relocating to New York City in mid-1977, where he changed his name to Stephan. The troupe finally settled in a theater in Chelsea, Manhattan where they became famous throughout the late 1970s and 1980s.
Among the plays Balint co-wrote, co-directed, and performed in were Pig! Child! Fire!, Andy Warhol's Last Love, and Mr. Dead & Mrs. Free.
He also acted in several films, including Hunter, directed by Robert Frank, written by himself; American Stories: Food, Family and Philosophy in 1989; and The Golden Boat in 1990.
Balint returned to Budapest in the early 1990s, continuing his work until the start of his long illness in 2002, dying in 2007 of pneumonia. He was survived by his daughter Eszter Balint, his son Gaspar Balint who lives in Budapest, and his grandson August Balint DuClos, who lives in New York.

Plays

Films

Publication

  • Manifesto. by István Bálint on behalf of studio kassak and published in Schmuck, Hungary, March/April 1973 issue. New Observations. Guest Editors Eva Buchmuller and Stephan Balint. Copyright 1986, New Observations Ltd. and the authors, all rights reserved.

Awards

  • 1978 – Obie Award, for outstanding achievement for Pig, Child, Fire
  • 1979 – Grand Prix at BITEF, Belgrade International Theatre Festival, Belgrade
  • 1979 – Best Foreign Theatre Performance of the Year, Italian Critics Award for Andy Warhol's Last Love
  • 1981 – Best American Play–Obie Award for Mr. Dead & Mrs. Free
  • 1983 – Special Obie Award, Grand Prize
  • 1985 – Star of the Week by Hamburger Abendblatt for Dreamland Burns
  • 1989 – New York Foundation for the Arts Fellowship to writer director Balint and set designer Eva Buchmuller