Melissa Hawkins

While working as a company actress in Budapest’s Studio K, Melissa Hawkins was handed
the newly translated script of Juliet: A Dialogue about Love, by Andras Visky. Although
the man who gave it to her happened to be the one who commissioned the piece, he
had no motive beyond the gift of good literature. Upon reading it, however, Melissa
became determined to meet the playwright, if only to shake hands with the man who had
succeeded where so many have failed. Juliet was an uncompromising marriage of faith and
art – two ideals that all too often destroy each other.
She wrote to him and asked if he would be willing to meet her the next time he visited
Budapest. He responded by inviting her to Transylvania, an offer she could not refuse.
Expired Visa and all, she succeeded in getting into Romania, and spent a week with the
Visky family, who, in good Eastern European tradition, rolled out the red carpet for a perfect
stranger. By the end of the week Andras asked her to perform the English premiere of the
play. She left Transylvania with far more than she ever anticipated.

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