In drag queen role
Pansexual causes a sensation as a cool drag queen
Alongside Viktor Gernot and Drew Sarich, Paul Csitkovics is one of the most applauded actors in the folk opera musical "A Cage Full of Fools". In the play, the Burgenland native can be seen as a drag queen, in his private life he is pansexual. The "Krone" spoke to him about love, family and gender concepts.
In his "Ode to Joy", Friedrich Schiller once wrote about the "boards that mean the world". Paul Csitkovics didn't know what that meant when he was six years old, but he probably already knew what it felt like back then. At the end of the 1990s, his mother and grandmother founded the leisure club "Sportunion Fit Und Xund Oberpullendorf", where children could take dance, acting and singing lessons. Csitkovics was also allowed to try out there as a child and slip into every conceivable role for performances. In this way, he discovered his talent for the stage through play.
At grammar school, he attended the music section, played the piano and began writing his own songs. After his A-levels, he studied electrical engineering, English and physics for two semesters to become a teacher. "However, I quickly realized that these interests would remain just a hobby and that my true calling was something else. That's why, after this gap year, I completed a three-year acting, dance and singing course at the Performing Academy in Vienna," says the 29-year-old.
"It doesn't work without soul"
During this time, he was already on stage in the musicals "Messiah Rocks" and "Jesus Christ Superstar". In "Into the Woods" at the English Theater in Vienna, he even shone in a double role as Cinderella's prince and the wicked wolf. The "tough training" has shaped and molded him: "You have to be extremely receptive and open to criticism, because you're taken apart twelve hours a day. At the same time, you have to make sure that you don't lose yourself and your artistic standards. That takes its toll. That's why many students have not managed to complete this training."
Csitkovics has managed it. Has he put on protective armor to shed fewer tears? "The really good ones are the ones who have remained sensitive and still manage not to let everything get to them. Losing your inner child and your inner idealist is the worst thing that can happen to you. Because you can't be in this business without a soul."
Musical raises pressing social issues
His always resonates. Whether he is playing Bernardo in "West Side Story" at the Mörbisch Lake Festival, Prince Ferdinand in "Drosselbart" at the Brothers Grimm Festival in Hanau, Romeo in "Romeo and Juliet" at the Theater des Westens in Berlin - or, as is currently the case, the shrill drag queen "Phaedra" in "La Cage Aux Folles" at the Vienna Volksoper, where Csitkovics is on stage with Viktor Gernot and Drew Sarich until April 30.
"The play is about a family consisting of two fathers. Together they run a nightclub in Saint Tropez - one as a showmaster, the other as a drag queen. When their son wants to marry the daughter of a conservative politician of all people, for whom all dissenters are a thorn in his side, the two fathers try to cover up their unconventional family life when he visits. Of course, this goes wrong and in the end the question is raised: What actually is family? Who can call themselves father and mother? Do you have to be related by blood or is love enough?"
Questionable gender concepts
The fact that the musical is so well received by audiences is not only due to the protagonists' wit and hilarious performances, but also to the high potential for identification. "When Drew Sarich sings 'I am what I am', there's not a dry eye in the house. Understandable! After all, we all want to be loved for ourselves, for who we are," says Csitkovics, getting to the heart of the play's socio-political message.
However, he also enjoys being part of the ensemble so much because classic gender concepts are called into question: "I myself am pansexual. This means that gender plays no role in the question of whether you find someone attractive and appealing in a spiritual, emotional, romantic, physical or sexual way. I don't care about my partner's gender identity at all. They can also be transgender, non-binary or intersex. I fall in love with the essence, the soul of a person, not their gender."
How antipathy turned into love
Csitkovics has been attracted to both men and women since he was in his early 20s. For the past five years, however, he has been in a happy relationship with his boyfriend Fin Holzwart, a German musical performer whom he met during the production of "Footlose" in Darmstadt. He also regularly spends time with him at his family home in Burgenland. Was it love at first sight?
"No, not really at all! We thought we were mega-arrogant at first. We were just insecure and didn't want to show our true selves. But when we got to know each other better, we became pretty much best friends and soon after that, we became a couple." However, he cannot yet imagine having children together:
'When you have a child, you have to accept that you're no longer the main actor in your life - at least for a few years, otherwise the child won't do well. Due to my professional commitments, this is not possible. But I am now four times an uncle and very happy in this role.
Musicaldarsteller Paul Csitkovics
Historical reappraisal
However, he is busy working on a professional "baby". As the artist collective "Butz & Reineke", Csitkovics and Holzwart write plays, scripts for films and music. They are currently working on their first joint stage play. "Einsam war ich nie" is based on true events and deals with the persecution of homosexual people during the Nazi era. It is set to premiere in 2026.
This article has been automatically translated,
read the original article here.
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