Marika Barnett photo

Marika Barnett

Born in 1934 in Budapest, Hungary. Survived the Holocaust by hiding with a Gentile family in the industrial section of Pest; hiding in a Roman Catholic convent, located in the Buda Hills. In the last weeks of the war (hiding in a coal-cellar) she and her family were protected by the German SS from the Hungarian Nazis. OK, OK, for money and signatures, but one of them even gave his life for the 1000 Jews he protected. Marika’s story about this has been published in the book: “Remember Us!” and later in the movie with the same title.

After the 1956 anti-Soviet Hungarian Revolution failed, Marika and about two dozen of her friends escaped to Vienna on December 3rd , 1956. A month later, on January 3rd , 1957 she arrived to the United States. Here in the states her Hungarian diploma of Clinical Psychology was evaluated to be between the Master’s Degree and PhD. After raising two wonderful boys, her background in psychology seemed to be the perfect choice to enter the computer field. In the 1970-s the computer industry was full of ex-psychologists, English and Philosophy majors. She progressed very fast at Honeywell. A Principal Software Engineer she was part of the developing team of UFT. The UFT (Unified File Transfer) program is still the basis of the current Email we all use. After working 25 years for Honeywell, Digital and Oracle, she has retired.

After retirement she started to work for two Boston area cable TV stations in different capacities. She is also a successful, published photographer. Five of her Brooklyn Bridge photographs are permanently displayed in the new World Trade Center of New York. Others are at several different public places. Her photographs can be seen at: www.mbarnett.com

Her short play, “The Eleventh Minute” became one of the top three finalists in the 7th Annual New Play Competition of the Chameleon Theater of Minneapolis and the New Voices Competition in Massachusetts. In the same year it was performed at the Secret Rose Theater Festival in Los Angeles. The same play won the Audience Appreciation Award at the Playwrights’ Platform’s Festival of Boston. Heuer Publishing promptly published the play and considers it one of their best-sellers. This play and another short play of hers, “Chekhov and Pinter take a [pause]” were filmed and shown on several cable TV stations. “Chekhov and Pinter takes a [pause]” – was instantly published in an online magazine’s issue on avant-garde plays. It won Second Price at the 2007 Playwrights’ Platform Festival and it was performed as the final-exam for the University of Massachusetts’ course on Directing.

Her award winning 10 minute play: “Perfect Match” is about a woman with two heads… One belongs to a Belly-dancer, the other to a Psychoanalyst. Both can be seen on YouTube. Not the heads! Just the two short plays:

“The Eleventh Minute” [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GaTpZiQK5A0 ] and the

“Perfect Match” .[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ouC0TYDNq0w]

Five years ago Marika’s husband, Istvan learned that he has colon cancer. He went through three surgeries and he is still on chemotherapy. Their most urgent problem became: “what shall we do while we are spending hours and hours and hours in the hospital waiting for various doctors, nurses, treatments, therapies, etc.”

It didn’t take them long to come up with the right answer!

“We shall write a musical!”

…and they did! They wrote the libretto (= book and lyrics) of “CAPTAIN FILTHY FRED”!

A young, talented Hollywood composer, Alan Wurman, is writing the music. Their musical will premier at the La MaMa Theater (66 E 4th St, New York, NY 10003) on: June 21 at 8 PM with following performances on June 22 at 3 PM and 8 PM; on June 23 at 3 PM and 8 PM; They plan to be there for all 5 performances. If you have an opportunity to be there, they’ll be delighted to see you!

Marika is working on several plays currently. Her full length play „Villa in the Andes” is about the days of the infamous Dr. Mengele in South America after WWII. In her One Act play, „Escape”, seven people cross the Austria/Hungary border in 1956 and their first resting place is an abandoned Austrian hunting lodge near the border, Here, as they comfort, confront and challenge each other, we gradually learn that each of them carry a bigger baggage than fits into their backpacks or battered suitcases.

Marika’s two sons have always given her a lot of happiness and joy. Alexander is a writer. He and his wife and their 8 year old daughter Eden live nearby. Erik, his wife and their two teenage children, Sam and Julia live in London.

Marika and Istvan live on the shore of a beautiful lake. In the summer time they swim, sail, water-ski; in the winter they ice skate or just take long walks on the frozen lake. …and write plays about two headed women…