Zalka Csenge Virág, also known as The Multicolored Lady, is Hungary’s first international storyteller. She travels the world, sharing Hungarian folktales with her audiences (in English, Spanish and Hungarian), and takes all the stories she learns back home to Hungary.

Her story in a nutshell:

2000. I’m fourteen years old, and I decide that I want to be a bard. I am badly on love with Irish tales and mythology, and start reading about the art of professional tale-tellers.

2004. I graduate from high school. I am informed that professional bards don’t exist anymore, so I go to college to study Archaeology.

2006. During the summer break I accidentally come across the homepage of the ISC. I discover the world of international storytelling in one single day. I decide then and there that I am going to be a storyteller. I contant tellers via email all around the world. They start teaching me.

2007. I start doing official storytelling performances; my first gig is the Inca Exhibition at the National Museum of Fine Arts. All kinds of exciting. I receive the scholarship of the Kellner Foundation to go to the USA.

2007/2008. I spend a whole year in the USA, studying at Trinity College, Hartford Ct. I travel a lot; I attend storytelling festivals (National Storytelling Festival, St. Louis Storytelling Festival), and conferences (Sharing the Fire, Northlands, Timpanogos). I di a one-month internship at the ISC. I meet dozens of storytellers. I make firends with amazing people.

2008. I return to Hungary; now I am a professional storyteller. I even do taxes. You can’t really get more official than that.

2009, July. I attend the FEST conference in Lausanne, Switzerland. I represent Hungary. I meet more amazing people.

2009, October. I represent Hungary at the Kids Euro Festival in Washington DC. I tell Hungarian folktales in local schools, museums, and the Kennedy Center.

2010. I receive my MA in Archaeology (Roman era). Now I am a full-time professional storyteller. I have a lot of performances in Hungary and abroad.

2011. My dear friend Körmendy Petra and I organize Hungary’s first international storytelling festival (Holnemvolt Festival). We have 6 international tellers, and lots of fun. We make plans for next year.

Also 2011. I receive the Fulbright Scholarship to study storytelling in the USA during the 2011/2012 academic year.