2006-2011 Editions
conferinţa
Besides the avalanche of shows produced in the 2010-2011 season, the National Theater Festival program includes a series of associated events meant to transform this reunion of practitioners and theorists of the Romanian stage into a real cultural event arousing interest all over the continent and beyond. Thus, the colloquiums dedicated to the “patron” Chekhov and his successors will join the theater book launches, the actor training workshops will rival the thematic exhibitions, and free dialogues about theater will compete with radio broadcasts of Romanian heritage radio shows inspired by Chekhov.
Octavian Saiu
Expecting fewer guests than in previous years (“big crisis, dear!” – Caragiale), but no less welcoming, the National Theater Festival will bring to public attention, as ambassadors of European theater, three very different companies coming from as different cultural spaces: Hungary, France and Portugal. Conceived chiefly as an occasion to highlight the creativity of Romanian artists in foreign professional contexts, the international section of NTF 2011 (which originally had at its center the classical triad author-director-actor – Matei Vişniec - Andrei Şerban -Anamaria Marinca – but unfortunately lost one of its members in the process) features highly acclaimed guests this year as well.
Octavian Saiu, Christopher Wynn
Expecting fewer guests than in previous years (“big crisis, dear!” – Caragiale), but no less welcoming, the National Theater Festival will bring to public attention, as ambassadors of European theater, three very different companies coming from as different cultural spaces: Hungary, France and Portugal. Conceived chiefly as an occasion to highlight the creativity of Romanian artists in foreign professional contexts, the international section of NTF 2011 (which originally had at its center the classical triad author-director-actor – Matei Vişniec - Andrei Şerban -Anamaria Marinca – but unfortunately lost one of its members in the process) features highly acclaimed guests this year as well.
Andreea Dumitru
However different from one another, the young creators who participate in the [b]Theater of tomorrow[/b] section of the National Theater Festival share a common interest in topical dramatic texts, a preference for direct means of expression with immediate impact on the audience, the latest technical resources, fraternizing with the theatergoers – as young as themselves – who usually come to their shows. Concerned with subjects like emigration, self-perception, disability, mass-media and intergenerational conflict, the stage director Ioana Păun explores them in interactive shows, using new technologies to attract and directly involve the audience in the performance. She is supported in this project by Mona Bozdog and Mihaela Michailov, who coauthored [b][i]TV for Dummies – a Show for 100 Remote Controls[/i][/b], produced by the oldest performing arts institution of Romania – Vasile Alecsandri National Theater in Iaşi. Scheduled on Monday, 31 October, at 18.00 and 22.00 at the Bucharest National Theater ‘s Atelier Hall, the show tells the story of an eight-year-old child’s disappearance and its being blown out of proportion by television, using video installations and media techniques.
Parteneri
As in previous years, ticket requests for some shows scheduled in the [b]National Theater Festival[/b] far exceeded the capacity of the theaters. This is due on the one hand to the great number of theatergoers who want to take part in such a wide-ranging event, and on the other to the increasing preference in recent years of theaters and stage directors for productions for small audiences. Following the high demand, the organizers tried – and managed – to secure technical conditions for additional performances of two shows required by theatergoers. Through an interesting coincidence, they come from the same city, Sfântu Gheorghe: [i]First You’re Born[/i], directed by Radu Afrim (to be performed also on Friday, 4 November, at 15.30, at Majestic Hall of Odeon Theater), and [i]The Merchant of Venice[/i], directed by László Bocsárdi, scheduled also for Saturday, 5 November, at 11.00, at Bulandra Theater’s Izvor Hall). Despite the complexities involved by such changes, we are happy to satisfy part of the ever-increasing demand for tickets and hope theatergoers will cause us such “troubles” in the future too!
9 Degrees in Paris
Rhythm, timbres, energy, music, movement! A tendency that is as old as it is enthusiastically rediscovered by each generation of stage directors will sometimes shift the accent from the uttered word to movement in theatrical performance. Of course, a comprehensive event such as the NTF could not remain insensitive to this perpetual rediscovery, so it became almost traditional for dance theater, movement theater or nonverbal theater to have their own section in the festival. The tradition is strengthened in this edition, this time by a preference for shows in which the choreography is not an objective per se, but melts into the fabric of the performance, imbuing and supporting it. As a result, none of the productions included in the [b]DANCE IN THEATER[/b] section pursues kinetic performance at all costs, but rather highlights the sometimes surprising choreographic skills of drama actors.
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