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. Although circumscribed as an established phenomenon at a precise historical moment (the mid-20th century), the theater of the absurd insinuates itself in often surprising forms, as a premonition or an oddity, in the works of playwrights from very different times and places, who share a preference to place man under the same sign of the irrational. The possible continuity between Chekhov and Ionesco and the fate of the tragic farce in 2011 will be the topics approached by reputed theatrologists from various corners of the world invited to Romania to express their viewpoints on the theme The absurd in theater from Chekhov to Eugène Ionesco: Yun-Cheol Kim, Dean of the School of Drama at the Korea National University of Arts in Seoul, South Korea, and President of the International Association of Theater Critics, Manabu Noda, Professor at the School of Arts and Letters at Meiji University in Tokyo, Japan, Monica Săvulescu Voudouri (Greece), prose writer, essayist, poet and translator, member of the writers’ unions of Romania, the Netherlands and Belgium (Tuesday, 1 November, 15.00, NUTCA), Chris Ackerley, reputable specialist of annotation, professor and former Head of the Department of English at the University of Otago in New Zealand, and Ion Bogdan Lefter, writer, literary critic, cultural and political analyst, director of the cultural review aLtitudini and professor at the Faculty of Letters of the University of Bucharest (Wednesday, 2 November, 15.00, NUTCA). The host of the colloquiums is the theater critic Octavian Saiu, who will also have an interesting dialogue about cultural management with Christopher Wynn, Edinburgh International Theater Festival Sponsorship and Development Director (Monday, 31 October, 15.00, NUTCA). Thursday, 3 November, also at 15.00 at the National University of Theatrical and Cinematographic Art, in the Conferences section, the prose writer and essayist Prof. George Banu will deliver a free lecture on the launch of the book Reforms of Theater in the Century of Renewal (Nemira Publishing House), with the participation of Gelu Colceag, Rector of NUTCA; presented by Alexa Visarion and Octavian Saiu, moderator: Ludmila Patlanjoglu. Together with the stage director Felix Alexa and the photographer Mihaela Marin, George Banu also takes an exciting multi-artistic excursion into the life of a show: The Cherry Orchard by Chekhov, staged by the Bucharest National Theater (Friday, 4 November, 16.30, TNB, foyer of Amfiteatru Hall). Last, but not least, the protagonist of the Focus section of NTF 2011, the director Andrei Şerban, invites us on Friday, 4 November, 10.30 to Bulandra Theater’s Toma Caragiu Hall for an extraordinary conference with an enigmatic and thought-provoking title: What it means to play a role. The conference will be followed by the launch of an event book, whose preface is written by Andrei Şerban. It is the first contact of Romanian readers with one of the most mysterious and fascinating forms of theater in the world: Seven Secret Noh Theater Treatises by Zeami, published by Nemira, will start on their way to the minds and hearts of the readers on Friday, 4 November, 13.00, in the foyer of Bulandra Theater’s Toma Caragiu Hall. Sunday, 30 and Monday, 31 October, at 10.30, ArCuB will host the workshop entitled ImageWork Training and the Michael Chekhov Technique for young actors, held by the Israeli director and professor David Zinder, consisting in the presentation of the two interconnected techniques, a method that earned Prof. Zinder worldwide fame. Also on Sunday, at 11.00, Ion Caramitru and Horaţiu Mălăele invite theatergoers to a free dialogue on theater and life (Bucharest National Theater, Atelier Hall), whose title says a lot: Shooting the breeze. Shrouded in the Oriental-bohemian air of the ACT Theater Teahouse at 126 Calea Victoriei, the NTF Divans will be waiting for all lovers of cultural delights for a free, honest, uninhibited dialogue. With a cup of flavored tea in front of them, first-rate artists of Romanian theater will answer, in our presence and with our help, the question Why did I choose theater? (Saturday, 29 and Monday, 31 October at 10.30), decide whether Theater music (is) an original genre (Sunday, 30 October, 10.30), and tell us how Scenography (goes) from concept to object, (Wednesday, 2 November, 10.30) or Choreography – one step inside theater (Tuesday, 1 November, 10.30). Then, thanks to a prominent figure of European theater, the stage director Silviu Purcărete, accompanied by the set designer Dragoş Buhagiar and the composer Vasile Şirli, with whom he collaborated in the show presented at the festival (Carnival Scenes), we will discover how Theater (may be) the Gargantua of the arts (Friday, 4 November, 14.00). The offstage NTF program is complemented by a rich book launch section featuring books that present, analyze and recuperate a large amount of varied information from the theatrical field. Besides the already mentioned: FRIDAY 28 Oct., 18.30 – Bulandra Theater, Izvor Hall (foyer) Silvan. The Portrait Artist (Romanian Cultural Institute publishing house). With the participation of the maestro Radu Beligan SATURDAY, 29 Oct., 17.30 – Bucharest National Theater, Grand Hall (foyer) Meyerhold. Writings about Theater Selection, translation, preface and notes by Sorina Bălănescu (Camil Petrescu Cultural Fundation – Teatrul azi magazine) SUNDAY, 30 Oct., 17.30 – Comedy Theater (foyer) Ionescu/Ionesco: One Hundred Years of Ambiguity by Octavian Saiu (Paideia) MONDAY, 31 Oct., 15.00 – Löwendal Foundation The album George Löwendal, An Aristocrat in the Limelight. Participants: George Banu and Horia-Roman Patapievici TUESDAY, 1 Nov., 15.00 – Löwendal Foundation August Strindberg: A Book, A Monograph, A Happening. August Strindberg’s The Great Highway (UNITER) and the (posthumous) monograph August Strindberg, the Solitary Precursor of Contemporary Theater by Ileana Berlogea (Romanian Academy publishing house) FRIDAY, 4 Nov., 15.00 Löwendal Foundation Dan Nemţeanu and His Scenographic Vision by Ion Cazaban (Camil Petrescu Cultural Foundation and Teatrul azi magazine). In the same place, at the same date, the exhibition Among books, among colors, sketches by Dan Nemţeanu, will also be opened (28 October-6 November).