The 2011 edition of the [b]National Theater Festival[/b] will be held in Bucharest, between October 28 and November 6, under a motto from one of the most important playwrights of the world, [b]Anton Pavlovich Chekhov[/b], under whose sign the selection was conducted (the interval covering the 2010-2011 season), as last year was celebrated the 150th anniversary of the writer’s birth. This is also the reason why the Focus section is dedicated to the personality and work of the stage director [b]Andrei Şerban[/b], an artist of worldwide fame and author in recent years of several productions inspired – directly or indirectly – from Chekhov’s world. To these will be added a significant number of very diverse – in terms of style and ideology – productions signed both by universally acknowledged directors and by young stage directors at the beginning of their careers, each production attempting, in its own particular way, an answer on behalf of Romanian theater to questions that have always concerned universal man. Dividing the shows into sections has a double purpose: to highlight some trends in present-day local theater, and to give theatergoers the opportunity to make a quicker choice, depending on their interests and preferences. [b]The organizers[/b] of the Festival are the [b]Union of Romanian Theaters – UNITER[/b], the [b]Ministry of Culture and National Heritage[/b], [b]Bucharest City Hall[/b] through ArCuB, the Center for Cultural Projects of Bucharest City Hall and the General Council of Bucharest Municipality, and the [b]Romanian Cultural Institute[/b] is co-organizer. The artistic director and sole selector of the 2011 edition is the theater critic [b]Alice Georgescu[/b], and the executive director is [b]Aura Corbeanu[/b], vice-president of UNITER.