NTF / latest news

New information about the most awaited theatrical event of the year was released yesterday in the press conference about the 23^rd edition of the National Theater Festival. Many audiovisual, and written and online press journalists were present, as well as representatives of the NTF partners. The journalists’ questions were answered by Alice Georgescu, artistic director and sole selector of the festival, Aura Corbeanu, executive director of the NTF, Irina Cajal, undersecretary of state at the Ministry of Culture, András István Demeter, director of the Romanian Television production studio, and Mihaela Păun, director of ArCuB / the Center for Cultural Projects of Bucharest City Hall. The host was Ion Caramitru, chairman of the Romanian Theaters’ Union UNITER. For the first time, the conference was broadcast live by Radio România Cultural, during the Vorba de cultură cultural show produced by Attila Vizauer.

Despite a difficult year for all the state institutions and the budget restrictions that affected the configuration of the festival (compelled to give up its international component), the NTF has remained the most important yearly cultural event in Romanian theater. For ten days, almost one hundred events will be targeted at Bucharesters, but also at participants from other cities who are curious to find out what is happening in the capital city, as a proof that normalcy is just round the corner, in spite of all appearances.

Among the latest events announced in the NTF schedule are the lecture-show Poetry’s Breath, featuring the actor Ion Caramitru, in the Multimedia Hall of the Bucharest National Theater on Saturday, 2 November at 19:00, and the reading performance of the winning play in the UNITER 2012 drama contest, Nostalgic Travelers by Liviu Lucaci, directed by Vlad Cristache, on Friday, 1 November at 14:00, in Bucharest National Theater’s Little Hall.

This year’s festival attempts to demonstrate that the critical-theoretical area of theater can be as “spectacular” and attractive for the public at large. An international colloquium dedicated to theater criticism, which presently, more than a decade into the 21^st century, lies between extinction and moving online, will cast lights on such personalities. It will be an opportunity for dialogue between Romanian specialists and foreign guests, under the aegis of the International Association of Theater Critics (IATC), on Friday, 1 November, at 15:00, in the Multimedia Hall of the BNT.

Not least, in a new section of the festival, NTF recommends a series of representative shows of the 2012-2013 season, staged by state and independent theaters from Bucharest and other cities, whose full schedule may be accessed on the daily updated festival website.

Three days / as in fairy tales / are left until the metallic, yet so warm sound of the gong that will pronounce the National Theater Festival open, a moment of joy and celebration in the city. Let us take our time and the freedom to enjoy theater!