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Aseară, în foaierul Sălii Mici a Teatrului Național din București, nume importante ale culturii române au participat la deschiderea oficială a celei de-a 24-a ediții a Festivalului Național de Teatru, care a coincis cu vernisajul expoziției „Doina Levintza: Costumul de teatru – de la schiţă la miracol”.
25 October 2014, Articles
Last night, in the Small Hall foyer at the National Theatre in Bucharest, important names from Romanian culture have taken part in the official opening ceremony of the 24th edition of the National Theatre Festival, which coincided with the grand opening of the “Doina Levintza: The Theatrical Costume- from drawing board to miracle” Exhibition.
Among those who attended were directors ((Lucian Pintilie, Nae Caranfil, László Bocsárdi, Sanda Manu), actors (Dan Puric, Emilia Popescu), journalists (Eugenia Vodă, Marius Tucă), composers and singers (Vasile Șirli, Felicia Filip)
A surprise appearance was that of British actress Jacqueline Bisset, who declared that she was impressed with Doina Levintza’s work: “What I’m seeing is fabulous. I have this strange feeling when watching these costumes, beautiful and immaterial as they are, like ghosts haunting the theatre. I’ve read many such fairy tales as a child and that’s probably why the magic of costumes stayed with me since then…I am extremely glad to be here!”
Doina Levintza’s Exhibition, which can be seen until the 30th of November, is made up of the sketches, photos and costumes from shows she’s been working on in the past years.
“It was a great effort to put together from the theatres throughout the country whatever little was left. Hear my plea: I beg of you, save the costumes, let there be a history of theatre through costumes. It was such hard work to be able to get the photos and the costumes of the great actors with whom I’ve had the opportunity to work. Unfortunately, when I was young, I never thought of the fact that these costumes would have to survive the disappearance of the actors…” ,Doina Levintza said.
Marina Constantinescu, artistic director of the National Theatre Festival, said that she very much wanted for the festival to open with a major event: “I wanted the work of a great artist to please the eye and the gaze, who so often play tricks on us. Everything you see here meant three months of labour. And Doina Levintza’s life work. This is a very special evening, because we thought of this festival as a place of meetings, a space of togetherness. That’s what Theatre wants of us”.
Click here to see more photos from the opening, in the Photo gallery.
The exhibition was thought from the drawing board to the show, for the viewer to be able to imagine the workshop, the laboratory of Doina Levintza’s creations, and the steps a set designer goes to, from idea to finished product.
Marina Constantinescu & Ion Caramitru // FNT 2014 from Academia de Fotografie on Vimeo.
“Now, in this moment, here, we inaugurate, we open and we enjoy an absolutely fabulous exhibition of one of the greatest set and costume designers (…). In fact, it’s the festive opening ceremony of this festival, in the presence of a great and important artist of our people.(…) I hereby propose to her, in view of our guests, that a large part of this exhibition be hosted in the foyers of the National Theatre, in the immediate future, given that these foyers are also art galleries. 4.500 square meters of art galleries which shall permanently host exhibitions and events of this nature”, Ion Caramitru declared.
We open the gates to quality theatre with these incredible costumes, designed by Doina Levintza
(Marina Constantinescu)
Among the costumes in the exhibition can be found those of “Murder in the Cathedral”, directed by Mihai Măniuţiu (1996, National Theatre in Cluj-Napoca), “Richard II”, directed by Mihai Măniuţiu (1998, “I.L.Caragiale” National Theatre in Bucharest), “Adultery woman”, artistic direction by Ana Boariu and Camelia Maxim (2008), “The Portrait of Dorian Gray”, artistic direction by Dragoş Galgoţiu (2004, Odeon Theatre), “Life is a dream”, artistic direction by Dragoş Galgoţiu (2009, Odeon Theatre), “M… Butterfly”, artistic direction by Ada Lupu (2000, Odeon Theatre).
Part of the exhibition was “in memoriam” to György Harag, black and white photos from the director and actor’s shows being shown.
The 24th edition of the National Theatre Festival made its official debut on Friday night and will take place until the 2nd of November in a number of theatres in Bucharest.
Photos: Maria Ştefănescu, Lucian Muntean. Video: Simion Buia