class="">Alina Nelega, playwright: “Why isn’t there a Writer’s Guild for the playwrights of Romania?”

Alina Nelega is one of the most successful playwrights in Romania. Two of the show she’s written have been selected for this year’s National Theatre Festival.

An interview by Andrei Crăciun

Playwright Alina Nelega lives in Târgu Mureș. She has been part of the theatre elite in Romania for the longest time. Having graduated from the English-Romanian department at the Literary School of Babeș-Bolyai University in Cluj-Napoca in 1984, her debut was in “Vatra” (“Hearth”) Magazine. Her published work in “Echinox” (“Equinox”) awarded her the prose award from Cluj-based magazine “Tribuna” (“The Tribune”).

She also worked for the press,as cultural editor for a Târgu Mureș radio show and editor-in-chief of a local daily. She oriented herself towards writing plays in 1992. Since then, she has become one of the most highly- appreciated Romanian playwrights /her plays carrying the reputation of ending up as shows highly-acclaimed by public and critics alike. She has also written a novel ,and said she’d write many more.

Two of your plays have been selected by the National Theatre Festival this year. One of them- “Amalia takes a deep breath” / is currently performed at the National Theatre in Cluj-Napoca. The other / “In traffic”- at the National Theatre in Târgu-Mureș. What are your expectations with regard to this year’s NTF? What could happen that would change the destiny of these two plays after the festival?

I believe that to be selected for the most representative theatre festival of Romania is to achieve a new height in the life of a show- to follow up, it would be great if at least one of them ends up being performed internationally, to be seen and evaluated by spectators from a different culture to ours. It would be yet another mark of quality.

You are one of the most highly-appreciated Romanian playwrights. There is much talk about the financial difficulties which theatre has fallen upon, but the actors are the one most often talked about. How do playwrights fare?

There are very few playwrights / or better said drama writers , so as not to be confused with the “stage” playwright- that live ostensibly by writing . This fact is not only a reality of Romania. Generally, all over the world, from Russia to the USA, following a certain “consecration”,you end up teaching or working as a literary secretary, PR aid, sometimes even a manager- just to be close to the stage. But, in fact, the practical solution is this : recently, a Greek drama writer complained that ,if you are a playwright, you’re better off dead than alive. Someone suggested to her that if she’d like to keep living, she should direct.

Anyone can read “Amalia takes a deep breath” /should they want to. You can find it for free on the internet, on www.liternet.ro .Have you ever received any reactions from people who only read the play, but never actually saw the show? If so, what did they say?

As a matter of fact, no- referring to readers. I have received reactions from those who would offer to produce or act in the play, or from those who first saw the play and then headed to the text, wishing to read it. The show is what sells the text- in keeping with proportions, the same thing happens with the movie which sometimes sells the novel.

In fact, who is Amalia?

Monica Ristea, Cristina Cassian, Raina von Waldenburg, Codrina Pricopoaia, Louise Brandsdoerfer, Anca Hanu…. and many more, most likely, but I can’t remember them at the top of my head, and even more which I’ve never seen play her.

In an interview published recently on our website, director Radu Afrim was of like mind: the most awaited shows at the NTF are the ones from provincial theatres. Do you share this view? Is there any tension between theatre-folk in Bucharest and the ones in the countryside? Are there two different worlds? Where is the centre for Romanian theatre today?

As a rule ,provincial theatres work much more loosely. Actors have more time to study and delve deeper into the role, the show is “sat” differently on-stage, without the sort of pressure one finds in Bucharest. This is why many important directors choose to work things out to the end, outside of Bucharest.

On the other hand, there are a great many provoking shows in Bucharest as well / most of them from the lively, risqué area of independent theatre. I don’t know much about what theatre-folk do in these “half-worlds”…but it’s certain that the centre of theatre is where a true show is performed.

Have you seen the other shows in the official selection? Did you enjoy them? Will you come and see them?

Some of them / yes. And yes. Yes again.

How is the view on Romanian theatre like from Târgu Mureș? Does it face Bucharest, or is it westward?

In comparison with other theatre cultures, with whom we mainly come in contact as partners in European projects, the Romanian theatre seems poor. Not only in cash, but also in options, in fantasies, in reporting to the realities of the present.

There is a segment that’s more dynamic, the independent area, but without proper funding, creativity is fleeting. Maybe hunger stimulates the poetical delirium, but in theatre it is an obstacle which drives you to compromise.

Your plays have enjoyed not only nation-wide appreciation, but international attention ,through awards. Which of these successes do you look most fondly on? Can you make a hierarchy of your work? Which play ended up as the best show in your opinion?

Just about every author is frivolous enough to prefer their first creation. That’s also the case with me: at this time ,my favourite text- and show- is “In Traffic”. Maybe because it’s new, but more likely because Elena Purea is an actress of such formidable range, which lives through and for the stage.

What did theatre bring to you?

Freedom

What did theatre take away?

Freedom.

Could you live without being a playwright?

No.

What is there to be lost if one does not go to the theatre?

Nothing at all.But there’s nothing to be gained, either.

Do you also write prose, or have you stopped at drama? What fate awaited your novel “The Last Witch”?

My novel was translated in Hungarian and can be read, in Romanian, on LiterNet. It’s there. One need a certain interior rhythm to write prose and a whole new other rhythm for theatre. But my rhythm is lately more in tone with the latter. Though I would wish for the luxury to write another novel. Or at least some short stories. Unfortunately, as soon as I start writing I end up with a play. I can’t help myself.

Is theatre faring better than literature in Romania? Why?

I don’t think it is. Literature has sped up lately- there are many translations, a lot of movies are being made from the novels of writers such as Dan Lungu, Bogdan Suceavă, Lucian Dan Teodorovici, Florina Ilis and others. There are plenty of readers, the audience is there. There is a taste for a different narrative language. On the other hand, the new scenic language is only just beginning to draw an audience.

Which un-asked question would you like to have answered to?

Why isn’t there a Writer’s Guild for the playwrights of Romania?

Photo by Anda Cadariu

1st of October 2014