class="">AURA CORBEANU: „The National Theatre Festival is a platform that shows the evolution of Romanian theatre”.

Aura Corbeanu is the executive vice-president of UNITER and the executive director of the National Theatre Festival. UNITER is structured as an NGO. The National Theatre Festival is structured as the highest mountain of Romanian theatre. Aura Corbeanu is walking on the rope that unites these two points since 25 years. Since she was simply a fresh graduate of the Academy of Economic Sciences and was looking for a job as an accountant at UNITER. She was 27 then. Things changed a lot in the meantime. How?

Aura Corbeanu and three ideas for the 25 festival years

1. In these twentyfive years we learned how to guard our independence, how to offer and how togive support to Romanian theatre at its best, to believe in our values, to attract the audiences to this cultural offer of ours.

2. I realised that here, at the National Theatre Festival (NTF), the most important thing is the team you work with. I believe in people and I believe in the valuable people that I met over these twenty-five years and who were so generous to us. Every one of those who belong to the theatre world, actors, directors, set- designers, critics, researchers, playwrights, all desire to be involved in a real project, all care so much for what they do.

3. There is a lot of work behind the scenes. All these are reflected in our projects. The National Theatre Festival had a continuous progression, an evolution. In fact, the festival is a platform for the evolution of Romanian theatre.

an interview by Andrei Crăciun

Was the evolution of the festival linear or sinusoidal? Where there any downfalls and come backs?

Aura Corbeanu: I can’t judge from the artistic point of view, this is not my specialty. I don’t believe in ups and downs, I would rather say there were extraordinary times, with gorgeous artistic results and other times, in which the artistic results did not rise to the expectations of the critics. I always think that the discussions within the festival or around the festival are constructive.

The artistic director of the National Theatre Festival sets the tone of the festival, by its own competence and personality. The festival concept changes along with the director.

My, in fact our chance at UNITER was this opportunity to work together with different personalities, of different features and always high competence in the theatrical field. The dimension of the festival derives from the dimension of the works within the cultural field. The foreign performances chosen by the artistic director are mirrors we all need.

The National Theatre Festival is extremely important to everybody- it’s the reflection of the most important works in Romanian theatre.

Does the festival provoke some kind of animosities too?

No, there aren’t any real animosities. There are expectetions that are not met. But at the same time, all theatre makers have understood that we are talking about a selection. Theatre managers, directors, actors, all others involved with the show wish to be selected, all have this expectation, because the National Theatre Festival is a cultural project of national interest and being part of it implies recognition, recognition of the results of their work.

A selection for the NFT confirms that good strategy of the manager, the recognition of the effort and the work of the director. Not to mention the actors- they are so deeply connected to their performance.

Aura Corbeanu, together with the UNITER team. The Romanian Theatre Union (UNITER) was distinguished with the “Cultural Merit”, officer degree, D category”Performing arts”, by the President of Romania, Klaus Iohannis.

This aspiration to being selected at the NFT is a very natural, practical one. All have accepted this selecting procedure. And since all have to strive for a certain level of competence, it is very important to consider the immense openness of the artistic director as well. The artistic director travels and watches- around two hundred performances per year all over Romania, whereas the final selection counts around thirty five titles.

Since this year we have a 25^th anniversay edition, Marina Constantinescu, the artistic director has extended the selection, we have a wider number of performances. All this work is accomplished by producers, theatre managers and also by us. We do work together with all of them, there is this extraordinary way of communicating with theatre managers when we plan the dates of presence.

And discontent- of course, when the selection is being announced and you’re not there.

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How does this discontent manifest?

We  talk. People aren’t dour. We’re all on the same side of the barricade.

FNT IS A MEDAL

But what are the ultimate joys? Is the NFT a peak, an absolute value, do people relate to it as such?

Yes, it is. You will read about the participation in CVs, those of actors or theatre managers. You will read about it in the activity reports.

Is is like a medal of honor?

Yes. We did not think about offering medals. I don’t know why it didn’t cross our minds (laughs). We’ve seen the joy of the announcement of the selection. The festival is open for participation and viewing to all theatre directors in Romania. To all those interested in seeing Romanian performances. The National Theatre Festival aims at bringing these performances together, for specialists and audiences, to bring them all together for the ten Bucharest festival days.

“Who are the audiences? It’s the Bucharest theatre goeers. Then, we have around 120 foreign guests every year. They come because they are interested to get to discover recent Romanian productions.”

People are following a certain director or a certain production. We want the festival to be perceived as a platform for the best theatre productions. And, indeed, this is how it is perceived.

Also abroad?

Of course. As a feedback, we see how the National Theatre Festival leads to Romanian directors being invited to work abroad; we see theatres invited for conferences, presentations. “Yes, here it is: Romanian theatre. Come, watch, comment, take over!” This is how we think. And the fact that we co- host this event with the Ministry of Culture and the City Hall of the Municipality of Bucharest, through its Centre for Cultural Projects and with the support of the Romanian Cultural Institute, reassures us, the organizers, that the NTF is a necessity to the Romanian theatre.

The National Festival serves the Romanian theatre. It grows, to various extents, every year. New sections, new guests, a wider offer.

A festival means theatre performances, but it must also present exhibitions- portraits of Romanian artists put together for theatre lovers.

And after each edition, we draw a line, together with the artistic director and we ask ourselves: did we achieve audience satisfaction? The venues are always full. People may comment on the productions, but it is our duty to show a broad image of the Romanian theatre to audiences and to professionals.

It’s like a puzzle. You put it together during the year. And it’s there, in front of you for those ten days. Ideally, it would be done calmly. But we do have a problem with the financing. You could work for it calmly if it would be possible to sign the contracts with your financers at the beginning of the year, at the latest.

THE NTF SHAPES UP IN AN INCREDIBLE MANNER:  A LA ROUMAINE- WITH  GENEROSITY AND MONEY FROM THE FUTURE

One could work differently. But like that…

Yes. But we go on, whatever it takes. At the certain point you have to think: „So what if I can’t get the money? What can I do then?” You’ve got a selection, you’ve secured the appropriate venues, you’ve started preparing the exhibitions, you’ve invited your prominent guests…All this means you’ve been working for months already. Romanian financers do not understand that all this has to happen. Not to mention multi- annual financing, let’s just speak about the annual financing. There is no understanding for the fact that you need to have your guarantees, your contracts, when you do all the planning ahead. Finally you will find the money, but if you find it in October…

What we do is to act as if we had the money. But, from the point of view of a manager, this can’t be correct.  When we speak to our foreign partners, they are all amazed at how we can proceed like this. We do, because we got used to it. It’s sad to say it, but this is Romania.

Romania should get to the point of understanding the cultural events of national interest, that promote the most important creations and at which you expect foreign curators and specialists, need a guarantee, they need the guarantee that it’s possible to complete the project. This guarantee would balance everything.

From the point of view of financial and organizational management of a project, we cannot compare to the EU. It’s ridiculous, but it’s true.

Everybody wants to sign the contracts as close to the event as possible. Our event starts October 23^rd. So, if we have everything signed by the beginning of October, all fine.

So then does it “work anyhow”?

The beauty of it is that in Romanian theatre we work on the level of gentlemen’s agreement, we trust each other- theatre managers, all those who are selected and will be part of the festival (we are talking about reserving a space in the schedule for the travelling to Bucharest). There are over one hundred institutions that become part of this puzzle, animated by the desire to promote Romanian theatre, by the confidence that things will be well done. Still, this financial insecurity is a nonsense- this is why it seems to me that these 25 years have passed so quickly.

The reality of such an ample project is worrying. You can’t just relax. Even if you know that things will get in place, that all will be fine by the beginning of September- you’ll have the shows positioned on the available venues, the support for the exhibitions, the titles for the book launches, de topics of debate- everything. On September 15^th, all is clear, you could practically start the festival. But you wait for the financing, for the contract that practically allows you to settle the agreements with all parties involved. Think that the team of seven we have at UNITER has to deal with a hundred people. Some have worked over the summer. This may seem to be just something from outer space. „We do work on it”; we get it ready. But we have to talk about the contract in October. It’s not fair. But this is the beauty of Romania. People do trust each other and do their work very well, without waiting for a monthly check, without saying: “Either I get my contract done now, or I stop working with the NTF”. That would block us. All.

There is a certain team spirit- I don’t know for how long- but we had this chance to get to know each other, we’ve been adapting to each other for years, we, the festival team, and we rely on each other. At some point we’ll need fresh people to become part of the team.

For how long do you work with a selector?

Till now we did three years spans. The conclusion is that this is not enough. The first year, you experiment, you travel the country, you draw a shape for your festival, and then, during the second year you round it up with additional events, apart from the selection. In the third year you have a crystalised structure. I think we should extend to at least five years, in order to keep a continuity. Because if, in the third year, you have reached the dimension that the artistic director has created, together with the managerial team, you should keep this model “rolling” for at least another two years.  We will see.

THE NTF  IS A NEVERENDING EFFORT

Have you got any time left to enjoy the festival?

Yes, we do enjoy it. We split into the various performance venues in the evenings, while at daytime we are here to solve all the issues we have- travels, accomodations, welcoming the companies, we work with volunteers, but still we have to be present all the time. We go to the theatres in the evenings and to the festival club later in the evening. We have more than fourty performances in the selection, that has to be multiplied by two, two representations for each- think how much work that makes, how much running around from one venue to the other, how many people are involved.

You can’t relax at one of the shows, because you think of the others, at the other venues, of the trucks arriving from all over the country or from abroad, of the after- show late night wraps and set- ups.
I do very much admire the technical teams of the festival. Companies don’t spend more than two days in Bucharest, they arrive in the evenings, unload during the night, set up the decorations, the lights during the day, rehearse, perform at the end of the day, then again the next day, with more rehearsals in between…And then another company…

THE NTF IS A NEVER ENDING LESSON

…they wrap and go.

They wrap and go. The technicians at the venues work together with the guest performance technicians; they help them take everything down, since the company has to leave the venue by 1 a.m., when the truck with the set of the following show arrives.

It’s a carousel! It’s crazy! It’s tiresome for the technicians, but it’s so beautiful to see the solidarity of the technicians, to see how united they are.  

Before this, we have the set- designers of each show coming from non- Bucharest theatres, from Romania or from abroad, arrive for visits to the venues hosting their shows. We know the sizes of every stage, but the set designers come and have a look first, at the Bulandra, at the venues at the National Theatre or the Odeon…they come to see how the set would fit the space.

It’s an extraordinary technical process, the technicians and set desginers of the invited show and the technicians of the receiving house meeting each other. It’s simply beautiful. There are no arguments, there is concern- for the truck to arrive on time, to have their permits, to get to the theatre, to have the possibility to unload, to see if there is a platform for heavy pieces, they work like ants, some of them don’t manage to get home at all, they take a nap now and then, here and there.

The National Theatre Festival shows, on one hand, what is best in Romanian theatre and, on the other hand, how important it is to work together, as a team.

Where do you get the funding for the organization costs?

From various sources– the Minsitry of Culture, ArCuB.

Are the tickets themselves a source of revenue, or are they not really significant?

They aren’t significant and this money goes to the host- theatres, so that they can cover their maintenance costs for the ten days, since we don’t pay rents for these spaces. They are our partners. Anyhow, we wouldn’t have the money to pay rents. The ticket price in Romania gets subsidized by the state, since the buying power is very low. You can’t impose the real cost, as the theatres are public institutions of the state and the state support to the ticket cost is of 80%; we do not fix the cost of the ticket ourselves.

It should double!

Even more. But we work for our audiences and we are aware of the amount people can afford to pay. A theatre performance without an audience doesn’t make sense. We need people to come to the theatre.

And they do. The houses are full. There are students who are happy be with us. For someone who loves theatre, it’s cheaper to come to Bucharest, during the festival, when you have forty shows on display, twenty from Bucharest and  twenty from other cities. It would be more expensive to go to all these towns and see them separately. Same for theatre professionals.

Is this the reason why there is such a high level of expectancy regarding the non- Bucharest productions?

Not necessarily. It’s surprising how many people from Bucharest come to see the Bucharest productions during the festival. All tickets sell extremely fast because the audiences participate into this theatre feast, they do live the joy of it! And this is what makes you want to go on. Recognition on one side, then, on the other side, the fact that people do come.

Sometimes we hear people talking: „It’s sold out”, „All gone”, „None left. Why don’t they perform several times?” We normally sell two representations. This is normality. We have full houses for 2 performances, there are still people who would like to see the shows so, since last year, we’ve added this new component, we have this streaming, that worked extraordinarily well.

Did it work well?

Very! It worked very well both in the Univerisity Square underground passage and in the cinema (we teamed up with Mall Băneasa) – and yes, it did work well. On the internet, on the projection sites, there were people, there was traffic. The University Square passage became a symbolic space of the festival; we named it the “Festival Passage”, a meeting point. There were many actors there, from Bucharest and from other cities; they all understood how important it can be to talk to the audiences. They were there, for autograph sessions in a special lounge and this year we will take this concept one step further.

People do understand that you, as a festival organizer see that there is a very good response also on the side of the theatre makers (actors, directors, set- designers), they want to be part of it, want to go to the “Festival Passage”, want to go and talk to the our partner- newspaper Adevărul, want to go and inform about the festival on TV. It can’t be just us, the organizers, every day, on radio and on TV. We just do the organizing! If you, as artists, like it…if you have something to tell us, if there is something you’d like us to change, to improve, let us know, it’s your right to do that. And everybody reacted well to this.

I highly recommend a visit to the NFT Passage, it’s unbelievable how many people ask us: Who’s coming today? There is a schedule of the actors coming there to give interviews. Same goes for the theatre venues.

I do like what I do. A lot.

It’s so beautiful, when you replay in your mind all discussions regarding the promotion of the festival and when you see how many artists were involved. They do support each other- it’s fantastic, because they did understand that we speak about what they do at the theatre to a broad audience, the people who take the subway, the people who come from I don’t know where.

You don’t think to quit doing that?

No. No, why? It’s such a beautiful thing. Maybe we’ll give up at some point, because…life…But not now! Not now.

August 24^th 2015