HOP Young HOP Young Actor's Gala organised by the Romanian Theatre Union UNITER has grown into more than just a competition
Having reached its 20th edition this year, HOP Young Actor's Gala organised by the Romanian Theatre Union UNITER has grown into more than just a competition. It is a forum to discuss acting, as a profession, and an opportunity for young actors to take part in invaluable professional meetings. The 21 young professionals chosen this year by a preliminary jury to take part in the competition held between September 4 and 7 in Costinesti, had a chance to attend 4 separate workshops, suggested by the artistic director of the Gala, actor and professor Miklos Bacs, which were held in Bucharest and Costinesti between August 31 and September 7. Veniamin Filshtinsky, an acting professor with the St Petersburg Institute of Performing Arts, the Romanian director Alexandru Dabija, highly appreciated for the way he works with his actors, the German director and writer Stephan Perdekamp, the author of PEM - The Perdekamp Emotional Method, and Andrei Flaviu Falcusan, an expert in kinetotherapy and motricity, were invited to run the workshops.
Many young actors and former winners of the Gala seem to converge on the idea that professional training workshops are necessary. Actress Mirela Oprisor, winner of the award for best actress at the Sarajevo Film Festival for her part in "Tuesday, after Christmas" by Radu Muntean, also won the best actress award at the 2002 HOP Gala. In her opinion, 15 years on, the Gala gives a lot more support to young actors:
tr "I saw a Russian professor, and not just any Russian professor, who came here to teach. They have a workshop with Dabija. We didn't have that back in the day. So I think this Gala has made a progress. I wish I had met Mr. Dabija when I was youn. It's also very nice of him to do this, especially since he is very relaxed and gives confidence to the people around him. And yes, we needed this. But we were in the early 2000, when everybody was looking for a path."
Actress Cosmina Olariu has graduated this year from the I. L. Caragiale National University of Theatre and Cinema Arts in Bucharest, and is the winner of the Stefan Iordache award - the grand prize of the HOP Young Actor's Gala:
"These meetings are quite important and I would like to thank Mr. Miklos Bacs for this experience, which on the one hand was draining, but on the other hand full of wonderful things. The meeting with Perdekamp was an experience that I for one will certainly not forget. The idea is that he discovered a technique based on the fact that each organ is tied to a specific emotion, and by becoming aware of a particular organ you can feel that emotion. The reactions were absolutely fabulous. I was on the verge of a panic attack, because the emotions and the energy that you feel is amazing. The meeting with Mr. Dabija was also very important. It is not a common thing for an established director to be willing to really meet young actors."
Over the past few years, the HOP Gala, organised by the Romanian Theatre Union, has opened up towards the world of cinema. The jury that selected this year's winners included Ada Solomon, the producer of films like "Child pose," "Aferim!," "Scarred Hearts" and "Toni Erdmann." Here is Ada Solomon on the role of the Gala in the young actors' career:
"This is a high-profile event and it helps young actors a lot. My advice to them: be honest and confident. But honesty to oneself is the most important. And trying to find the resources that would reveal them, to find the strength to look at themselves in the mirror. I believe direct interaction, this kind of networking, is very important in all arts, and so is the possibility to talk about a show right after seeing it, to understand how others have seen it, to understand someone else through such discussions."
As an anniversary edition, the 20th HOP Gala brought to Costinesti many former winners of its awards. Mariana Mihut, one of the most highly respected theatre and film actresses in Romania, went there to support young actors once again, and told us how she saw the role of this Gala in 2017:
"It is more than important. And it is equally important for experienced actors like me, who can see that the tradition of Romanian theatre is taken on. Tonight I have been very proud of and impressed with how well trained they are, with how mature they are, a lot more so than we used to be at their age. They are more aware of what they want, and more focused on that."
During the same edition of the Gala, the idea was born of setting up a club similar to the famous New York drama school, the Actors Studio. Here is actor Ion Caramitru, president of UNITER, the one who came up with this idea:
"I've been thinking about setting up HOP Club and bring together all these people who have taken part in the Gala and have won awards. Because all those selected to attend the Gala make up an elite group. So we talked about this, about putting together this club as part of UNITER, with certain rules, with a certain number of meetings, with specific activities suggested by the Union or by themselves. Since UNITER runs on projects and programmes, club members would be able to suggest programmes and projects. I have been thinking about it and I think this is a good time to do it if we want to do it well."
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