Romanian theater in the time of the pandemic

Romanian theater has been seriously affected by the restrictions imposed during the pandemic, so much so that it had to find alternative ways to reach out to the usual stage audience. Performances could no longer be held outdoors, so the online environment was the support that enabled theater lovers to watch the actors on stage.

The day of September 21, 2020, 22:30, Bucharest Time, was another turning point in Romanian theater's activity. We're speaking about the moment of the UNITER Gala's 28th edition. Initially scheduled for the spring of 2020, the even was postponed until the autumn equinox. In 2020, the UNITER Gala was held the southern Romanian city of Craiova. It marked 170 years since the "Marin Sorescu" theater had been founded in Craiova, and was venued by the outdoor Summer Theater in Craiova's "Nicolae Romanescu" park. Radio Romania's Culture Channel offered a live broadcast of the Gala, which could also be followed online, at www.tvr.ro and www.uniter.ro.

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he main organizer and initiator of the Gala was the National Union of Romanian Theaters, UNITER. It is a professional, apolitical, nongovernmental and non-profit organization, which was set up through the free association of creators in the field of Romanian theater. It was established in February 1990, so in 2020 UNITER celebrated its three decades of existence. Since September 10, 2020, UNITER has launched the video promotion of the artists who were nominated for the awards. Of course, several nominations were made based on the previous year's achievements, according to the regulations. Since September 14, all viewers could support their favorites, casting their vote on www.uniter.ro

It may have been the venue of the event, or the restrictions that have been imposed in 2020, in other words, it was the triumph of creativity over fear...all that put together bestowed a special power on the UNITER Gala in 2020. 

Theater critic and UNITER member Oana Cristea Grigorescu:

"The UNITER Galas have succeeded to change something, have rooted out that kind of conservatism in the way the Gala has been organized in the last 20 years. Everybody sensed, first of all, a reshuffle of the format, which occurred not only due to the fact that the event was staged on outdoor premises, in Craiova...I believe all that was possible especially because of the trust the organizers put in the two producers of the Gala, stage director Bobi Pricop and stage designer Irina Moscu. An entire team backed them and everybody sensed the life-giving wind for this event...And we also fed ourselves with a dose of optimism provided by the way the Gala unfolded - concisely, and in a clean manner. There was also something else, maybe the most important aspect. Some of the welcome speeches of the awardees tackled an important issue. In Romanian culture, at least formally, but mainly from an organizing point of view, there is a rift between the independent artiss and the artists coming from subsidized institutions. The rift is false, and the welcome speeches at the UNITER Gala focused on the very specific idea whereby it was about time we found administrative solutions to support the deserving independent artists. That should be done in such a way as to acknowledge their contribution to the diversity of theater stage. At the end of the Gala, the president of UNITER and the manager of the National Theater in Bucharest, Ion Caramitru, pledged that solutions would be found to support independent theater. And that is a point of strategic importance. It is a type of cultural policy UNITER vowed to implement henceforth."

The 30th edition of the National Theater Festival in Bucharest was held over November 22 and 29, 2020. The event was also a premiere. We followed it online, at fnt.ro. The three personalities who stage-directed and provided the selection of the program had a clear-cut intention: that of setting up a dialogue between the aesthetics of yesterday's creators and the present-day artistic quest. Radio Romania is one of the event's traditional partners, hence the label of the festival's; special section, FNT ON AIR. One of the event's three driving forces was provided by Maria Zărnescu, an associate professor with Bucharest University of Drama and Film. 

Maria Zarnescu:

"Each of the posted events will be there for 48 hours, they will be available for revisiting if somebody so wishes. It is, so to speak, crowded, since we wanted to revisit the festival's past, its three decades, that is. And we sometimes discovered remarkable acting recitals. And that, in close connection with the actor-stage director-playwright three-way relationship. When the stuff we discovered was shorter, we put all that together in a special section, labeled 'The Great Actor's Art.' The section lays emphasis on actors who are very popular with the Romanian audience, yet all the creators involved in the artistic pursuit are no less important."

There were, of course, noteworthy international guest performances presented as part of the FNT, Festivalul National de Teatru/the National Theater Festival in Bucharest. Added to all that were the "pandemic" productions, such as ZOOM BIRTHDAY PARTY, based on a text by Saviana Stănescu, directed by Beth Milles (SUA) or POOL (NO WATER) by Mark Ravenhill, a project carried by Radu Nica, Andu Dumitrescu and Vlaicu Golcea.

Romania's stage artists were genuinely capable of finding solutions to analyze the present and their condition, in forms that would keep them connected to society, to its problems. Stage artists were also capable of coming up with solutions, simpler or more complex. Some of these solutions have already proved their feasibility. Perhaps they will make the new landmarks in Romanian performing arts as well.