Radio România Internațional

Tag: actors

  • Radio Romania’s Radio Drama Desk, nominated for a Theater Union award

    Radio Romania’s Radio Drama Desk, nominated for a Theater Union award

    Three of Radio Romania’s National Radio Drama Desk productions
    have received nominations for Romanian Theaters’ Union
    Awards, the Best Radio Drama Category. They are A century of Romanian theater
    in Chisinau     –The revenge of forbidden memory, script by Mariana Onceanu, Radio
    Noir. Thrillers (Season1)     adapted for the radio by Mihnea Chelaru and The
    Case of Tudor Vladimirescu,
    written for the radio by Gavriil Pinte.


    Gavriil Pinte graduated from the Acting Faculty in
    Targu Mures and the Directing Faculty of Bucharest’s School of Film And Drama.
    He staged shows in theatres across Romania, in Bucharest,
    Satu Mare, Ploieşti, Baia Mare, Tulcea, Miercurea-Ciuc, Giurgiu, Sibiu,
    Constanţa, Oradea, Timișoara. Since 1999 Gavriil Pinte has been the artistic
    director of Radio Romania’s Radio Drama Desk and in that capacity he directed
    several radio drama shows. Gavriil Pinte is the recipient of many awards, among
    which the Theater Union Radio Drama Award, in 2002, 2003 and 2011. Gavriil Pinte staged
    shows taking up on the life and work of quite a few writers. Among them, A Streetcar
    Named Popescu, after poet Cristian Popescu’s life and work (the show was on
    in Bucharest and Sibiu, in a rolling streetcar), The Cioran Temptation, based on Emil Cioran’s life and work, A Guide to Retrocessed Childhood, based on the work of Andrei Codrescu, The Journey, taking up on Constantin Abaluta’s work, as well as an adaptation
    for the radio of poet Ioan Es. Pop’s work, titled so the last shall be the
    last as well.


    Gavriil Pinte’s most recent radio drama show is The
    Case of Tudor Vladimirescu.     It starts off from the personality of Tudor
    Vladimirescu, who was born in 1780. Tudor Vladimirescu was ruler
    of Wallachia and the leader of the 1821 Revolution, one of the events that
    marked the beginning of Romania’s national rebirth process. In 1821, under the
    heading The Supplications of the Romanian people, Tudor Vladimirescu made
    known the programme of the revolution, which first and foremost stipulated foreign
    powers’ refraining from interfering with the country’s internal affairs whatsoever,
    as well as the implementation of a series of reforms. It is arguably Romanian Principalities’ first document
    with a constitutional status. Sometimes Vladimirescu was idealized, he was
    mortified in certain stereotypes. We didn’t mean to create a pathetic show, yet the inkling of a parodical intention was also far from us, and so was any means
    of ironizing and have a derogatory take on the great pandour. What we were
    interested in was a hero who, before anything else, was a man. But a man who
    played a first-rate historical part and went on to become a national hero. The script captures episodes of Vladimirescu’s public
    life, intertwined with episodes of his private life, while jointly, they make
    what could quite aptly have been himself, a living human being.

    That is how,
    very briefly, director Gavriil Pinte conveyed his
    intentions of the radio drama show The Case of Tudor Vladimirescu.

    Gavriil
    Pinte.


    The radio drama show was
    preceded by a stage version of the show as initially, the show was staged on an
    island bordered by two of river Jiu arms, at the entranceway of the town of Targu
    Jiu. The show was performed on stage at night while the soundtrack was provided
    by a rock group, Bucium, lead by Andi Dumitrescu. Everything occurred live, I
    can call this show is a rock opera. The music of the Bucium group seemed perfect
    for the show, since rock is a rebel, revolutionary kind of music, and so was Tudor
    Vladimirescu as a historical character. We had many actors on the cast, there
    were 60 of them, and after that show we found it suitable to create a radio show
    as well. We were of course unable to have a 60-strong cast of artists for the
    radio production, but the recordings were made especially for the radio version.
    Likewise, the script was conceived of taking into account the specificity and
    the demands of a radio production while the recordings were made on the
    premises at the Theater in Targu-Jiu. I am happy the show has a radio version
    as well, as it is an important show for me, but also for the troupe in Targu Jiu,
    and I should like to take this opportunity and thank the artists for their extraordinary
    cooperation. Let me just add that the actors’ troupe as part of the Elvira
    Godeanu     Drama Theater in Targu Jiu is headed by Cosmin Brehuță, a wonderful
    man, a totally atypical theater manager for Romanian theater today. The radio
    script as well as the stage script do not claim their origin from the stereotypes
    that oftentimes make Tudor Vladimirescu’s image, unfortunately, but from the ancient
    tragedy, the Shakespearean drama, with a certain surrealist touch as well.


    The
    show staged by Gavriil Pinte was occasioned by the Tudor Vladimirescu
    Bicentennial. It was jointly created with the Elvira Godeanu Drama Theater in Targu Jiu. The cast includes, among other
    actors, Mihai Rădulea, Oana Marinescu, Cosmin Brehuță, Eugen Titu,
    Mădălina Ciobănuc, Monica Sfetcu, Georgiana Enache, Cornelia Diaconu, Adelina
    Puzdrea, Luminița Șorop.

    (EN)








  • Romanian theater in the time of the pandemic

    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.


    T

    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.

  • Being an Actor in 2015 Romania

    Being an Actor in 2015 Romania

    October 2015 is rich in stage events, more than any other October of any other year. Many festivals have come up with state theatre performances and independent theater shows, actors who have been famous for a very long time, as well as budding actors. These days, in theatre halls, at the National Theatre Festival which is in full swing, there are very many young actors, or drama students, who are part of the audiences watching the plays on stage. You cannot help wondering, as you see them, which road they will be taking and what the condition of actors is in 2015 Romania? It appears that right now we stand where the western world used to be 40 or 50 years ago. This is what theatre critic Cristina Modreanu believes:



    Cristina Modreanu: “Were on a certain path, hopefully the right one. But the system is at a deadlock, at least as regards the world of theatre, a deadlock which means that for several generations now, the young actors who are graduating, at least 150 of them per year, no longer find their places in theaters, as vacancies are blocked. This means that there are many such graduates, who are freelancers in theory, in a system where freelancers are not encouraged at all, in legal terms or in terms of resources. It is very hard to work “completely on your own, because there are not enough resources for this parallel world that has been created in time. I believe the point here is that there is no harmonization between the education system churning out stage artists, and the performing institutions that are supposed to absorb this workforce. They should work together, to make sure that none of the parts wastes its energy, or new structures should be created, to give a chance to those youngsters who get trained for a profession that some of them never get to practice.



    A lot of acting graduates either choose or are forced to take up the hard way of independent theater. One of them is Raluca Aprodu, an actress who for a few years now has been enjoying the freedom provided by the independent actor status, with all its ups and downs. She has played in independent theatre shows as well as in state theatres, and got to be known to the public also thanks to her parts in film productions. We asked Raluca Aprodu whether she wanted to be employed in a public institution:



    Raluca Aprodu: “I must admit I waver, in this respect. On the one hand, I am afraid to take up this kind of job, because of the clichés I have heard of or I imagine. At the same time, I would love to act in films, so that I can enjoy the freedom to leave and to make independent theatre as well. I know that some theatres disapprove of that, and actors have problems obtaining a leave. At the same time, I know that if you work in a state theatre you stand more chances to get more jobs and meet major directors. There are castings for contributors as well, but they are few and for less important parts. And I know people who got employed in a state theatre and have worked with all the major directors in Romania for the past three years. I am okay for the time being, but if I were to make a decision in this respect, I hope to make the right one. I am still wavering, but I believe its more of a question of where to get employment. I wouldnt join a team I dont know. Id be scared of that, but you know what they say, fears must be confronted head on.“



    Although resources are a lot scarcer in the independent area, young artists working here are more dynamic and more future-oriented, Cristina Modreanu says. However, they are facing things they dont learn about in schools: filling in sponsorship forms, coordinating projects and filling in claims. Lucian Varsandan, manager of the German State Theatre of Timisoara, one of the best and most innovative institutions of its kind in Romania, sees actors from the independent area as better prepared and more eager to fight for what they want to accomplish. This is why he is in favour of fixed term contracts in a system that favours life long employment:



    Lucian Varsandan: “I think fixed-term contracts can create a balance between the constraints of the competition system on the one hand, and the possibility of overall growth on the other. I am not for the system in which an actor has to be on stage in a different theatre every evening, in a system of one-time gigs that is often chaotic and does not necessarily lead to the development of an artists personality. I believe, however, that this competitive system is to everyones advantage, and should exist in state run theatres as well, including through fixed-term contracts. This is in line with the concept of repertoire strategy, which can change from one season to another, from one manager to another.



    According to Lucian Varsandan, the compensation system is not based on sound performance criteria, a frequent issue in public theatres impacting the actors work. The salary of actors is calculated depending on such criteria as accumulated service, professional qualifications, securing promotions after a certain period, without taking into account vocational specificities, their roles, and quantity and quality of their work and so on. “Its basically a superseded compensation system that has seen little change over the last decades, the manager of the German State Theatre of Timisoara concluded.