Radio România Internațional

Tag: creative workshops

  • Children’s Day, a celebration of both mothers and children

    Children’s Day, a celebration of both mothers and children

    Every year, the month of June reminds us to celebrate children and childhood, June 1 marking the International Childrens Day, first mentioned in Geneva during the World Conference on Child Welfare in August 1925, when representatives of 54 countries adopted the Declaration of the Rights of the Child. Following this event, a number of governments around the world started celebrating Childrens Day.



    For the employees of this community center in Bucharest, the welfare of both children and parents is very important. Melania Medeleanu, a founding member of the center, told us more about a series of workshops addressing both children and parents.



    “We work for the Good Days Community center, which was originally opened to address the Ukrainian community, and starting June 1 it also addresses the Romanian community. Today we welcomed a few children and their mothers. In the morning, we had a workout workshop for mothers and their babies. Now we have an African drums workshop, featuring Mihai Axinte. Children are anxious to try them out. It is the first such event. We have been organizing Romanian and English language classes for the Ukrainian community, as well as yoga, art therapy and dance classes for children. They meet four times a week and so far we have enrolled 500 Ukrainian mothers and children, and were happy to be able to welcome them in a friendly environment where they can attend workshops, laugh or cry, if they feel the need to do that”.



    Alexandra Axinte, one of the organizers of the workshops, also gave us more details:


    “Todays workshop is called Good Monday, since its the first day of the week. We want to build a community here, so we started with children and their parents. We had several interactive workshops. First, mothers danced with their babies and worked out, then we had an emotion management workshop with the map of emotions for children aged 5-8, and now we have a drum workshop, designed to teach children and parents a number of rhythms. The aim is to get people connected, to find various ways to bring us together, through words and movement, and music and emotion, to see what people need right now and help in any way we can”.



    Weve asked Alexandra Axinte what kind of feedback she got.


    “In the morning, mothers were very excited to be able to meet other mothers and their children and socialize. Its something they desperately need. Then, in the emotion management workshop, mothers got to relax, away from their children. They sat out on the terrace while the children had fun with us. You can hear everyone having a good time, which means so far so good!”



    Alina Tofan, an actress and eco-performer, also shared her experience with us.


    “My workshop focused on art-therapy. We worked with the map of emotions, an exercise teaching children to focus on the shape of their body. They are only now starting to discover their bodies and we worked a lot at a mental level, trying to stimulate their creativity and spontaneity. The workshop was adapted to the needs of each child. Today, I had four children in my class. There are usually as many as 12 children, but the fewer they are, the better it gets for them, because their focus isnt spread too thin. However, they work better in larger numbers because they learn from each other fast. Another exercise was to build our own gift bags, which we are basically recycling. Children learned to work together and be mindful of the others needs, they got inspired from what they saw around them. Then each kid introduced himself, and we got to work a bit on the language and creativity – how to tell a story, how to describe a character, sharing fears and hobbies. Its interesting to see how many things they get to learn by interacting with each other. Its a very good exercise that boosts their self-confidence, and it gets easier when they work in groups. What I noticed is they are each very open. They know their limits and know exactly what they want. But I think theres still room to guide them, and encourage them to express themselves freely. There have been kids who have trouble unlocking their creative potential. They might have the potential and the intention, but they just cannot tap into it. Its usually the other way round, since kids are very creative but often dont know to manifest their creative side. Each group has its specificity, but I can say children today know a lot of things they can also express, so the future looks good!” (VP)


  • Romanian Diaspora Artists at the Sibiu International Theatre Festival

    Romanian Diaspora Artists at the Sibiu International Theatre Festival

    The festival is also the birth place of quite a few large-scale projects. At FITS, for instance, you can find out the latest from and see the works of the Romanian artists in the diaspora. Alexandra Badea, Eugen Jebeleanu and Cosmin Chivu, who have been living and working in France or the US, were present at the 25th edition of FITS, with performances featuring the actors of the Radu Stanca National Theatre in Sibiu.



    Young stage director Eugen Jebeleanu has been living in France for eight years, but is currently working both in France and in Romania. In Sibiu, Eugen Jebeleanu stage-directed his first show in a state theatre, Gong Theatre, three years ago. Then he worked with the Radu Stanca National Theatre:



    “I think I have never lost my connection with Romania. I left in 2010 for acting classes, and then I returned to Romania. I began staging performances in independent theatres, then I went back to France, I took my Master’s degree in directing, and travelled back to Romania… This movement between the two places has been constant, I’ve always worked in both countries. And what I want, at least for my own company and the people who work with it, is to develop a more concrete dialogue in this respect.”



    Usually, Eugen Jebeleanu directs his own texts, or the texts of his partner, Yann Verburgh. But at the 2018 edition of FITS, Jebeleanu came with his stage version of Arthur Miller’s “View from the Bridge”, a Radu Stanca Theatre production. With details on that, here is Eugen Jebeleanu himself.



    “I was taken aback by this play precisely because, although it is inspired by a true story from the 1950s, it has great resonance with what is going on today. I didn’t mean my play to be a manifesto, what I meant was to look at the condition of the man who is leaving, at how he experiences his departure to a place where he doesn’t belong, at how he relates to integration or disintegration. And also at the diaspora community, and the hierarchies within that community, which in turn is part of another, greater community… I was interested in how we end up doing unfair and mean things only in order to defend our own square-metre of territory, in how we turn into monsters just to wield power over the others, to control something or somebody.”



    Playwright and stage-director Alexandra Badea has been living and working in France. Recently she has been offered collaboration with the Théâtre National de la Colline in Paris, whose director is the very well-known playwright and stage-director Wajdi Mouawad. Jointly with the “Radu Stanca” National Theatre actors, in Sibiu Alexandra Badea staged a show titled “Present perfect”, included in the programme of FITS. Alexandra Badea:



    “I have come to Romania after eight years without any contact with Romanian theatre whatsoever. I was suggested a project with the theatre in Sibiu, Eugen told me that this theatre takes its plays on national tours, and that’s what persuaded me to come. I wrote the text for the actors in Sibiu. It is part of a trilogy I am currently developing at the Théâtre national de la Colline in Paris. In France, I work on what we could call the hidden stories, the untold stories, the events in recent history which have been overlooked a little bit. “Past perfect” is the story of a family retracing half a century of Romanian history, from 1941 in Iasi, to this day, covering the pogrom in Iasi in 1941, and the communism of the 1970s, where some people were informers while the others had to face the consequences. And, above all, it is a text I believe speaks about the young today, who to me seem to be maybe a lot more lucid and much more prepared to look at things differently and to take responsibility for the present in a different manner.”



    For Cosmin Chivu this was the 7th consecutive year at FITS. A resident of New York since 2000, when he got his Master’s in stage directing at the famous Actors Studio School, Cosmin Chivu has staged more than 60 shows in professional theatres and universities in the US, Europe, Australia and Thailand. At present, Chivu is the director of the acting and directing department with the Pace School of Performing Arts in New York. At the FITS anniversary edition, Cosmin Chivu brought the musical “The Rocky Horror Show,” a co-production of the “Radu Stanca” National Theatre and the “Lucian Blaga” University in Sibiu, and a Romanian-French production, “Human States”.



    “This year I directed a show entitled “Human states,” a music and poetry performance, presented twice at the Saint John Evangelical Church. And also this year I brought back “The Rocky Horror Show”. “Human States” started out from music, a music of the soul, with few words, a genre that is not very popular in Romania. It is a story where we witness what happens to us from the moment we are born until we die, with all our pleasures, joys and suffering. I also contributed to the Performance Stock Exchange. For three days running, theatre companies and performing art personalities from around the world came to Sibiu to present their work, to find partners and create projects and relations for the future. I moderated such exchange sessions. Companies from all five continents came, I believe. Participation this year was unprecedented.”



    What prompts Cosmin Chivu to return to Sibiu year after year is the spirit of the festival:



    “It started off from a very generous idea and from a small group of people that thought out an event bringing together creative minds and young artists who wished to share their work experiences with one another. That was in 1992-1993, and I took part in the first editions of the festival while still a student in Iasi. Now it has grown into a world-level event. And being able to witness this journey and to contrast what things were like back then what they are like now, and the effort these people put into it over the years, that is absolutely sensational.”


    (Translated by E. Nasta)

  • Gaudeamus – the only book fair organized by a public radio

    Gaudeamus – the only book fair organized by a public radio

    300 exhibitors, over 700 related events, first-time participants and many surprises are in store for the visitors of the 22nd edition of the Gaudeamus International Book Fair hosted by Bucharest from Wednesday to Sunday. This is one of the most important book fairs in Romania and aboard. Gaudeamus is the only book fair in the world organized by a public radio — Radio Romania. Its main target is to support the Romanian culture through exhibitions devoted to books and education. The 2015 edition takes place under the motto “The most read book fair at the most listened to radio”.



    This year, the guest of honor is the Group of French-Speaking Embassies, Delegations and Institutions in Romania (GADIF), the host of the event being Victor Ieronim Stoichita, a researcher and art history professor who currently lives in Switzerland. For 5 days visitors will have the opportunity to attend book launches, creation workshops, round tables and exhibitions. Of the traditional projects of the Fair one could mention “Books return home”, “Best Olympiad winners”, “The GAUDEMAUS Raffle”, Books and multimedia, the Education Stock Exchange, the “Ion Creanga” Children’s Book Fair, the Gaudeamus Creation Workshop, the mini-exhibition entitled “Lost and found publishers”, the “The School of Yore” exhibition, etc.



    On Sunday, the last day of the fair, the GAUDEAMUS awards will be granted, as every year, to three of the exhibitors. One of the awards will be granted for the “Most wanted book of the fair” and will be offered based on the visitors’ vote. Other awards to be granted on Sunday are the Excellence Award, the Antoaneta Ralian Translation Award, the Education Award and the Miss Reading Award. The “Mircea Santimbreanu” Press Trophy for the radio, TV, news agencies and online sections will be granted to the accredited journalists who will report on the fair.



    (translated by L. Simion)