The Romanian Radio Drama Awards and the Grand Prix Nova Festival

In June, the Romanian Radio Broadcasting Corporation hosted the 2nd Grand Prix Nova International Radio Drama Festival.

Monica Chiorpec, 06.09.2014, 13:40

Held between June the 16th and 21st, the festival enjoyed the patronage of Romania’s crown princess Margareta. 44 radio shows from 21 countries competed for the trophy in the festival, whose goal was to reward innovative artistic productions that explore new approaches to radio broadcasting, bring forward original texts and experiment with unusual sound editing techniques. During the awards gala, which was held at the Elisabeta Palace in Bucharest, three special prizes were offered to actors who performed in the premieres of the 2013 radio drama season. Attila Vizauer, the editor-in-chief of the Radio Drama Department:

“I think the decision of the Romanian Radio Broadcasting Corporation to award actors who put up extraordinary performances in various radio dramas is very good. As I have often mentioned before, the annual awards gala of the Theatre Union in Romania (UNITER) includes a special radio drama section. The best productions in a certain year are awarded, and we are honoured by it. Time has come to celebrate the great actors who found the time, joy and enthusiasm to perform in radio dramas. This is why we have launched this project for the first time this year. The award for best actress went to Rodica Mandache, while Vlad Ivanov was designated best actor. A special prize for debut went to Ana-Maria Balescu.”

Rodica Mandache tells us more about the role that won her the best actress award.

“It’s a life lesson, a survival lesson given by a woman who says you can overcome any difficulty with faith and love. These two feelings, love and faith, blend into some sort of a fuel, which keep this life-machine running. I don’t think there is any spectator who can remain indifferent after hearing the story. The woman’s story changes habits, outlooks, as she is a very beautiful, strong character. I think this was an extraordinary chance for me. I didn’t hope I would be cast. I feel like I really did a good job playing this part and it feels like I did that for the character, for the woman in the story.”

The jury of the Grand Prix Nova International Theatre Festival was made up of renowned personalities and professionals in the field, such as Italian writer and director Idalberto Fei, who was also president of the jury, Alison Hindell, commissioning editor for arts, drama and fiction with the BBC, Marina Bagdasaryan, a producer with Radio Culture of Russia, Romanian theater critic Cristina Modreanu and Domnica Tundrea, with the Drama Section of Radio Romania. The award-winning plays are impressive thanks to their thrilling stories, the performances put on by the actors and the innovative sound techniques. Attila Vizauer:

A Radio Romania production, Metamorphosis by Ioan Andrei Puican won the first place in the radio drama section. Another production, Countdown, also directed by Puican, got the second place award in the short form category. Both productions are defined by detailed discourse, masterly rendering emotions and feelings. Then there is the pace, the rhythm, editing cuts, flashbacks, all of which are creating a very modern, interesting and provoking approach to radio theatre. The themes tackled are also modern, contemporary… Listeners are profoundly impressed by the fact that their lives are artistically transposed in these shows. And I am not talking only about these two Romanian productions, I am also referring to the extraordinary gift of Russian director Dimitry Nicolaev who got the first prize in the short form section with a nine minute play called Happy birthday, darling! The play is centred upon this famous phrase, sung by two characters, an actor and an actress, in various forms and rhythms. Also, German productions from Berlin and Baden-Baden have scripts of great intellectual refinement, one of them inspired by James Joyce. Then there is the soundtrack, specifically made to create an ample, and at the same time subtle architecture, specific to the year 2014.”

Here is theatre critic Cristina Modreanu with more on the winning show:

“I was deeply touched by it, as it had this strong innovative side to it. I am referring to Ioan Puican’s Metamorphosis, a show that was done with a tinge of the Kafkaesque. The plot is about a contemporary character that gets caught into the labyrinthine world of corporations; he is struggling with an underpaid job, and eventually ends up losing his dignity and humanity. Besides having an excellent audio quality, the show succeeds in depicting the aggressiveness of everyday life, which is stifling and baffling for sensitive individuals. All these emotions have been expressed through a series of high-quality sound effects, in quite a spectacular manner.”

Radio drama is one of the most complex means of artistic expression, any show of this kind being a real challenge for stage professionals and radio people alike.