The Arts
\nUniversity in Targu Mures organized, in the second half of November, several
\ninternational events which primarily addressed students and MA candidates who
\nstudy acting, directing and dramatic writing. These events are an opportunity
\nfor them to exchange experience and to develop their competences because, ultimately,
\nthey are the ones who will set the trend and quality of the theater of
\ntomorrow. Or of today. The events included the International Studio- Meeting
\nof Theater Schools Festival, Transylvania Playwriting Camp,
\nand Fabulamundi. Playwriting Europe. Beyond Borders?, events of
\nwhich Radio Romania International was a media partner.<\/p>\n
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\n
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Therefore,
\nbetween November 18-25, 2018 the modern space of the Arts University and the
\nstages of the Studio and Studio 2.1 Theaters hosted the 4th edition
\nof the International Studio- Meeting of Theater Schools Festival which
\nwas attended by ten theater universities from the country and abroad. What was
\ninteresting, at least in this edition of the Festival, was the fact that the
\nshows presented by the drama schools were very different. Here is University
\nProfessor Oana Leahu with more: <\/p>\n
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\n
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I
\nbelieve that each production that I have seen is trying to keep up the pace
\nwith the times we are living. Universities are not making canned theater at
\nall. Everybody is trying to get their work anchored into the present and this
\nis very important to me. Equally important is the fact that students are trying
\nto develop their vocal expressiveness as well as their body language and all
\nthe other qualities that make them good. The choice of repertoire is also vast.
\nThere are various genres approached, from animation to physical theater, to
\nmusical. I think it’s best for young artists and their teachers to promote
\nnovelty.<\/p>\n
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\n
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The other
\nprojects of the Arts University, Transylvania Playwriting Camp,
\nwhich is a partnership with the US, and Fabulamundi, a European project, have,
\nin a way, been the partners of the Studio Festival this year. Oana Leahu is
\nback with more: <\/p>\n
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\n
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We have cooperated with Lark Play Development Center from New York for ten
\nyears. It is a camp which is held every two years. Each class of MA students
\nstudying dramatic writing has the opportunity to have this experience. Fabulamundi
\nis a project which we have joined quite recently, and I hope to continue being
\npart of it for the next 10 years. We thought it was a good idea to hold the two
\nevents together, at the same time. This year there is another section
\nFocus-Directing, which aims to attract the students from the directing
\ndepartments of the Arts Universities in Romania to present their productions.<\/p>\n
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\n
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John
\nClinton Eisner is the co-founder and artistic director of the Lark Theater. He
\nhas come to Romania for the past 12 years and has worked both in Bucharest and
\nTargu Mures.<\/p>\n
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Targu Mures I like in particular because it’s uncomplicated, in the sense that
\nthere’s not a lot of shiny objects all over the place to distract you, you
\nknow, you can actually focus on what you want to focus on, the people here are
\nvery serious about making the work, and, I don’t know, there is something very
\nrelaxing, that is very conducive to generating new ideas and not feeling the
\nemergency of having to compete with each other for better ideas. I will say
\nthat 12 years ago or a few less years, but when the university started the
\nmasters program there were writers who were coming from a more director-driven tradition,
\nand didn’t have a tradition of playwriting because that had sort of lapsed and
\nthey were finding their voices and I would say that people were more
\nrestrained, you know it’s harder to get them to talk about what they thought
\nand felt but then, when we did, it was deep and profound. And now, because the
\nprogram is strong and up and running, the moment we started people were ready
\nto talk about the world around them, what they thought and felt about it, and
\nwhat they wanted to do with writing, so I’d say the big change that’s happened
\nsince we’ve come here is that, I think, the program has, you know, evolved to
\nsuch a degree that they are finding very interesting writers to come here but
\nthey are also creating a framework where people are actually very clear about
\nwhat they are doing as dramatists.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
\n
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Dramatist
\nRajiv Joseph from Lark Theater has been the guest of the festival in Targu
\nMures several times in the past years. This year he launched at the Studio
\nFestival the Romanian-language version of the play Describe the night made as
\npart of the MA in Dramatic Writing at the Arts University in Targu Mures. The
\ntranslation was coordinated by university lecturer and PhD Anda Cadariu. Recipient
\nof the Obie Award for best new play in 2018, Describe the night starts from
\ntwo real events: the crash of the plane carrying the Polish president and a
\ngreat part of the Polish government to Smolensk in 2010 and the discovery of
\nthe journal of the Russian writer and journalist Isaac Babel, a witness in 1920
\nof the Polish – Soviet war. Rajiv Joseph was very affected by the Polish
\npresident plane crash being covered just by a small newspaper article and by
\nthe fact that almost nobody knew about that tragic event. The translations into
\nHungarian and Romanian made in Targu Mures have reduced the duration of the
\nplay to one third. Here is dramatist Rajiv Joseph: <\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
\n
<\/p>\n
The experience of working with the translators, the directors and the actors
\non this play, getting a Hungarian perspective on it, getting a Romanian
\nperspective on it, changed the play entirely. And made it into a play, I would
\nsay. Because I was getting all these new perspectives that I never would have
\ngotten in the US. Perspectives from people in a culture that had been much
\ncloser to the Soviet Union than I ever was. Questions that came from actors,
\nand directors, and translators about what a word meant, and why would this
\nperson say this, and why would this person behave this way. And I sat there in
\nthe theater trying to answer these questions and then adjusting the text and, as
\nI did, things started to fall away from the play and things started coming
\ntogether in the play, and while I went back to all the stuff that I have done
\nin Transylvania (animals out of paper, Bengal tiger, gruesome playground
\ninjuries) and now this, I realized that in every case I learnt so much more about
\nmy work when I come to this city and I work with the people, the artists that
\nwork here. There’s a creativity here, there is an ethos, and there is
\nexcellence in the text and so for that I’m totally grateful, because I don’t
\nthink this play would ever have been produced anywhere, especially in the US, had
\nI not come to the translation camp here.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
A highly successful cultural project, addressing theater professionals<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":129,"featured_media":162283,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[44685],"tags":[44959,44961,44962,44960],"coauthors":[],"class_list":["post-162282","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-world-of-culture","tag-meeting-of-theatre-schools-festival","tag-stage-directors","tag-theater-students","tag-transylvania-palywriting-camp"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\n