The 2015 HOP Gala

We invite you behind the doors of the 2015 HOP Young Actors' Gala

Luana Pleşea, 26.09.2015, 16:04

Actress Maia Morgenstern, actor Tudor Chirila, film director Radu Jude, set designer Iuliana Vilsan and musician Luiza Zan were the jury members of the 2015 edition of the HOP Young Actors Gala held in the Black Sea resort of Costinesti. That was the 18th edition of that prestigious event, staged by the Theatre Union of Romania — UNITER and coordinated artistically by stage director Radu Afrim.

Set designer Iuliana Vilsan is for the first time a member of that jury: “I’m highly demanding and rigorous and I often assess things in a strict manner. I was kind of taken aback at first by my position as a jury member, but then I let myself carried away by the incredible energy and availability that only young actors have. So I tried to relax and see everything in a more empathetic manner. When evaluating individual performances, I counted a lot on the authentic feeling, on the contestants who managed to express best their feelings and convey the message they wanted. I congratulate the winner of the grand prize, Dana Marineci, for her very good number.”

Dana Marineci, the winner of the Stefan Iordache Prize, which is the Gala’s Grand Prize, graduated from the Bucharest Theatre and Film University in 2012. In spite of the fact that it is not easy, for young actors, to get to be known by stage directors and theatre managers, she trusted her talent and participated in all possible auditions and competitions.

As for the theme of Dadaism, which impressed the jury, she said: “It was a very difficult theme, as, in my opinion, it required a certain structure. Even if in Dadaism everything seems to be disorganized, we should always keep in mind that we are on a stage, before an audience. The audience is there to see us. So we must give them something to take with them when they leave, to transform them a little bit. I spent about two weeks reading about Dadaism and looking for Dadaist performances on YouTube. I particularly liked the performance of a German, Kurt Schwitters, entitled “Ursonate”, or “the sonata in primordial sounds”. It has 15 pages of sounds. I managed to learn it by heart but I realized that it was not enough. So I took a different approach to it, like” What’s essential? Love is essential. So I figured out it would be easy for me and for the audience to build a love story behind this moment.”

Known not only for his shows but also for being a supporter of young talents, stage director Radu Afrim was for the third year in a row the artistic director of the Young Actors Gala HOP. Emphasis was laid on the actor and not the script, the two themes seeming somehow imbalanced — ‘the Dada” and “Holiday on the Sea Coast”

Radu Afrim: “I found that in the first two years people were very impressed by scripts. If the script is strong, filled with emotion, or funny, the actor becomes secondary. Of course it is the actor who gives value to a script, but if some of them benefited from good scripts, they stood good chances of winning a prize. Then I said to myself: let’s now give them almost impossible scripts, dadaistic ones, to see who’s going to fight more and pour some value into their scripts. And those who managed the best performances on the given scripts were declared winners. Some actors fared very well under these conditions although this year they had to cope with some non-texts, even lyrics from various songs. Their main challenge was to make the most of these scripts and avoid turning them into parodies.”

The “Cornel Todea” Award for the best troupe of actors was not given this year because the jury decided it was a very big gap between the Group Section and the Individual Section. Nevertheless, Iuliana Vilsan, a member of the jury, was impressed by the young generation of actors and their performances in the HOP Gala.

Iulia Vilsan: “They have many vulnerabilities, a special sensitivity and a very promising way of conveying emotions, because it involves such an energy and a sense of ineffable, which could bring more authenticity to what is happening on our stages. I like it very much…I was very impressed by their availability.”