Theater in the foreground

The curtain has fallen over Sibiu, the city that hosted the International Theater Festival, one of the largest in the world and the biggest event devoted to performing arts in Romania

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Mihai Pelin, 05.07.2022, 14:00

The International Theater Festival (SITF) has closed its doors in Sibiu, central Romania. The theme this year was Beauty. For 10 days, the audience enjoyed about 800 theater, music, dance, circus and street performances, exhibitions, conferences and other events, given by over 3,500 artists from 75 countries. According to the organizers, it is estimated that the daily average of participants was 85,000 people.

Shows, hundreds of minutes of applause and standing ovations, emotions and tears of joy were part of the magic of the event this year as well, in various spaces, from theaters to squares, streets, synagogues and lots of other unconventional places. There were also special events, conferences and book launches hosted by some of the most important professionals in their fields: architects, artists, managers, creators, cultural facilitators, ambassadors, writers, journalists and theater critics.

This has been the largest edition so far, but also the one that brings us – me and the whole team – the greatest joy and satisfaction so far, said Constantin Chiriac, the festival’s president. The event also recorded impressive figures in terms of online attendance. For the first time, based on the partnership with the TikTok social network, the SITF broadcast the first live theater show for users of this platform, along with four other events. In total, during the ten days of the Festival, the hashtag #magiaFITS (the SITF magic) enjoyed over one million views on TikTok, with 150,000 users watching the broadcasts live.

Also in this field, the town of Bistriţa (center) hosted the 30th edition of the Gala of the Romanian Theater Union – UNITER. The best works of the Romanian theater in 2021 were awarded at this gala, attended by some of the most appreciated Romanian artists, professionals from the cultural world and other people close to theatre.

The prize for the best show was won by Death and the Ploughman by Johannes von Tepl, adapted and directed by Silviu Purcărete, staged at the Vasile Alecsandri National Theater in Iasi. Horia Suru was awarded the best director prize, for the complete Trilogy of Mines by Csaba Székely, from the Theater of Romanian Playwrights in Bucharest, and the best stage design award went to Cosmin Florea, for the show Three sad plays, written and directed by Radu Afrim, staged by the Vasile Alecsandri National Theater in Iasi.

The best radio drama award went to A Century of Romanian Theater in Chisinau – Revenge of Forbidden Memory, screenplay by Mariana Onceanu, radio adaptation by Magda Duţu, artistic direction by Petru Hadârcă, a production of the Romanian Radio Broadcasting Corporation. The Excellence Award was granted in memory of Ion Caramitru, former manager of the Bucharest National Theater and founder of UNITER. The event was also promoted online, being broadcast live on UNITER’s Facebook and Instagram page. (MI)