UNITER Awards Gala

Directors Mihai Măniuţiu and Yuri Kordonski and actors Mariana Mihuţ and Victor Rebengiuc are the big winners of this years UNITER Awards Gala.

Ştefan Stoica, 08.05.2018, 13:04

The Theater Union of Romania — UNITER — has this year celebrated the best actors and directors of the year 2017 in the Transylvanian city of Alba Iulia, in central Romania. This particular choice of venue is owed to the fact that Alba Carolina Citadel is the symbol of the Great Union of the Romanian historical provinces, which took place 100 years ago. The award for best performance in 2017 went to ‘Rambuku’ by the Norwegian writer Jon Fosse, adapted by Anca Maniutiu and directed by Mihai Maniutiu, staged at the ‘Mihai Eminescu’ National Theatre in Timisoara.

Best director was designated the Russian Yuri Kordonsky, for the show ‘The Incredible and Sad Tale of Innocent Erendira and her Heartless Grandmother’, by Gabriel Garcia Marquez, staged by the German State Theater in Timisoara. Kordonski is a good old friend of the Romanian theater. His ‘Uncle Vanya staged at the Bulandra Theatre in Bucharest is a landmark for the domestic dramatic art. The National Theatre in Bucharest was awarded at the UNITER Gala as well, thanks to actors Mariana Mihut and Victor Rebengiuc, who won the best actress and best actor awards respectively, for their parts in ‘Exit the King’ by Eugene Ionescu, directed by Andrei and Andreea Grosu.

The best supporting actor award was won by Zsolt Bogdan, for the part of Roy M. Cohn in the series ‘Angels in America’ by Tony Kushner, stage directed by Victor Ioan Frunza. The trophy for best supporting actress went to Ada Lupu for playing the daughter in the show ‘Job’s Butcher Shop’ by Fausto Paravidino, staged by Radu Afrim at the ‘Vasile Alecsandri’ theatre in Iasi, north-eastern Romania. The best stage director award was won by Helmut Sturmer and Ioana Popescu for ‘The Incredible and Sad Tale of Innocent Erendira and her Heartless Grandmother’, by Gabriel Garcia Marquez.

The best TV drama performance was designated ‘Midwinter Night’s Dream’ by Tudor Musatescu, and the best radio drama award was won by ‘Ovid, the Pontus Euxinus Exile’, based on a scrip by Emil Boroghina, an adaptation after Ovid’s ‘Tristia’ and ‘Epistulae ex Ponto’, staged and directed for radio by Gavriil Pinte and produced by the Romanian Radio Broadcasting Corporation. The award for the best Romanian play in 2017 went to Daniel Oltean, for the play ’50 seconds’. Mention should be made of the fact that Daniel Oltean is an anti-mafia prosecutor Also, UNITER handed the lifetime achievement award to actor Horatiu Malaiele, in particular for his memorable part in ‘Uncle Vanya, staged by Kordonski at the Bulandra Theatre in Bucharest, while the UNITER President’s Award went to theatre critic Marina Constantinescu, who paid homage to the recently deceased anti-communist dissident Doinea Cornea.

(Translated by M. Ignatescu)