From the Notes of an FNT Curator. The Festival as a Direction

Călin Ciobotari

doi:10.37130/6mpm3829

Authors

Călin Ciobotari George Enescu National University of Arts (UNAGE), Iaşi, Romania Author

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.37130/6mpm3829

Keywords:

festival, theatre, curator, direction, cultural policy, Romanian National Theatre Festival (FNT)

Abstract

The present text aims to highlight the curatorial experiences of its author (curator of the 2022, 2023, and 2024 editions of the Romanian National Theatre Festival), experiences oriented towards answering questions such as: how can a festival constructively influence the developmental directions of a nation’s theatre? Why and in what ways is curating fundamentally different from selecting, and what are the concrete benefits of this recent paradigm shift in Romanian theatre? What directions/new beginnings has the National Theatre Festival proposed/initiated in recent years?

Author Biography

Călin Ciobotari, George Enescu National University of Arts (UNAGE), Iaşi, Romania

Călin Ciobotari is a theatre critic, professor and doctoral supervisor at the Faculty of Theatre of the George Enescu National University of Arts Iași and associate professor at the Faculty of Philosophy and Social Political Sciences at the A.I. Cuza University Iași. He is member of the Romanian Theatre Union and of the Romanian Writers’ Union and the author of over twenty books and about a thousand articles (journalism, studies, theatre reviews etc.). He is the editor-in-chief of the literary magazine Dacia literară and producer and presenter of the TV broadcast “Scena” (Apollonia TV Iași). In 2019 and 2022 he was awarded the UNITER Prize for Theatre Criticism. In 2020, 2022 and 2023 he was director/curator of the National Theatre Festival. The author’s most popular volumes include Chekhov’s Marginals (2016), The Stage Director and the Text. Reading Practices (2017), Hamlet in the Cherry Orchard (2018), Reciting Gorky. A Theatre on the Edge (2021), A History of Kissing in Theatre (2022). As director of the Theatre Doctoral School, since 2020, he has been shaping research directions in Aesthetics, Drama Theory and the Theory of Performance Arts.

References

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Knowles, R. (2012) International Theatre Festivals and 21st – Century Interculturalism, Cambridge University Press.

Lesenciuc, A. (2021) Critica de direcție – analiză vectorială, vol. I, Iaşi: Editura Junimea. 4. Pavis, P. (2021) Dicționar de teatru, traducere din limba franceză de Nicoleta Popa Blănariu și Florinela Floria, Iaşi: Editura Fides.

Letunić, Ana (2022) “Performing Arts Curation as a Means of Advocating for Change in Cultural Policy”, in Turba (vol I/issue 1)

https://thetheatretimes.com/the-digital-spectator-romanian-experiences-during-the-pandemic/

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https://fnt.ro/2024/modulul-dezbateri-in-fnt-2024/