Bucharest Graphic Days is a multi-faceted event dedicated to graphic design and related fields. The educational component and the involvement of leading national and international artists define the purpose of the festival - to raise the existing level of visual aesthetics, to increase the degree of interaction between members of the graphic design guild and to emphasize to the general public the usefulness, importance and beauty of the graphic design phenomenon. Now in its third edition, the festival is structured in three content categories, exhibitions, workshops and debates. The first of them including an international poster call - Roar Poster whose theme this year will be Power. Organized by Graphic Front Association & Graphics Workshop - Bucharest, the event is conceived and built on the collaboration with some of the cultural institutes in Romania, other artists and cultural organizations. The exhibition will take place between October 19 and December 15, 2024 and the central exhibition will be in the Rotonda Hall of the "I.L. Caragiale" National Theatre in Bucharest Official opening: Saturday, October 19, 2024, 18.00, "I.L. Caragiale" National Theater "I.L. Caragiale" Bucharest, Rotonda Hall (access from Carol Boulevard) Program here   Exhibitions  here  Hocus-Pocus, Agata Kulczyk & Marcin Markowski - Poster exhibitionOrosz István - Poster exhibitionPerahim, Taru & their contemporaries - Picture book exhibitionRoar Power Poster – Poster international call – selection of 100 postersThe best books from Germany, Switzerland and Austria100 Beste Plakate - Top 100 posters from Germany, Switzerland, Austria Exhibitions in other venues:Oana Ispir - Picture book exhibition20.10– 10.11 > Seneca Anticafe, Bucharest Doriana Marasoiu + Ilona Polanski - Illustrations exhibition (20.10– 10.11,  Architects Order, 19, Arthur Verona St.) Orosz István - Drawings – Anamorfoze (20.10 – 10.11 > Liszt Institute, Bucharest) Talks here Debate topic: Ethics in advertising - power and influence in teenvertisingGuests: George Bonea, Dan Stanescu, Maria ZvincaModerator: Monica JitariucOctober 21, 2024, 6 PMRotonda Hall, National Theater Bucharest Debate topic: Graphics everywhere - a debate on the omnipresence of the graphic phenomenonGuests: Eliza Yokina, Tudor Juravlea, (more TBA)Moderator: Ciprian N. IsacOctober 29, 2024Rotonda Hall, National Theater Bucharest Debate topic: Power in its many formsGuests: Caterina Preda, Cosmin Ciotlos, Raluca Bradea, Victor Morozov, Alexandra Mihaela Dancs (more TBA)Moderator: Ciprian N. IsacNovember 4, 2024Rotonda Hall, National Theater Bucharest Workshop, applications here   Oana Ispir – Linocut WorkshopOctober 26 - 27, Seneca Anticafe, Bucharest Tuan Nini - No more Talking HeadsComics WorkshopNovember 1, 2, 3, Architects Order, Bucharest  Aleksandra Kot și Marcin Władyka - Design and printing workshopOctober 25, 26, 27, Architects Order, Bucharest Alexe Popescu - Origamix – Origami WorkshopOctober 26, 27, NTB, Bucharest Organizers:Graphic Front AssociationGraphics Workshop, Bucharest The main event partners: AFCN, National Theater Bucharest, Polish Institute Bucharest, Goethe-Institut Bucharest, Czech Center, Embassy of Switzerland in Romania, Austrian Cultural Forum, Liszt Institute, Order of Architects Bucharest, Seneca Anticafe Supporters: AFCN, Antalis Romania, Embassy of Switzerland in Romania, Aqua Carpatica, Armenian Cultural Center Promotion partners: Zeppelin Magazine, Radio Romania Cultural, IQ Ads The project does not necessarily represent the position of the Administration of the National Cultural Fund. AFCN is not responsible for the content of the project or how the results of the project may be used. These are entirely the responsibility of the grant beneficiary.   Translated by Andreea Codrea-Boeriu 

  At the beginning of September, the I.L. Caragiale" opened, at its headquarters, a new theater season after the previous season - 2023 - 2024 - which also marked the 50th anniversary of the institution's activity in the current building, proved to be a remarkable one: in the 10 months of activity (September 2023 - June 2024), 10 premieres saw the light of the stage, confirming that the first stage of the country is in one of its most effervescent moments. Throughout this period, the occupancy rate has exceeded 80%, with the majority of the shows in the repertoire being sold-out from the very first moments of ticket sales. The beginning of the new season was marked by the high-impact presence of the "I.L. Caragiale" National Theatre at the 9th edition of the Romanian National Theaters' Meeting from both sides of the Prut River, in Chisinau, with three representative performances from the current repertoire of the TNB, which were applauded openly by the enthusiastic audience in the capital of the Republic of Moldova: Exit the King, Gertrude and A Few People Away from You. The NTB performance The Silent Escape, directed and performed by the actress Oana Pellea, enjoyed a well-deserved prestigious success during the two special performances held in September at the Théâtre des Capucins in Luxembourg. On October 4th, the first premiere of the new season took place: the documentary-performance The Eichmann Trial by Motti Lerner, directed by actor Mihai Călin (directorial debut!) and presented in its world premiere at the NTB Sala Atelier. "The Eichmann Trial is a play about an event that took place in Israel in 1961. But the purpose of the play is not to re-enact the event as a history lesson. (...) This play is a moral statement which, in today's times, is extremely necessary for the whole world"- this is how playwright Motti Lerner defines the message of his play. A much-needed history lesson and a wake-up call to prevent an unfortunate repetition of history, The Eichmann Trial, staged with intense emotional involvement by an excellent team of actors, is aimed at adults and teenagers, high school students and their teachers. It is not by chance that the National Theatre's performance of The Eichmann Trial was realized within the tnb.edu Program - a program developed out of the conviction that Theatre, by excellence an art of encounter, can complement and cover an important side in the educational process, the emotional-cognitive and direct experience. But what are the latest news of the current season? The return, after 32 years, of director Andrei Șerban to the National Theatre to stage Robert Icke's Mary Stuart "... is not just a premiere, but a major cultural event. The production of Mary Stuart comes with the promise of an intense exploration of great historical and personal conflicts, under the baton of a director who has left his mark on world theater. This is an important moment for the Romanian theater, marking the return of a master who continues to fascinate and challenge new generations of spectators"- says journalist Radu Caranfil (Puterea, Sept. 20, 2024). And Andrei Șerban, in a recent interview with Horia Ghibuțiu (Timp liber magazine, Oct. 11, 2024), says: "I'm back after 30 years at the National Theatre with an extremely ambitious project - Mary Stuart, a modern adaptation of Schiller's famous historical play. It is the drama of two powerful women, Mary and Elizabeth - two queens, of Scotland and England respectively. Both come face to face with the most extreme consequences of power. Mary is a prisoner because she plotted to obtain the crown of England, and Elizabeth, though on the throne, feels herself a captive, dependent on the will of the mob, the manipulations of corrupt politicians or a prisoner of her own ambitions for power. Conclusion: "The royal crown is a jeweled prison cell". A play about the plight of these women, fascinated by each other, caught in a complex web of attraction, rivalry and jealousy. A nation divided, when history loses its meaning and everything seems driven by chance, a truth of all times as well as of the moment we are living in now." Șerban has always been drawn to contemporary reinterpretations of great classical texts, and the collaboration with Robert Icke, one of the most talented British directors of his generation, represents a pinnacle meeting of two different theatrical visions. Mary Stuart directed by Robert Icke premiered at the Almeida Theatre in London in 2016, and the play's combination of modern set design, accessible language and timeless themes has contributed to its critical success. Here is also the team of actors and directors of this upcoming premiere of the National: Raluca Aprodu, Nicoleta Lefter, Ofelia Popii, Florin Aioane, Claudiu Bleont, Marius Bodochi, Mihai Calin, Mihai Calota, Florin Calbajos, Tudor Cucu Dumitrescu, Conrad Mericoffer, Stefan Mihai, Ciprian Nicula, Emilian Oprea. Directed by: Andrei Serban; Associate director: Dana Dima; Set design: Helmut Stürmer; Costumes: Corina Gramosteanu; Music: Alexei Ţurcan; Video: Andrei Cozlac; Lighting design: Cristi Niculescu. Director Felix Alexa is already a regular on the stages of the National Theatre, where we will find him again this season with a staging of the one-act play, Out at Sea, by Polish playwright Sławomir Mroźek. It was written in the 1960s, when censorship was in place in Poland and the playwright was forced to find various roundabout ways to express his beliefs against the Soviet regime. This black comedy follows the adventures of three castaways trying to find a democratic way to decide which of the three will be sacrificed so that the other two may survive... The ethical dilemma is supported by increasingly unusual arguments, until the intervention of a passing postman and an old servant take the play into a hilariously surrealist exaggeration with an unexpected denouement. In the roles of the five male characters, director Felix Alexa (who is also responsible for the musical illustration and lighting design) has cast actors Serban Pavlu, Emilian Marnea, Andrei Finti, Eduard Cirlan and ....Victoria Dicu. Sets: Stefan Caragiu. Costumes: Liliana Cenean. Another expected directorial presence is that of director Botond Nagy, who debuted at the Bucharest National Theatre in March 2023 with the performance The word progress spoken by the mother sounds terribly false by Matei Vishniec. In November, Botond Nagy begins rehearsals for an extremely provocative text - The Prophet Elijah, by another contemporary Polish playwright, Tadeusz Slobodzianek *. (Born in 1955, Slobodzianek is also a director, theatre critic, teacher and director of the Warsaw Drama Theatre, author, among others, of the very well known play Our Class, performed by several theatres in Romania). The premiere is scheduled for February 2025. In December, rehearsals will begin for Secundar, a new production by Alexandra Badea, author and director of her own dramatic text. "The meeting with the NTB company during rehearsals for 'Exile' and the communication I had with the actors inspired me to create a new project based on a text I wrote for them," says Alexandra Badea. The theme of the show is the existential crisis, secrecy, repression, feelings of guilt, collective trauma that has welded or disintegrated a group, fragility, solidarity, individualism. It is the story of a community of people who have been working together for many years, disrupted by an event that provokes a chain of conflicts. Events from the past reappear in the form of flashbacks, in which we discover the toxicity and complexity of their relationships, power games, domination, ambiguity, the difficulty of separating the intimate from the professional." Director Victor Ioan Frunza returns, after a long absence from the stages of the National Theatre, with an ambitious project based on Shakespeare's texts, for which he is already preparing a cast. We will come back with details as soon as they are finalized. So, the series of exciting performances, supported by some of the most brilliant casts, continues at the National this fall, expecting the same enthusiastic audience that we have grown accustomed to in recent seasons.   Translated by Andreea Codrea-Boeriu 

Andrei Serban returns after 32 years to the "I.L. Caragiale" National Theater and begins rehearsals on Friday, September 20, 2024, for the play Mary Stuart by Robert Icke, after Friedrich Schiller (translated by Irina Velcescu), with a cast in which we find well-known actors of the TNB, but also some names of guest actors: Raluca Aprodu, Nicoleta Lefter, Ofelia Popii, Florin Aioane, Claudiu Bleont, Marius Bodochi, Mihai Calin, Mihai Calota, Florin Calbajos, Tudor Cucu Dumitrescu, Conrad Mericoffer, Stefan Mihai, Ciprian Nicula, Emilian Oprea. Director: Andrei Serban; Associate director: Dana Dima; Set design: Helmut Stürmer; Costumes: Corina Gramosteanu; Music: Alexei Turcan; Video: Andrei Cozlac; Lighting design: Cristi Niculescu. We'll be back soon with news about the next repertory projects of this season! Translated by Andreea Codrea-Boeriu