Troupe

David Schwartz was born on August 7, 1985 in Bucharest. He graduated from the Faculty of Theater Directing (2007) and the Master's program in Contemporary Performance Directing (2009) at UNATC Bucharest. For three years he studied History of Arts at the National University of Arts in Bucharest (2003 - 2006). In 2016 he obtained his PhD in Theater and Performing Arts Theory at the Babes-Bolyai University of Cluj, with the thesis "Theater of the losers of the post-socialist transition. Ethical and political perspectives", coordinated by Miruna Runcan. Since 2019, she is a lecturer at the Theater Directing Department of UNATC Bucharest

He is co-initiator of the independent theater platform tangaProject (2005), president of O2G-Ofensiva Generozitatii (since 2007) and coordinator of the Political Theater Platform, which has been running an annual season since 2013 (www.artapolitica.ro/teatru). From 2016 to 2019, he was artistic coordinator of Macaz - theater coop, a space for the production and support of political theater projects. From 2017 to 2019, he coordinated the social-political theater program Ticun Olam at the Jewish State Theatre in Bucharest, together with Andreea Valean. 

Together with Andra Tarara, he co-wrote and co-directed the documentary film "23 August 1944 / 2019" (premiere at Astra Documentary Film Festival Sibiu, Sibiu, 2020) and the experimental film "The Land That Never Sleeps" (national premiere at the European Film Festival Bucharest, international premiere at Jihlava Film Festival, Czech Republic, 2020). Currently, they are working together on the animated documentary film "The Goldstein Files", winner of the C.N.C. 2021 competition.

He directed the performances "The Gunpowder Barrel" (text by Dejan Dukovski, Studio Casandra 2007, graduation performance), "Out!" (text Mihaela Michailov, Parcul VA URMA 2007), "Rags" (dramatization by Mihaela Michailov after Chuck Palahniuk, Green Hours 2008), "Romania! Kisses!" (text by Bogdan Georgescu, National Theater of Iasi 2009), "Make way!" (text by Mihaela Michailov, Green Hours 2009), "Heated heads" (text by Mihaela Michailov, Center for Visual Introspection 2010), "Declaring on my own responsibility" (text by Alina Serban, Green Hours 2011), "Under the surface - The Jiu Valley after 1989" (collective text, subRahova 2012), "'90" (texts by: Alex Fifea, Alice Monica Marinescu, Katia Pascariu, Alexandru Potocean, Andrei Serban; MACAZ - Coop Theatre, 2017), "The Miracle of Cluj" (text by Petro Ionescu, Reactor of Creation and Experiment Cluj, 2017), "The 1918 Trilogy" (text by Mihaela Michailov, Macaz - Teatru Coop, 2018), "TABU" (text by Alice Monica Marinescu and Alex Fifea, Macaz Teatru Coop, 2018), "The Terror and Misery of the Third Reich" (by Bertolt Brecht, audio performance, 2021), "Business Class" (script Alice Monica Marinescu, digital theater miniseries, 2021), "Myth Show. A history of mistrust" (text by Daniel Chirila, Piatra Neamt Youth Theater, 2022), "Vital Energy" (texts by Nicoleta Esinencu, Bogdan Georgescu, Alice Monica Marinescu, Replika Center, 2022), "Heated heads" (text by Mihaela Michailov, audio show, 2024), "Treasure City" (text by Petro Ionescu, Reactor Cluj, 2025).

He (co)wrote and directed the performances "We weren't born in the right place" (with Alice Monica Marinescu; Political Theater Season, 2013), "Independent Moldavia. Corrigendum" (Teatru-Spalatorie, Chisinau, 2013), "You haven't seen anything!" (together with Alex Fifea; Salonul de Proiecte - MNAC, 2015), "What would we be if we knew" (Replika Educational Theater Center, 2015), "In Between" (together with Ioana Florea, Alice Monica Marinescu, Katia Pascariu; Macaz - Teatru Coop, 2016), "Foreign Body" (Jewish State Theater, 2017), "Virtual Wallets" (Anton Pann Theater Ramnicu Valcea, 2018), "Universal Worker" (Replika Center, 2019), "Fiery Heads 2020" (text by Mihaela Michailov and David Schwartz, Centrul Replika, 2020), "Bucharest Deliver" (Masca Theatre, 2021), "Acrobatics - 7 days in the life of country teachers" (Jewish State Theater / Centrul Replika, 2022), "People and Weapons" (Reactor of Creation and Experiment, Cluj, 2023), "Crisis. Survival Kit" (text by Mihaela Michailov and David Schwartz, Masca Theater, 2023), "Invisible" (Luceafarul Republican Theater, Chisinau, 2024, censored performance).

As part of "Varsta4" (2009 - 2019) - a community art project realized together with the residents of the Moses Rosen Home for the Elderly - he co-authored the concept / script and directed the performance "Romanians, turn the guns! August 23, 1944" (2010); the reading performances "Moses Stories" (2010), "The Age of Objects" (2011), "Post-Scriptum" (2013), the community theater and dance performances "Body to Body" (2014), "Unstable Domicile" (2016), "RosenKabarett" (2019).

The text "We weren't born in the right place" has been translated into Arabic, Bulgarian, English, French, German, Georgian and English and has been published in German (Talking About Borders edited by Christian Papke, 2014) and Bulgarian (Anthology of Romanian Contemporary Theater, edited by Lora Nenkovska, 2015). The text "We were not born in the right place" was staged at Baadisches Staatstheater in Karlsruhe, Germany (directed by Manuel Braun, 2013) and read in reading performances in Vienna (directed by Christian Papke, 2012) and Tbilisi (2013).

He participated in the exhibitions Bucharest Biennale 2010 (Moses Rosen Residence, with the performance "Romanians, turn the guns! August 23, 1944"), Making of (Center for Visual Introspection 2011, curator Anca Benera, with the performance series "The Heads Behind the Heads"), Km. 0 (Tranzit.ro Bucharest 2012, curator Raluca Voinea, with the project "The Heated Heads Archive"), "Heroism springs from a warehouse" (Salon of Projects 2015, with the performance "You haven't seen anything! ", curators Mona Vatamanu & Florin Tudor), Bucharest Art Week 2015 (with the performance "You haven't seen anything!", curator Olga Stefan), "Fragments of a Life" (Iasi 2016, with the work "Entre granite / In Between", curator Olga Stefan), "The Future of Memory" (Oradea, 2017, with the work "Family portrait", curator Olga Stefan).

From 2013 to 2017 he was coordinator, author of articles and interviews, editor and proofreader of the quarterly publication Political Art Gazette - 18 thematic issues were published; online version: www.artapolitica.ro ). In 2016 he coordinated the program Political Art Gazette 2. 0 - Platform for Contemporary Art Criticism, and in 2019, he co-initiated the project The Critical Network - a project to support and promote art criticism with an assumed political dimension (produced by the Quantic association, www.artapolitica.ro/reteauacritica ). In 2015, together with Mihaela Michailov, Ionut Sociu, Marius Bogdan Tudor, he coordinated the editing of the volume Contemporary Political Art. Critical perspectives, which gathers texts published in GAP in 2013-2014. In 2016, together with Mihaela Michailov, he coordinated the editing of the volume "Varsta4". The Creative Community, 2009 - 2016, a history in texts and images of the community arts program at the Moses Rosen Residence (edited by ADO Association and Hecate Publishing House). In 2017, he coordinated with Mihaela Michailov the volume Political Theatre 2009 - 2017, which brings together the scripts of most of the performances he worked on during that period (edited by ADO Association and TACT Publishing House). In 2023, she realized the selection, introduction and chronology for the volume "Three antifascist plays" by Bertolt Brecht (TACT Publishing House). In 2024, he edited and realized the introductory study and notes for the volume "Dialectics and alienation. Writings on Theater" by Bertolt Brecht (TACT Publishing House).

He published texts and articles in volumes and publications such as CriticAtac, Dilema Veche, Otherness: Essays and Studies (Denmark), Platzforma.md (Republic of Moldova), Scena.ro, IDEE Magazine, Theater and Film Studies (Babes-Bolyai University, Cluj), Studia Sociologia (Babes-Bolyai University, Cluj), the volume The end of history is postponed. An X-ray of Romanian postcommunism (coord. Emanuel Copilas, ed. Cetatea de Scaun, 2017), Alternative Histories - Workshop Journal (O2G Association, 2019), Social and artistic criticism of Romanian capitalism (coord. Sorin Gog, ed. Presa Universitara Clujeana, 2021).

Together with tangaProject, he worked as a director and community artist on the projects RahovaNonStop - Performance in 25 hours (2006), Evacuation of the Students' House (National Theater Timisoara, 2008) and 4X4 - Mobile Platform for Urban Observation (2008).

He won the directing award at the Graduates Gala (U.N.A.A.T.C., 2007), "Talking About Borders - Life Experiences in Times of Change" competition award (2012, together with Alice Monica Marinescu), Best Young Artist award at Kontakt Festival in Torun, Poland (2012), award at "Butterfly Effect" festival in Galati, together with the team of the show subPamant (2014), National Cultural Fund Administration award for social inclusion, in 2017 (together with the Varsta4 collective and the ADO Association) and in 2021 (for the coordination of the project Universal Worker - Cultural Intervention for Social Dialogue, of the O2G Association), CriticAtac prize for the volume Teatru politic 2009-2017 (together with Mihaela Michailov, 2018), EURODRAM prize for the play Universal Worker (2022), Cineuropa Marketing Award and DAE Prize at the festival When East Meets West (Torino, 2024), for the film project The Goldstein Files. He was nominated for the UNITER awards for best debut (2009) and for the Anonimul Foundation awards for best debut (2011), for directing the performance Romania! Kisses!. He was nominated for the National Cultural Fund Administration awards for "resistance through culture" (O2G Association, 2017) and for social inclusion and intercultural dialogue (for the I.A.R. - Alternative Histories in Romania program, 2019). He was nominated for the Gopo Awards for Best Short Film (for The Land that Never Sleeps, with Andra Tarara, 2021).

His productions, performances and films have been invited to numerous national and international festivals and events including - Bucharest National Theatre Festival (2009, 2010, 2022, 2023, 2024), Romanian Drama Festival Timisoara (2008, 2010, 2011, 2014), Unidrama Festival Tirgu-Mures (2010), Piatra-Neamt Theater Festival (2010, 2017, 2018, 2019, 2021, 2022, 2023), Temps d'Images Festival Cluj (2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014, 2015, 2017), Sibiu International Theater Festival (2006, 2011), New Plays from Europe (Wiesbaden, Germany, 2010), Eugen Ionescu Theater Biennial (Chisinau, Republic of Moldova, 2010), Acoperire Cultural Festival (Chisinau, Republic of Moldova, 2010), Sferracavalli International Festival for Sustainable Imagination (Lizzano, Italy, 2011) Nuits Theatrales au Palais de Behague (Paris, France, 2011), Contemporary Drama Festival (Budapest, Hungary, 2011), Ideo Ideis Alexandria Festival (2011, 2012, 2022, 2023), Kontakt International Theatre Festival (Torun, Poland, 2012), Festival of Roma, Ashkali and Egyptian Culture (Pristina, Kosovo, 2012), Romania, Many Years After... (HAU Theater, Berlin, Germany, 2013), Tbilisi International Theatre Festival (Georgia, 2013), ContemporanIS Iasi Festival (2013, 2014), BUTTERFLY EFFECT Galati Festival (2014, 2016), Gheorgheni National Minorities Colloquium (2015), Eurothalia European Theater Festival (Timisoara, 2015), Telciu Summer School (2016, 2017, 2018), Fragments of a Life Exhibition (Zurich, Switzerland, 2017), TESZT Festival Timisoara (2017), Sibiu Youth Festival (2017, 2023), Iasi Theater Festival for Young Audiences (2018, 2025), Theater across the Prut (Chisinau, Republic of Moldova, 2018), Arad New Theater Festival (2018), Roma Storytelling Festival (Budapest, Hungary, 2018), tour organized by Teatro Palladium & Accademia di Romania (Rome, Italy, 2019), IN V V Z B L L Festival (Timisoara, 2019), ASTRA Film Festival Sibiu (2020), Jihlava International Film Festival (Jihlava, Czech Republic, 2020), Reaktiv Festival (Tirgu-Neamt, 2024).

He has held workshops and seminars on political theatre, documentary theatre, self-representation through theatre, drawing and photography, critical writing, history and theory of political art, for: institutionalized elderly (Varsta4 program, 2009-2019), secondary school students (within the program Teatru SubPamant, 2011), children from refugee families (project Home. In dialogue with migrants, 2014), high school students (2013, 2014, 2019), students (within the Faculty of Theatre at Univ. Babes Bolyai 2013, Focus Atelier Cluj 2015, Telciu Summer School, 2016, 2017, Faculty of Sociology and Anthropology, Univ. Babes-Bolyai, 2020, within the Laboratory of Documentary Theater, Reactor Cluj, 2020, within the Faculty of Theater of Iasi, 2021), theater graduates (within Fresh Start, 2016, 2017, within the School of Political Theater 2018, 2019, 2024, within the School of Drama, 2018), art critics (within the project Political Art Gazette 2.0, 2016), professional actors (Jewish State Theater 2016, Creation and Experimentation Reactor 2017, Masca Theatre 2021 and 2023, Luceafarul Theatre Chisinau 2023-2024, National Theatre Bucharest 2023), retail workers and union leaders (in the SOLIDAR project, 2019), middle and high school teachers (in the PERIFEERIA program, 2022), retired people (Cugir Cultural Center, 2023). He has lectured on documentary theater and political theater at the Contemporary Drama Festival (Budapest, Hungary, 2011), PanoDrama Symposium (Budapest, Hungary, 2012), Telciu Summer School (2016, 2017), European Theatre Perspectives International Symposium (Wroclaw, Poland, 2016), International Brecht Symposium (Tel Aviv, Israel, 2022). Conference "Capitalist Transformations in Romania" (Babes-Bolyai University Cluj, 2023, 2025), Conference "SOLICultEU" (U.N.A.T.T.C. "I.L. Caragiale" Bucharest, 2024).

He participated in performance and installation workshops, solo-performance, biomechanical training, dramatic writing, directing, documentary theater, documentary film, political education, coordinated by: Silke Huysmans & Hannes Dereere (Belgium), Nino Kirtadze (Georgia/France), Warner&Consorten (Netherlands), Sebastien Brunger (Rimini Protokoll, Germany), Anna Lengyel (Panodrama, Hungary), Richard Foreman and Sophie Havilland (Bridge Project, USA), Mihail Durnenkov and Evgheni Kazacikov (Teatr Dok, Russia), This Maag (Germany), Roberta Levitow (USA), Solar SV (Germany), Eric Trules (USA), Klaus Schumacher (Schauspielhaus Hamburg, Germany), Gianina Carbunariu (dramAcum, Romania), Bogdan Georgescu (Romania).

Translated by Andreea Codrea-Boeriu