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Mary Stuart – A Performance by Andrei Șerban On October 15, 2025, the I.L. Caragiale National Theater in Bucharest (TNB) has the honor of presenting a special performance in Kielce: Mary Stuart, in the exceptional vision of world-renowned director Andrei Șerban. The performance, based on Robert Icke's text adapted from Friedrich Schiller, brings to the fore one of the most famous and tragic conflicts in royal history: the struggle for the throne and, implicitly, the struggle for life, between Queen Elizabeth I of England and her cousin, Mary Stuart of Scotland (played by Ofelia Popii and Raluca Aprodu at random, roles assigned at the beginning of each performance). Under the baton of Andrei Șerban, known for his innovation and directorial force on prestigious stages around the world (including Broadway and La MaMa, New York), this production is not just a history lesson, but a profound exploration of power, destiny, and sacrifice. The event takes place at the opening of the Kielce International Theatre Festival and as part of the Romanian edition of the "Gra z Kantorem" program. Tickets can be purchased on the Stefan Żeromski Theatre website: teatrzeromskiego.bilety24.pl „Grz z Kantorem” /„Playing with Kantor” is an artistic research project organized by the Tadeusz Kantor Cricoteka Documentation Center in Krakow, initiated in 2018, and since 2023 it has taken the form of a festival. It explores the reception of Tadeusz Kantor's work and presents it as a living source of inspiration for new generations of experimental artists around the world. "Playing with Kantor" demonstrates the tangible impact of Cricot 2 on the contemporary form of theater and visual arts. This year's edition focuses on the performing arts in Romania and is organized by Cricoteka together with the Romanian Cultural Institute in Warsaw. The performance in Kielce is supported by the Romanian Ministry of Culture. On October 15, audiences in Poland—and beyond—will have a unique opportunity to see the power and elegance of the Bucharest National Theater team on stage in Kielce.   Translated by Andreea Codrea-Boeriu 

Tickets for the performances of the 35th edition of the National Theater Festival will go on sale on Wednesday, October 1, 2025, at 12:00 p.m., simultaneously on the sales platforms of each host theater, as well as at their ticket offices. For easy access, we recommend that you select the desired performances from the daily program posted on the fnt.ro website and, by clicking the Buy Tickets button, you will be redirected to the ticket purchase page for the desired performance. The Buy Tickets button will be active starting Wednesday, October 1, at 12:00 p.m. For two of the FNT performances – "It's Only the End of the World," directed by Eugen Jebeleanu, and "At Dawn, the Light Is Harsher," directed by Radu Apostol – admission is free, subject to availability, based on registration on the performance pages. Follow us on www.fnt.ro and on the Facebook page of the National Theater Festival to stay up to date with all the details regarding the program of performances and related events. * The 35th edition of the National Theater Festival, produced by UNITER – the Romanian Theater Union, will take place in Bucharest between October 17 and 26, 2025. FNT is a strategic cultural project funded by the Ministry of Culture. The co-producer is the Bucharest City Hall through ARCUB – the Cultural Center of Bucharest. The curatorial team of the National Theater Festival consists of Raluca Circiumaru (theater critic), Alina Epingeac (theater critic), and Ionut Sociu (playwright and cultural journalist), with Radu Afrim as associate director. The theme of the current edition is a call to action: FNT 2025. It concerns you!, and the image is a creation by set designer Irina Moscu. We look forward to seeing you at NTF!  Translated by Andreea Codrea-Boeriu 

Premiering at the "I.L. Caragiale" National Theater in Bucharest, Nothing is by Chance by David Schwartz. A documentary theater project conceived in three stages, carried out over two years, created by the director-playwright together with actresses and actors from TNB. Six characters with different personalities and problems, but all searching for meaning, participate in a family constellation session. An engaging story about more or less chance encounters and reunions, extreme situations, clashes of ideas, contradictory states and feelings, in an intimate space, where the action takes place in close proximity to the audience. Personal and spiritual development services have become increasingly popular globally. They promise to solve all problems, from career and money to relationships, and are promoted as a universal panacea for the shortcomings of contemporary society. At the same time, they are increasingly controversial: some people claim that they fundamentally change their lives for the better, while others consider them harmful or dangerous; for some they are pure science, for others commercial speculation; some say they should be widespread and accessible to everyone, while others argue that they should be regulated or even banned. Finally, the proliferation of these practices may be a symptom of the increasingly acute problems (social or spiritual) facing the world today, rather than a cause or trigger. The actors and actresses who perform in the production—Ada Gales, Iuliana Moise, Crina Semciuc, István Téglás, Ionut Toader, Florentina Tilea—worked with the director to research the methods and impact of spiritual development services, particularly the Family Constellations method, in Bucharest. The research consisted of interviews, informal discussions, reviewing sociological and anthropological works on the subject, observation, and direct participation. The script fictionalizes and develops situations encountered in the documentation process. The production is the result of a documentary theater project on personal development practices, organized under the auspices of the Ion Sava Center for Theater Research and Creation. The completion of this project involved the creation of a theater production. Begun in the spring of 2023, together with actors from the National Theater of Bucharest, Nothing is by Chance, a project by director-playwright David Schwartz, had its preview at the end of last season. This staging is made possible by Andrei Dinu's set design, original music and sound design by Nikita Dembinski, lighting design by Stefan Dumitra, and choreography by Florin Fieroiu. First performances of the current season: September 19, 20, and 21, 2025 (official premiere), at 7 p.m., at the Atelier Hall.   Translated by Andreea Codrea-Boeriu 

  From July 7 to September 8, 2025, the NTB Amphitheater and the Summer Nights up on the Theatre program, organized by the "I.L. Caragiale" National Theater in Bucharest, presented the public with an attractive and relaxing cultural offering, combining genres and styles. The summer that just ended brought dozens of performances to the NTB Amphitheatre, presented in partnership with independent theatres, meetings with young artists, but also with established names in theatre: Oana Pellea, Maia Morgenstern, Richard Bovnoczki, Marian Ralea, Marius Manole, Ada Milea, Raluca Aprodu, Ofelia Popii, Lari Giorgescu, Cezar Antal, and many others. For the second year running, Rooftop Season, organized in collaboration with Overground Music, continued its series of exciting and energizing concerts: Byron, Luiza Zan & Jazzpar Trio, Dimitri's Bats, Coma, The Mono Jacks, Toulouse Lautrec & Rana, Valeria Stoica, Paul Tihan & Andra Andriuca. The open-air amphitheater is a unique venue in Romania, offering a welcoming space for artists and audiences alike, located on the National Theater, 24 meters above University Square. Under the open sky, guest artists and over 8,000 spectators enjoyed unique evenings and a variety of performances this summer. Oana Pellea: What happens at NTB, under the name Amphitheater, has become a phenomenon! Summer evenings at the NTB Amphitheater are a joy for both the audience and the actors. I enjoy every time I perform at the Amphitheatre, up there. Performing "The Little Prince" under the starry sky was a truly wonderful experience. Thank you, NTB Amphitheatre! Thank you to the person who organizes this little miracle every year: Cristiana Gavrila! Maia Morgenstern: I appreciate and am grateful for your dedication and determination to host, in the best possible sense, meaning to provide space, time, place, and energy! I was welcomed with warmth and interest, everything was adapted, and it was not easy, in record time... For everything you have done this summer, for all the shows and for the large number of spectators, I would say it is a SUCCESS! Lari Giorescu: The NTB Amphitheater is a place where theater breathes directly from the sky and the city. Ever since 2018, when Ion Caramitru opened this space with an event that I had the pleasure of being part of, I have felt it to be a unique place. There, acting becomes confession, and the audience seems closer to the heart than to the stage. In the open air, magic is born simply and inevitably, like an encounter between dream and reality. Ada Milea: Because "human being makes the place holy," I believe that the human being also makes the roof holy. At sunset. Right under the sky, in the Amphitheater, the technical and organizational team of the NTB in the Amphitheater manages to create a fantastic connection between the audience and the artists. I don't know how... These wonderful people ended up in that gorgeous place and it just so happened that they called us to sing and... Marius Manole: The summer season at the National Theater is like a festival, a big festival that takes place during the summer, a period when artists are usually free and don't have much work, and audiences are deprived of performances. And now, the season at the National Theater in Bucharest brings benefits to both the public and the artists. This year's season was wonderful, and we hope that this summer season will become a habit and a tradition. Richard Bovnoczki: The NTB Amphitheater... a place where the audience embraces the stage! Where the intimate space is open to the sky. The performances held there have a special energy. Everything is much more demanding at that height... but the satisfaction is just as great. See you next year! Ofelia Popii: A superb, wonderful space. This year, I played there for the first time and felt everything much more intensely. The city was buzzing, and that made me feel like our story belongs to everyone, that it could belong to those I could feel and hear living their lives. Valeria Stoica: The concert at NTB felt like a perfect soundtrack, a journey through many different moods, complemented by the extraordinary location on the theater's roof, under the open sky. The wind created a special atmosphere, heralding rain that never came. I am very grateful to be able to perform in such locations, with such a beautiful and encouraging audience. Dan Byron: The NTB Amphitheater is one of the places where we feel closest to the audience. This year's Rooftop Season concert was one of the top three concerts of our entire career, and I can't wait to go back there. Nicu Alifantis: Everything that happens here, on the roof, is lost in the sky, passing under Uncle Iancu's nose the fine aromas of what he loved so much. Theater, Music, Poetry. The open-air amphitheater, during the summer season, lifts you even closer to the heavens where dreams become reality or reality turns into dreams, only to later become a memory that, like cigarette smoke, lasts a season, a year, a lifetime... And whenever I pass by, all I can do is look up at the hat of the great Caragiale, greet him with boundless respect, take off my hat, and thank everyone who made this open-air altar possible. Autumn has arrived, farewell Uncle Iancu, we will see each other again in the summer, in the evening.! Since 2019, the NTB Amphitheater has been a project supported by PPC Romania. Program developed with the support of Huawei Romania, Aqua Carpatica, Eisberg, Jidvei.   Translated by Andreea Codrea-Boeriu