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Marius Bodochi - Special Award for Artistic Mastery and Excellence in Performing Arts / Media Radar Awards Gala 2022 On the evening of October 25, 2022, at the 10th edition of the Media Radar Awards Gala 2022, the actor Marius Bodochi was awarded the Special Prize for artistic mastery and excellence in the performing arts. The Media Radar Awards were given to the best-loved TV and radio programmes, the most popular TV stars and the most watched TV shows and series, based on votes cast by viewers. The audience could vote for their favorites between September 1 and October 20, 2022. The Media Radar Awards Gala took place at Ambasad'Or Events and was streamed live online by RomTek Electronics and will be broadcast on Channel 33. Marius Bodochi can be seen in the following performances in the repertoire of the "I.L. Caragiale" National Theatre in Bucharest: The Just Assasins by Albert Camus, directed by Mihai Mănuțiu / Stupid Fucking Bird by Aaron Posner, directed by Răzvan Oprea / Rumours by Neil Simon, directed by Ion Caramitru / Powder Keg by Dejan Dukovski, directed by Felix Alexa / Loose Knit by Theresa Rebeck, directed by Ion Caramitru / The Man Who Saw Death by Victor Eftimiu, directed by Dan Tudor. We look forward to seeing you at the theatre!   Translated by Andreea Codrea-Boeriu

The Just Assassins, a performance of artistic excellence about the paradoxes of justice Premiering at the Pictura Hall of the "I.L. Caragiale" National Theatre, on October 22nd and 27th 2022, at 8 pm, The Just Assasins by Albert Camus, one of the productions of the current season awaited with great interest. An exciting artistic encounter, under the mark of artistic excellence. Directed by Mihai Măniuțiu. In the cast: Marius Manole, Raluca Aprodu, Marius Bodochi, Mirela Oprișor, Maia Morgenstern, Ciprian Nicula. Set designer Adrian Damian, costumes Luiza Enescu. Music by Mihai Dobre. First staged in December 1949 at the Hébertot Theatre under the direction of Paul Cettly, this play belongs to the second cycle of Camus' works, that of the Revolt. Harsh, tense and deeply lyrical, it reflects his desire to create a genuine modern tragedy, out of the conviction that the time was right for it, according to a Camus study. "At the height of the Cold War, Camus reflects on the issue of violence, which he approaches through the prism of intellectual and moral conscience. The antagonism of two positive notions, love of life in all its fullness and social justice, seemed essential to him at the time", according to Eugène Kouchkine of the Camusian Studies Society. Interested in the figures of the Russian revolutionaries of 1905, called by him in an essay "the delicate assassins", Albert Camus does not hesitate to declare his admiration for them in the book The Rebel: An Essay on Man in Revolt, and then in this play. "In writing about violence and murder, I have tried to define the limit at which murder must stop. The example of Kalyayev and his comrades made me conclude that you can only kill on condition that you die yourself, that no one has the right to threaten the existence of a being without immediately accepting his own extinction." Impressed by the heroic deaths of young Russian revolutionaries, he does extensive research. Death row inmates' indictments and the memoirs of the notorious terrorist Boris Savinkov provide the subject matter and characters. He is seduced by their "personal exigency", which drove them to terror, and their "paradoxes". "Necessary and at the same time unforgivable, that's how murder appeared to them" - this is how the author introduces his heroes in the play. Equally moral, lyrical and political, Camus's play stands out in the contemporary sensibility as a memorable work, with its unique and vivid note. Based on contradictions of thought and action, The Just Assassins continues to raise questions about life and death. Considered a history of "higher suicide" and "a tragedy of intelligence", the play incites debate, challenging us to see, once again, that... history repeats itself. The next performance is scheduled for November 9, 2022.   Translated by Andreea Codrea-Boeriu

Tickets for the performances of the 32nd edition of the National Theatre Festival will go on sale from Saturday, October 22, 2022, 10.00 am, through the following means: For the performances in the NTF programme held at the "I.L. Caragiale" National Theatre from Bucharest, the Nottara Theatre, the Apropo Theatre, Unteatru and the National Centre for Dance from Bucharest, tickets can be purchased online and at the NTB's centralized box office (where tickets can only be paid in cash), according to the following schedule: from 10 am to 4 pm on Mondays, and from 10 am to 7 pm from Tuesdays to Sundays. Tickets can easily be bought online via the mystage.ro platform. You just need to create an account to buy tickets for your favorite performances, and they are always available in your account or by email. The platform is also accessible from any mobile device. Payments on mystage.ro can be made by credit card and are processed securely via the LibraPay platform, owned by Libra Internet Bank. Tickets for the NFT performances held at the Bulandra Theatre in Bucharest can be purchased both online and at the theatre's box offices: 1, Schitu Măgureanu Street and the "Toma Caragiu" Hall (Icoanei), 76A Jean Louis Calderon Street, open Monday to Sunday from 12.00 to 20.00. Tickets for the NTF performances held at the Odeon Theatre in Bucharest can be purchased both online and at the theatre's box office (40-42, Calea Victoriei), open Monday to Sunday from 11.30 am to 7.30 pm, with a break between 2.30 pm and 3 pm. For the two performances of Millennial History (Resonate Productions Netherlands) on November 5, at 5 pm and 8 pm at the Excelsior Theatre, tickets can be purchased online and at the theatre's box office (28 Academiei Street), open Wednesday to Sunday, from 11 am to 6 pm. Follow us on www.fnt.ro and on the National Theatre Festival Facebook page, where you can find all the details about the NFT, the schedule of the performances and related events. We look forward to seeing you at the Theatre!   Translated by Andreea Codrea-Boeriu 

Histrionics - a unique performance, not to be missed, based on an extraordinary text, full of rage and a lot of black humor, in the masterful interpretation of Marcel Iureș! On October 21 and 25, 2022, at 8 pm, we invite you, in the arena (!) of the Studio Hall of the "I.L. Caragiale" National Theatre from Bucharest, to the premiere of Histrionics, a play by one of the most important contemporary Austrian playwrights, Thomas Bernhard, directed by Alexandru Dabija, with Marcel Iureș in the leading role. The author of eleven novels and over twenty plays, Thomas Bernhard (1931-1989) has a well-deserved reputation as the country's most controversial post-war author, also associated with the great "Austrian constellation" of writers: Hofmannstahl, Kafka, Musil and Broch. His play, Histrionics, a paradoxical anthem dedicated to the theatrical art, full of anger, despair, aggression, disillusionment and black humor, it also offers a caustic look at our petty and tragicomic lives. "Bruscon, the theatre-maker - as he is called in the play's original title - is a brilliant artist who continually embarrasses himself with an ego inflated to the point of ridicule. The history of theatre and culture in general is full of such examples", says Alexandru Dabija. In this new performance at NTB, Marcel Iureș takes up one of his landmark acting creations, giving life to the character of Bruscon, a splendid buffoon in search of the absolute in art, in a caustic and absurd quasi-monologue. A megalomaniac, misanthropic, hypochondriac, nihilistic and intemperate actor, author and director, Bruscon bursts into tirades against the mediocrity of his country, ranting about everything from politics to society and theatre. His partners are Alexandru Bindea, Ana Ciontea, Alexandra Sălceanu, Lucian Iftime, Afrodita Androne and Victoria Dicu, under the baton of a director with an exceptional imagination and a surprising ability to reinvent himself with each new production, Alexandru Dabija. The set design of the performance is signed by arch. Gabi Albu. The following performances will take place on November 3rd and 18th, 2022 at 7 pm.   Translated by Andreea Codrea-Boeriu 

At NTB, October brings three new premieres October brings a new series of performances on the stages of the "I.L. Caragiale" National Theatre from Bucharest, enriching the repertoire of the season with exciting titles, performed by actors of all generations and signed by leading directors. On October 4, 5, 14 and 19, 2022, the first performances of Lucy Kirkwood's The Welkin, a multi-award-winning British playwright and screenwriter (b. 1983), are scheduled at the Atelier Hall. Directed by Gelu Colceag, the play tells a suspenseful story of a death sentence in 18th century Britain, which the author transforms into a relevant and acute commentary on today's society, prejudice, inequality, discrimination and the struggle for power. "The Welkin" is a performance that has the energy of a thriller, the tension of a courtroom drama, the irreverent humor of a smart black comedy, and the profound power of vulnerability. With Ștefan Caragiu's set and Liliana Cenean's costumes, the show's 16 characters perform, 13 of whom are played by actresses (!). Real, brave, imperfect, daring and surprising characters who, with humor, emotion and intelligence, overturn preconceptions, prejudices and make us look more closely at others. Cast: Aylin Cadîr / Alexandra Sălceanu, Tania Popa, Ilinca Goia, Mirela Oprișor, Erika Băieşu, Medeea Marinescu, Raluca Petra / Magda Catone, Ana Ciontea, Rodica Ionescu, Carmen Ungureanu, Brânduşa Mircea, Victoria Dicu, Lamia Beligan, Marius Rizea, Mihai Calotă, Daniel Hara / Mihai Munteniţă, Marcela Mateescu. The sound design by Călin Grigoriu, the scenic dance by Roxana Colceag and the light design by Bogdan Golumbeanu and Laurențiu Iordache also contribute to the performance. From October 21, 2022, the National Theatre from Bucharest offers you the opportunity to meet again a reference creation, that of Marcel Iureș in Thomas Bernhard's The Theatre Maker, directed by Alexandru Dabija at the Act Theatre in 2001, one of the most enduring post-December stage creations, hailed by critics and audiences alike, awarded at the UNITER Gala in 2002 for best male performance. At the time of the premiere, the director declared: "I don't think there is a better moment in Romanian art to talk about the actor and I don't think there is a better actor to talk about ANYTHING than the most accomplished Romanian actor of the moment". Under the baton of the same director, this time in the company of NTB actors, Marcel Iureș returns in the role of Bruscon, and if you have seen the show, you just have to come back and discover any similarities and differences between the two productions, given the strength of Alexandru Dabija's directorial imagination and surprising ability to reinvent himself with each new production. From October 22, 2022, on the stage of the Pictura Hall, another leading director of the Romanian theatre, Mihai Măniuțiu proposes, in his stage adaptation, a play less known to us, The Just Assassins, written by Albert Camus in 1949 and staged in the same year as an absolute premiere on the stage of the Hébertot Theatre directed by Paul Œttly. "An unsettling, multi-faceted play that combines in a fascinating alloy: fire and ice, in the same magical rhetoric of the stage. A play about love, about an impossible love. A play about the mystical, poisoned illusions of terrorism. A play about the irretrievable loss of innocence. About sacrifice and violence. About hope and moral catastrophe. About the crime that turns the "righteous" into their own assassins. About beauty and horror. About the way history malforms and shatters destinies. I wouldn't have had the courage to set out on all these forking paths, to finally come together in the most intense and painful center of the labyrinth, where enlightenment is equivalent to tearing apart, if I hadn't been accompanied, dedicated and full of grace, by these wonderful actors and their "flying machines": Marius Manole, Raluca Aprodu, Marius Bodochi, Mirela Oprișor, Maia Morgenstern, Ciprian Nicula. We are looking forward with excitement, but also with confidence, to meeting the audience", says director Mihai Măniuțiu. The set is designed by Adrian Damian and the costumes by Luiza Enescu, two regular collaborators of his recent productions. Music by Mihai Dobre. The official premiere of the performance is scheduled for October 27, 2022, at 8 pm.   Translated by Andreea Codrea-Boeriu

For the 32nd edition of the National Theatre Festival, two productions of the "I.L. Caragiale" National Theatre in Bucharest have been selected: Fathers and Sons by Brian Friel, dramatization based on Turgheniev's novel, translated and directed by Vlad Massaci, set design by Adrian Damian, costumes by Luiza Enescu, scenic movement by Florin Fieroiu, lighting design by Cristian Șimon, video design by Constantin Șimon and The Seagull by A.P. Chekhov, translated by Raluca Rădulescu, directed by Eugen Jebeleanu, set design by Velica Panduru, director of photography Marius Panduru, music by Rèmi Billardon. The FNT 2022 curators' argument - Mihaela Michailov, Oana Cristea Grigorescu, Călin Ciobotari. The curatorial team of FNT 2022 has selected for this edition exclusively shows produced in the previous season, 2021-2022. From 1 June to 1 September 2022, we screened over 100 performances from across the country, physically and online, proposed by state and independent theatres, to which we added international performances. UNITER invited theatres to submit two proposals for viewing (outnumbered in some cases). Of course, we also included the shows that each curator had seen over the past season, even if they were not proposed by the theatres. The concept of the festival Fragile Borders. Fluid Histories, announced after the acceptance of the curatorial mandate, guided us in structuring the program that follows relevant approaches and aesthetic trends in the Romanian theatre of today. The two categories of the program propose performances and performative discourses that invite possible interpretations of the concept, without it becoming an exclusive criterion. We thought it was important to extend the interest in theatre performances in general to the area of performative approaches, in order to respond to a variety of spectacular proposals that are becoming more and more specifically articulated. The National Theatre Festival is produced by the UNITER Association - The Romanian Theatre Union. Co-producer: Bucharest City Hall through ARCUB – The Cultural Centre of the Municipality of Bucharest. FNT is a cultural project funded by the Ministry of Culture. Partner: The Romanian Cultural Institute. More details on: www.fnt.ro    

About the exile and the relationship of anger and love with Romania - in the new premiere at NTB, by Alexandra Badea I.L. Caragiale National Theatre in Bucharest announces the premiere of Exile, a play written and directed by Alexandra Badea - a show about recent history, also inspired by the author-director's own biography! The premiere will take place on September 17th, 2022, at 7 pm, in the "Ion Caramitru" Hall. "I have long wanted to talk about exile and the relationship with Romania, a relationship of anger and love, which we all feel, about the desire to leave, the desire to return, the impossibility of adapting here. But also about inherited things - education, the blockages we get from family and school". With the play "Exile" - Alexandra Badea reconstructs, in a non-linear chronology, the image of a family made up of three generations, recalling, fragment by fragment, the experiences that marked its existence: communism, post-communism and, especially, the exile. "It is a play more about an inner exile of the characters, about the inability to be free, to break away from the past, to discover and assume their identity, to get in touch with their deepest nature, with their most hidden desires. We in Romania still carry the trauma of the education we were given at school and in our families during the dictatorship. This is something that is found in all people who have lived in dictatorships or have been brought up by parents who have gone through this experience. There is no point being born in a free country if your parents lived in fear”. This is how author Alexandra Badea defines her intentions. The events recounted are a pretext for pondering on topics as diverse as the search for identity, history, adaptation and guilt. Alexandra Badea's characters, whether settled in France or remaining in the country, discover in themselves a hidden uneasiness, the suspicion of a betrayal in the family past, search for the point where it all started and begin from there a path of understanding and rebuilding a new life. "For this play I dreamed of a cast that would allow characters to develop over time, to see their evolution from 20 to 50 years. The diversity of the NTB company allows this, it is perhaps the only theatre in Romania where I could develop such a complex project", the director confesses. And here are the actors who respond to this challenge: Ada Galeș, Emilian Oprea, Cosmina Olariu, Florin Călbăjos, Crina Semciuc, Emilian Mârnea, Ana Ciontea, Irina Movilă, Diana Dumbravă, Mihai Călin, Alexandru Potocean, Richard Bovnoczki, Liviu Lucaci, Ionuț Toader, Aylin Cadîr, Vitalie Bichir. Cosmin Florea is responsible for the set design. Original music, Călin Țopa. Born and educated in Romania, Alexandra Badea chose a different path from her family's at a very young age to see her dreams, quests and aspirations fulfilled. Over the last 20 years, through a sustained theatrical activity in France, she has established herself as one of the most interesting voices of young playwrights. Alexandra Badea is currently one of France's most powerful directing and artistic voices. Theatre and film director, playwright, novelist, associate director of the National Theatre "La Colline" in Paris, Alexandra was born in 1980 in Bucharest, but has been living and creating in France since 2003. She is a graduate of UNATC Bucharest, theatre direction section, class of Professor Valeriu Moisescu. After graduating, she went to Paris to study at the International Centre for Theatre Studies at the Sorbonne Nouvelle University (Sorbonne Nouvelle), where she did a master's degree with George Banu. Her first plays, Mode d'emploi, Contrôle d'identité and Burnout were published in 2009 by L'Arche publishing house. Pulvérisés, the triptych Je te regarde, Europe connexion, Extrêmophile, her first novel, Zone d'amour prioritaire, will follow, as well as other volumes of plays: A la trace, Celle qui regarde le monde, and the trilogy Points de non-retour. For Pulvérisés she was awarded the Grand Prize for Dramatic Literature for 2013, a prize under the aegis of the French National Theatre Centre, and the jury's motivation reads as follows: „ With this surprisingly constructed play, Alexandra Badea proposes a series of portraits and x-rays the general system of globalization and the mechanisms of globalization”. The play, which was also staged on radio by France Culture (Alexandre Planck), is presented as a reading performance at the Sibiu Theatre Festival and is staged in Bucharest by Andrei Măjeri with the Apollo 111 Company, under the title Pulverizare. Alexandra is also the author of radio fictions for the France Culture radio station, including Red line, Mondes, Europe connexion. Her plays written in French are staged under her own direction or under the signature of stage directors such as Frédéric Fishbach, Jonathan Mitchel, Anne Theorn, etc., in major theatres in France, but are also translated into several languages and performed throughout Europe, as well as in Brazil, Argentina, Canada, USA, Taiwan. In 2019, she was invited by the Avignon Festival to create the second part of the trilogy Points de non-retour (Quais de Seine), presented in its full 7-hour form in 2022 at the Théâtre National de la Colline. In 2021, she published her second novel, Tu marches au bord du monde, with Les equateurs publishing house. He wrote several screenplays, Solitudes, directed by Liova Jedliecki, which was awarded several prizes and mentions at the Clermont-Ferrand, Barcelona, Alès film festivals, and also directed the awards winning short films 24 heures and Le monde qui nous perd. In 2016 she was awarded the title of Chevalier des Arts et des Lettres by the French Ministry of Culture. In 2018 she wrote her first play in Romanian, Perfect compus, which she staged with the actors of the National Theatre "Radu Stanca", thus returning after an absence of eight years in Romanian theatre. The performance was presented at the Sibiu International Theatre Festival. During this 25th edition, Alexandra Badea received the "Iulian Vișa" award, which is given to a director of the young generation, as a token of appreciation for her "unique artistic voice". In 2021 she returns to Sibiu to stage the play On the other side of the world, as part of a European project. With "Exile", a text also written in Romanian, Alexandra Badea returns to the National Theatre from Bucharest after an absence of 14 years, after having staged here, in 2008, at Sala Atelier, the play Complexul România by Mihaela Michailov, winner of the UNITER award for the best play of 2006. The next performances of "Exile" will take place on September 18 and October 2nd, 2022, 7 pm at the Ion Caramitru Hall. Tickets are on sale at the NTB box office and online at www.tnb.ro.   Translated by Andreea Codrea-Boeriu

Conference with Alex Leo Șerban + Screening #Dog Poop Girl + Q&A@ NTB AmphitheatreOn Saturday, September 10, 2022, the "I.L. Caragiale" National Theatre from Bucharest transforms the Amphitheatre on the roof of the building into a cinema and invites you to watch the film written and directed by Andrei Huțuleac, #Dog Poop Girl, a black comedy about the dangers of the internet. The event is part of the Ministry of Culture's initiative to celebrate the Cinematography Day on September 10.On the same day, starting at 6 pm, the NTB Youtube channel will broadcast the conference Why we see films held by Alex Leo Serban, in 2009, in the series of National Theatre Conferences. The film #Dog Poop Girl is a tragicomic satire with absurd elements that reveals the dangers facing modern society due to the explosive spread of false information on the internet and especially on social media.The screening will take place at the NTB Amphitheatre, starting at 8 pm and will be followed by a Q&A session, with Andrei Huțuleac, Andreea Grămoșteanu, Amalia Ciolan and Tudor Istodor.Andrei Huțuleac's debut as a director, #Dog Poop Girl is inspired by the first case of online shaming in internet history. "I started writing the script in 2017 after reading a book called So You've Been Publicly Shamed by Jon Ronson. While reading the book, it reactivated a huge anxiety I was feeling about this apparent democratization of opinion that the internet proposes. The idea that anyone can say anything about anyone, without necessarily contextualizing it. And that this can sometimes ruin someone's life. The film is therefore a manifestation of that anxiety that I felt, both when reading the book and writing the script. I exorcised this anxiety by approaching the story as a tragicomic social satire. I dressed the monster under the bed in a little dress so that I would be less afraid of him."At the Moscow International Film Festival, #Dog Poop Girl received the Best Film award and its star Andreea Grămoșteanu the Best Actress award. At the 20th Transilvania International Film Festival, the film was also distinguished with the Debut Award.The cast includes Andreea Grămoșteanu, Tudor Istodor, Cezar Antal, Paul Chiribuță, Coca Bloss, Rodica Mandache and Dana Rogoz.The film is produced by DaKino Production in co-production with Diud, with the support of the National Cinematography Centre, in collaboration with the Romanian Television Society.We will be waiting for you on Saturday, September 10, at 8 pm at the NTB Amphitheatre!Admission is free, subject to availability and prior reservation at: promovaretnb@gmail.comAttention! In case of rain, the screening will be moved to the Media Hall.   Translated by Andreea Codrea-Boeriu 

The European premiere of Alexander Hausvater's exciting and comic "noir" musical opens the season at NTB. A co-production of the "I.L. Caragiale" National Theatre from Bucharest with CREAS Association* In the opening of the new season 2022 - 2023, NTB presents, in preview, on 10 and 11 September 2022, at the Studio Hall, at 7.30 pm, a brand new show by director Alexander Hausvater: The Machine. The Musical. The show is based on Elmer Rice's 1923 play The Adding Machine, considered at the time "the most original and intelligent play ever written by an American, the most hard-hitting, yet the most visionary play about modern society, ever seen on Broadway." In 2007, Joshua Schmidt transformed the play into a musical, giving the original text, as Michael Billington put it, "a comic and joyous wildness", supported by a soundtrack that blends many styles, from choral pieces to pop rock, from opera to 1920s and 1930s music, with influences from gospel, jazz and rock and roll. A satire on the enslavement of human beings in the machine age, the play presents the life, strange death and then afterlife of a dull accountant, Mr. Zero. When Mr. Zero, a mere cog in the wheel of a business, learns that his work is to be taken over by a machine, he snaps and kills his boss. For the first time in his life, Mr. Zero takes his destiny into his own hands, an act whose consequences will send him to the next world, where he is offered a new chance at love, life and redemption. The performance by Romanian-Canadian director Alexander Hausvater has a profound relevance to today's world where technology, electronic communication and automatization have led to an unsettling conflict between man and his morality. The more modern society has advanced technologically and scientifically, the more the relationship between one human being and another within a community has deteriorated and increasingly falls under the banner of selfishness and materialism. Ultimately, a story about the price of the human soul… The protagonists of this show are exceptional performers, combining acting with music and dance, according to the requirements of this kind of performance: Ioan Andrei Ionescu, Natalia Călin / Oana Berbec, Florentina Țilea / Medeea Marinescu, Istvan Teglas / Petre Ancuța, Tomi Cristin, Monica Davidescu / Iuliana Moise, Fulvia Folosea, Silviu Biriș, Silviu Mircescu, Mihai Munteniță, Daniel Burcea. "The show is meant to be a lesson in song and movement - says Alexander Hausvater. It emphasizes the need for modern man to fight against the temptation of technology in order to reach a deeper understanding of the self, the individual's capabilities and potential. It's a wake-up call. It is an apocalyptic vision. What happens to the protagonist could happen to any of us." Alongside the director and performers, the following contributed to the production of the show: Adina Mastalier - set design, Florin Fieroiu – choreography, Alexandru Burcă - musical direction, Vlad Vedeș - music production, Bogdan Golumbeanu, Ion Vlașcu - Lighting design, Mădălina Ene and Andreea Dobia - musical training. More than two decades ago, Alexander Hausvater staged another masterpiece of the American expressionist drama at the National Theatre, Sophie Treadwell's Machinal. Many of the actors from the cast of Machinal reunite with Alexander Hausvater in this new stage adventure. For over three decades, Hausvater's nonconformist style has broken many patterns both in the Canadian theatre - where he has been perceived as "a volcano full of color, charm and energy" (cf. Lorraine Pintal, Montreal) - and in Romanian theatre. The official premiere of the show will take place at the Studio Hall on September 28, 2022 at 7.30 pm; the tickets for the performances on September 10 and 11, 2022 at 7.30pm are on sale at the National Theatre Box Office and online at www.tnb.ro.   Translated by Andreea Codrea-Boeriu 

In 2010 the catalogue of the UNITER Awards Gala opened with the following, almost prescient, message from UNITER President Ion Caramitru: „(...) We are a world where the exception to the rule has a revolutionary flavour. I'm convinced that change for the better happens in the laboratory of artistic experimentation. A great Romanian writer, Marin Sorescu, used to say that a brilliant poet can only discover a new star through poetic intuition, which is then confirmed by scientists through parameter calculations. So is our world: without risk and madness, nothing settles. Nothing leaves traces. Nothing happens. UNITER was born out of the need to protect the risk taken in theatre (...).” Now, in 2022, the artistic concept of the UNITER Awards Gala belongs to director Radu Afrim: "An anniversary gala is the most appropriate opportunity to analyse the present of this guild and especially to look to the future. That's why I took the liberty of focusing the 30th edition on portraits of young artists, some of them still theatre students, people who are burning Now, people who need to be seen Now. It's hard to make a selection. That's why I even asked them who their idols are among themselves. There will be collages, video testimonies of young people who have tried to make themselves heard over the last 2 years. Some of them risk formulas that the guild hardly accepts, others just want to do what they understand by performance. I've never been a fan of traditions. That's why I'm going to break yet another tradition and populate the huge screen behind the Gala winners with the faces of artists who could have easily stood in place of any of the nominees now, in recent years or will stand in years to come. Otherwise, about the past, all the best." Radu Afrim The Artistic Director of the 2022 UNITER Awards Gala makes a wonderful team with set designer Irina Moscu and Les Ateliers Nomades. Together they will create a unique event, a real show with some of the most vibrant and unique artistic moments, a show that we can't wait to unveil on the stage of the Palace of Culture in Bistrita on July 4, 2022. Among the artists who will take the stage to present the awards are Mariana Mihuț, Rodica Mandache, Marcel Iureș, Pavel Bartoș, Ioana Bugarin, Nicu Mihoc, Ada Milea and Mirela Oprișor. The presenters of the anniversary edition of the UNITER Gala are the actors of the "I.L. Caragiale" National Theatre from Bucharest Raluca Aprodu and Emilian Oprea. Image creator: Andreea Constantin. The UNITER Trophy was conceived and created in 1992 by the artist Ion Bitzan. The UNITER Awards Ceremony can be watched live on TVR1, TVR International, TVR Moldova and Radio Romania Cultural, online on www.uniter.ro, www.tvr.ro and on the UNITER Facebook page https://www.facebook.com/UNITERoficial.   Translated by Andreea Codrea-Boeriu    Nominations and Awards