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As a token of appreciation for the professionalism and dedication in the service of the arts and the public, for the important contribution made to the affirmation of Romanian cultural values at home and abroad, the President of Romania conferred the Order of Cultural Merit in the rank of Knight, Category D - "Performing Arts", to Mrs. Dumbrava Diana Florentina, actress, I.L. Caragiale National Theatre in Bucharest. Diana Dumbrava graduated from the Academy of Theatre and Film, class of 1994, acting department, professor Ion Cojar's class, Diana Dumbrava joined the NTB theater company with the role in "A Midsummer Night's Dream" by William Shakespeare, directed by Felix Alexa (2003) and since then she has had numerous roles in theater, film, television and radio. She received the Silver Leopard Award for Best Actress for the lead part in "Maria" at the 56th Locarno International Film Festival, 2003, a role that also earned her a Special Mention from the festival's Ecumenical Jury, the UCIN Award, the Best Performance Award at the Mar del Plata Film Festival, Argentina and a nomination for the European Film Academy Awards. She has collaborated with several theaters in Bucharest and in the country (Toma Caragiu Theatre Ploiesti, Comedy Theatre, Bulandra Theatre, Metropolis Theatre, Art Theatre). In the current season she can be seen in performances such as "Exile" (directed by Alexandra Badea), "Fathers and Sons", "The Memory of Water", "God Dresses from the Thrift" or the recent performance "The Eichmann Trial" (directed by Mihai Calin). Congratulations and much success!   Translated by Andreea Codrea-Boeriu 

From November 4 to 10, 2024, the 9th edition of the European Fertility Week is taking place, during which Fertility Europe - the pan-European organization that brings together 33 associations of patients affected by infertility from 28 countries - is intensifying its awareness & advocacy actions for the cause of those who want children but can only have them with medical help. On this occasion, the SOS Infertility Association is organizing the 13th edition of the National Week of Awareness of the Medical and Social Phenomenon of Infertility, an event that has been organized in Romania since 2012 and which since 2016 has been held under the umbrella of European Fertility Week. Among the actions of the Awareness Week organized by SOS Infertility Association we recall: - Press conference (Monday, November 4, from 11:00, Grand Hotel Continental) - among other topics, on the need to adopt a National Plan to fight Infertility, a proposal that SOS Infertility Association will address to the new government in January 2025. - Launch of the study The Sociology of Infertility and Demographic Rearmament: a Romanian perspective on the profitability for the state budget of public investment in the conception of a child through in vitro fertilization, author lect. univ. dr. Bogdan Bucur, sociologist. - Architectural illumination, celebrating European Fertility Week 2024 - supporting the cause of the fight against infertility Bucharest• Victoria Palace – Romanian Government Headquarters• Parliament Palace - seat of the Romanian Parliament• Special Telecommunications Tower of the Special Telecommunications Service (STS)• National Opera in Bucharest• Grigore Antipa Museum of Natural History• CEC Bank Palace – Calea Victoriei• Bucharest National Theater  Brasov• Brasov City Hall• The letters "BRASOV" on the Tampa Cluj-Napoca- "Iuliu Hatieganu" Faculty of Medicine Cluj-Napoca Sibiu• Sibiu City Hall Timisoara• National Opera in Timisoara• National Art Museum in Timisoara - Continuation of the # education_on_fertility campaign: online information about fertility - aimed at the general public, who in principle are not currently experiencing infertility, but could be in this category in the absence of correct information. - Numerous online collective actions, which are intensely shared by a large number of the 43,000 members of the SOS Infertility FB group. - After the European Fertility Week, the 8th issue of "What do you know about your fertility?", a fertility education tool produced and distributed free of charge by SOS Infertility Association, will be out of print. At the European level, during this edition of the European Fertility Week, Fertility Europe is launching the "Gamete Story" campaign, with a focus on human reproduction procedures with third party donors. Fertility Europe, an organization of which SOS Infertility Association is a member since 2010, is calling on decision-makers at European political level and at Member State level:- acknowledge the right to try to have a child as a universal right throughout the European Union;- ensure equal, fair and safe access to infertility treatment;- ensure public funding for all stages of infertility treatment;- involve the public sector in providing better information about fertility and infertility;- implement communication campaigns to remove the stigma associated with infertility problems Messages of #education_on_fertility that the SOS Infertility Association would like to convey to the general public on the occasion of European Fertility Week:- Infertility affects one in six (or, according to more recent statistics, one in five) couples worldwide.- Female fertility declines earlier than commonly thought, with oocytes losing their reproductive capacity particularly after the age of 35.- In half of cases of couple infertility, the male factor is responsible.- If you want children, don't postpone pregnancy.- If pregnancy is delayed, see an infertility specialist (not your gynecologist).- Each year, the number of people going to infertility treatment centers increases by 8-9%.- In vitro fertilization is an exceptional medical advance that can help infertile couples have children, but it is not a panacea. In vitro fertilization cannot overcome the female age factor.- No, babies don't come after 40, as we see on the glossy covers of some magazines. Or: they don't come easily. More often than not, those 40+ moms needed egg donation.- Worldwide, there are more than 12 million people conceived through in vitro fertilization. Currently, a baby conceived through IVF is born every 35 seconds. 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 

The performance of the Bucharest National Theatre "The Silent Escape", directed and performed by the actress Oana Pellea, will open the 9th edition of the International Theatre Festival "Interferențe", which will take place in Cluj- Napoca, from November 3 - 17. After the resounding success in September in Luxembourg, where it had two sold-out performances at the Théâtre des Capucins, The Silent Escape will have a rendez-vous with the audience of one of the most important European theatre festivals, organized by the Hungarian State Theatre in Cluj Napoca. During the 15 days of the festival, the Cluj audience will have the opportunity to enjoy performances by renowned national and international theater companies such as: Sfumato Theatre Laboratory (Bulgaria), Hungarian State Theatre Cluj, Yugoslav Dramatic Theatre (Serbia), "Lucian Blaga" National Theatre Cluj-Napoca, Miskolc National Theatre (Hungary), German State Theatre Timișoara, Székesfehérvár Ballet Theatre, Teatrul de Nord Satu Mare - "Harag György" Company, Teatrul Național Târgu-Mureș - "Tompa Miklós" Company & Yorick Studio, State Theatre "Stoyan Bachvarov" (Bulgaria), Vígszínház (Hungary) Atelier 3+1 (France), Slovenian National Theatre in Nova Gorica (Slovenia). All performances are translated into Romanian, Hungarian and English. As in previous years, the program will be enriched by related events, including dialogues with the creators of the performances after each performance, as well as openings, book launches and round tables, thus providing a complete framework for reflection and exchange of ideas. The Silent Escape by Lena Constante premiered last November at the Atelier Hall of the National Theatre in Bucharest to great acclaim. It is a story about survival, inner freedom and resistance in the face of oppression, based on the dramatic experiences of visual artist, writer and ethnographer Lena Constante during the communist prisons. Oana Pellea, through a deep and sensitive performance, brings to life the voice of Lena Constante, conveying the emotions and suffering of a woman who found the strength to resist through art and introspection. "Silent Escape" is not just a theater performance, but a living testimony to human resilience and strength of spirit. Translated by Andreea Codrea-Boeriu  

The performances "Hedda Gabler", directed by Thomas Ostermeier and "A few people away from you", directed by Radu Afrim, are part of the official selection of the 34th edition of the National Theatre Festival, which will take place from October 18 to 27, 2024 The curatorial team of the National Theatre Festival - Mihaela Michailov, Calin Ciobotari and Ionut Sociu, who have watched over 250 performances from Romania, Republic of Moldova, Austria, Belgium, Belgium, Switzerland, France, Germany, Ireland, Poland, Portugal, Serbia, Switzerland - presents the argument, structure and components of the current edition. The 34th edition of the National Theatre Festival - under the theme of Playwrights of the Possible - continues the shift of emphasis from the idea of selection to the idea of curatorship, already practiced in previous years. Thus, the performances that will be presented this year in Bucharest do not form a "showcase" of Romanian theater in the 2023 - 2024 season, but rather represent options resulting from several curatorial criteria. For more information and a list of selected performances, please visit www.fnt.ro   Translated by Andreea Codrea-Boeriu 

The 34th edition of the National Theatre Festival will take place from October 18 to October 28, 2024 in Bucharest, with performances and events being hosted by most of the theaters in Bucharest, as well as other well-known cultural spaces. An edition under the sign of the Dramatisteries of the possible, which analyzes, researches and highlights the dynamics and trends of the Romanian theatrical phenomenon. The performances were chosen from the perspective of the variety of dramaturgical formulas, the three curators, Mihaela Michailov, Calin Ciobotari and Ionut Sociu emphasizing approaches in which the dramatic structures and content arouse the interest of the audience. The attachment to one theme or another, the appetite for a certain type of aesthetics, the sensitivity for a certain creator, the availability for a certain type of dramaturgy, the chance to meet less developed performance typologies were at the center of the three curators' choices. Tickets will go on sale on the host theaters' online platforms in early October. We will be back soon with the program of all the events of the 34th edition of the FNT (performative and visual installations, reading performances on new texts from contemporary dramaturgy, independent theatre performances, modules dedicated to established artists, educational performances, debates, conferences, workshops, exhibitions, book releases, radio theatre performances, as well as the program of workshops, conferences and exhibitions organized within the Bucharest Scenography Biennale, a partner event of the FNT 34th edition). Information is being updated on www.fnt.ro.    The 34th edition of the National Theatre Festival takes place in Bucharest between October 18 and 28, curated by Mihaela Michailov, Calin Ciobotari and Ionut Sociu. Cultural project produced by UNITER - The Romanian Theatre Union. FNT is a cultural project funded by the Ministry of Culture. Co-producers: Bucharest City Hall through ARCUB - Cultural Center of Bucharest, Bucharest Directorate of Culture. Partners: Romanian Cultural Institute, National Theatre "I.L. Caragiale" in Bucharest, ITI - Romanian Center of the International Theatre Institute. We invite you to access the program and we look forward to seeing you at the Festival! Translated by Andreea Codrea-Boeriu 

"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 reconstruct the event as a history lesson. It has quite different aims: a moral, an educational and a social one that go much further. The first and most obvious is to unravel the inner mechanism of Eichmann, a human being - perhaps monstrous, but human after all - that made him commit genocide against the Jewish people of Europe. Unfortunately, this still remains a very important goal today, when even after the Second World War there have been too many cases of genocide on this planet. (...) This play is a moral statement more necessary today than ever for the whole world." - this is how the playwright Motti Lerner defines the message of his play whose world premiere will take place at the "I.L. Caragiale" National Theatre (Atelier Hall), in the presence of the author, on October 4 and 5, 2024. Born in Israel in 1949, Motti Lerner studied mathematics and physics at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, followed by theater studies in London and San Francisco, and is now one of Israel's best-known playwrights and screenwriters, including international acclaim with plays performed in the United States, England, Germany, Italy, Switzerland, Austria, South Africa, India, Australia, Italy, Austria, South Africa and Switzerland. From 1993-2008 he taught a course on Political Drama at Tel Aviv University, was a resident at the Center for Postgraduate Jewish Studies at Oxford, visiting professor at the theater department of Duke University in North Carolina, etc. Honored in 1994 with the Prime Minister of Israel's "Writers' Prize" and in 2014 with the Landau Prize for the Performing Arts. Motti Lerner's writings deal with deeply controversial political themes, focusing on the Jewish community and the Israeli identity, including the Holocaust, Zionism, terrorism, and some biographies, in the form of documentary theater texts, which have even been the target of censorship, despite the numerous literary awards he has received. The story of Adolf Eichmann, the Obersturmbannführer-SSS who organized and led the abominable "Final Solution" that led to the extermination of six million Jews between 1940-1945 is a well-known one. Condemned as a major war criminal by the Nuremberg Tribunal, he was sentenced to death in absentia. Captured by Mossad in Argentina, he was retried by a Jerusalem court. The public prosecution was led by Israel's first prosecutor, Gideon Hausner. Found guilty of war crimes and crimes against humanity, Eichmann was sentenced to death and executed by hanging at Ramla prison on May 31, 1962. His ashes were scattered in the international waters of the Mediterranean Sea to avoid possible future pilgrimages. Based on the re-enactment of the Jerusalem trial, Motti Lerner's play, and thus the performance directed by actor Mihai Calin, aims to have a profound impact on the conscience of the audience: "One of the most agonizing questions I have had over the years in connection with the Holocaust has been: «How can this have happened?!». Many people now believe that it was a long time ago and that it has nothing to do with the present (like communism, for that matter...)" – says Mihai Calin, trying to convey a question we should all ask ourselves. Unfortunately, history repeats itself and, each time, it is the leaders who are condemned ( mostly in declarations), the embodiments of Absolute Evil: Hitler, Stalin, Mao, Pol Pot, Pol Pot, Idi Amin, Milošević, ...Ceaușescu... But there is something deeper and more frightening than the EVIL personified by these monsters: the «banality of evil» of which Hannah Arendt speaks and the gears of the system's little cogs, «normal» citizens, «God-fearing» men and women, loving parents, more or less petty officials, who keep the wheels of Terror, Cruelty and Extermination turning perfectly." A necessary lesson in history, but also a wake-up call to prevent an unfortunate repetition of it, the play The Eichmann Trial, staged with intense emotional participation by an excellent team of actors, is addressed to both adult and teenage spectators, high school students and their teachers. It is not by chance that the National Theatre's performance of The Eichmann Trial was carried out 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. "I am very grateful to the National Theater in Bucharest for producing the world premiere of this play" - says writer Motti Lerner, who will come to Bucharest especially to attend the first performance of The Eichmann Trial. *We would like to point out that the initiator and supporter of the project in Romania is Mrs. Tova BEN-NUN CHERBIS, president and founder of the "Magna Cum Laude-Reut" Foundation”. Cast: Richard Bovnoczki, Diana Dumbrava, Razvan Popa, Mihai Calin, Axel Moustache, Vitalie Bichir, loan Andrei Ionescu, Cosmina Olariu, Florin Calbajos, Emilian Oprea, Iuliana Moise, Irina Movila, Ana Ciontea, Ovidiu Cuncea, Rodica Ionescu, Andrei Finți. Directed by: Mihai Calin. Set design: Gabi Albu. Original music: Nikita Dembinski. Video-design: Constantin Șimon. Images and video footage: Mircea I. Anca. Translated by Andreea Codrea-Boeriu 

The 34th edition of the National Theatre Festival will take place between October 18 and 28, 2024 in Bucharest, with performances and events being hosted by most of the theaters in Bucharest, as well as other well-known cultural spaces. An edition under the sign of the "Dramaturgiilor posibilului", curated by Mihaela Michailov, Calin Ciobotari and Ionut Sociu, which analyzes, researches and highlights the dynamics and trends of the Romanian theatrical phenomenon. Tickets for the performances of the 34th edition of the National Theatre Festival will go on sale on Thursday, October 3, at 12.00 noon, simultaneously, on all sales platforms of each host theater, as well as at their ticket offices. For easy access, we recommend that you go to the desired performances from the day-by-day program displayed on the website www.fnt.ro and, by pressing the Buy Tickets button, you will be redirected exactly to the page where you can purchase tickets for the desired performance. Soon we will come back with the program of all the events of the 34th edition of the NTF (performative and visual installations, reading performances on new texts from contemporary theatre, independent theatre performances, modules dedicated to established artists, educational performances, debates, conferences, workshops, exhibitions, book launches, radio theatre performances, as well as the program of workshops, conferences and exhibitions organized within the Bucharest Scenography Biennale, partner event of the 34th edition of the NTF). The image of FNT34 is a created by Szilard Banga - coordinator Dragoș Buhagiar. Please follow us on www.fnt.ro (information is currently being updated) and on the National Theatre Festival Facebook page to keep up to date with all the details on the program of performances and related events. See you at the Festival! NTF is a cultural project funded by the Ministry of Culture. Co-producers: Bucharest City Hall through ARCUB - Cultural Center of Bucharest, Bucharest Directorate of Culture. Partners: Romanian Cultural Institute, National Theatre "I.L. Caragiale" in Bucharest, ITI - Romanian Center of the International Theatre Institute.   Translated by Andreea Codrea-Boeriu 

The "I.L. Caragiale" National Theatre organizes, from November 4, 2024 to April 28, 2025, a Playwriting Workshop coordinated by Mimi Branescu. The workshop is open to anyone interested. Registrations should be sent to andrei.marinescu@tnb.ro by October 20, 2024. The application must contain: - a brief CV - contact details - a text of your own creation, maximum 3 pages, with a scene for 2-3 characters or a monologue The Workshop will take place once a week. A maximum of 10 participants will be selected and will be notified by e-mail. Participation in the Workshop is free of charge!   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