On Tour

The I.L. Caragiale National Theatre of Bucharest will present, under the motto “Theatre – the hero of our times”, 11 plays from 10 countries – signed by known directors, such as: Andriy Zholdak, Ivan Dobchev, David Doiashvili, Spiro Duni etc. – and two NETA co-productions in premiere, at the NETA 2015 International Theatre Festival, which will take place between August 28 – September 4, 2015. The participating countries are: Albania, Bulgaria, Georgia, Montenegro, Macedonia, Slovenia, Croatia, Italy, Russia and Romania.

NETA – New European Theatre Action, a network which includes the I.L. Caragiale National Theatre in Bucharest as a founding member, is based in Ljubljana (Slovenia) and brings together 67 members (national theaters, companies, festivals) from 19 European countries, thus being the largest theater association of this type in Europe. The quality of the NETA projects has recently been acknowledged at the European level, as it has received a substantial European funding from EACEA (Education, Audiovisual and Culture Executive Agency). An active participant in the Balkans and Eastern Europe, NETA network aims at coalescing the creative energies of this region, contributing to their promotion and dissemination, as well as identifying and building a cultural specificity, a certain way of making theatre in the 21st century – all in a productive and fruitful dialogue with the West and beyond, in the spirit of a “culture without borders”.

NETA 2015 International Festival, organized in Bucharest the same year in which the network celebrates its 10th anniversary, will present some of the most representative theatrical productions of its NETA member theatres and companies, to be hosted on the NTB stages. This will also see the fulfillment of two proposals envisioned by Ion Caramitru, General Director of the NTB, since 2013, to encourage cultural exchange throughout South Eastern Europe and at the same time, to launch Bucharest’s unique cultural ensemble, the NTB - which has been fully reshaped following vast reconstruction works - into the international circuit.

The selection of the shows to be performed in Bucharest belongs to a jury consisting of three personalities from the international theatre scene: Blagoja Stefanovski, NETA President and Art Director of the Small Drama Theatre Bitola (MK), Damir Domitrović, NETA General Secretary and Director of EX Ponto International Theatre Festival, Ljubljana (Slovenia), and George Banu, theatrologist and Honorary President of IATC – The International Association of Theatre Critics, professor at Sorbonne, Paris (France).
The event in Bucharest will mark the first confrontation of artists from South Eastern Europe with the public and theatre creators in Romania, but also with guests from abroad – theatre critics, journalists, festival directors, project coordinators.

Reunited in Bucharest, on February 27th 2015, during a meeting with the organizing team of the NETA Festival, the three members of the jury decided on the final list of the participating performances. Themes related to Nationality, Emigration, the search for Identity, as well as the relationship between Theatre and Reality seem to constitute the common denominator of the selected titles, themes which will, no doubt, be the source and subject of debates, roundtables and other complementary events which will top the festival’s program.

Bucharest will, thus, offer the premiere of an international cultural event, all under one, symbolical “hat” - that of the newly reconstructed I.L. Caragiale National Theatre of Bucharest. The capital of Romania will be transformed, for several days, into a genuine platform of dialogue, and will act as a mediator between different cultural spaces, belonging to one of the most fertile geopolitical, strategic and cultural junctions of contemporary Europe.