Project presentation:
Romanian Association for Performing Arts – Babeș-Bolyai University – University of Arts from Târgu-Mureș – West University of Timișoara – Alexandru Ioan Cuza University of Iași
DMTR-Post 1989: the performances of the 1990s mirrored
The Multimedia Dictionary of Romanian Theatre is a project of the Romanian Association for the Promotion of Performing Arts (ARPAS), developed in partnership with Babeș-Bolyai University of Cluj-Napoca and the University of Arts in Tg. Mureș, to which students and professors from the West University of Timișoara and the University "Alexandru Ioan Cuza" of Iași were added in 2022. Started in 2020, the project has so far generated 150 dictionary entries including unpublished material scanned from private and public archives, photographs, posters, chronicles, videos (where available) and links, along with specially commissioned articles for this freely unique multimedia dictionary that is freely available online.
Entitled DMTR-Post 1989, this year the project adds new content to an archival website created entirely online and uses the potential of new media to awaken the interest of new generations for the recent past of the Romanian stage. A team of more than 30 people, theatre students (coordinated by professors Miruna Runcan and Raluca Blaga) and professional theatre critics, worked for almost eight months to create 50 new dictionary entries for the two sections –Artists and Performances.
"If in the previous editions the research focused on the modern period of Romanian theatre, 1950-1990, in 2022 we have documented and established the memory of the theatre between 1989-2000. The first 10 years after the 1989 political regime change were marked within the theatre by the coming of age of a generation of directors who had just made their debut prior to this historical moment and by the emergence of new working methods and new aesthetics. The great directors who are still the landmarks of our theatre movement – Andrei Șerban, Silviu Purcărete, Mihai Măniuțiu, Gabor Tompa, Alexandru Darie, Victor Ioan Frunză, Alexandru Dabija – created performances during this period that define the recent history of Romanian theatre and deserve their place in the cultural memory of the Romanian stage. The actors of the "golden generation" also reached artistic maturity during this period, creating their great roles. Together they created an extremely relevant chapter of Romanian theatre history", says the curator of the project, theatre critic Cristina Modreanu.
