Livestreaming a Performance: Our Little Centenary / Micul Nostru Centenar

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Livestreaming a Performance: Our Little Centenary

One of eight performances written by eight contemporary Romanian playwrights, presented by Reactor

Reactor presents a performance of Our Little Centenary livestreaming on the global, commons-based, peer produced HowlRound TV network at howlround.tv on Sunday 25 October 2020 at 10 a.m. PDT (San Francisco, UTC -5) / 1 p.m. EDT (New York, UTC -4) / 20:00 CEST (Cluj, UTC +3).

By: Maria Manolescu
Directed by: Dragoș Alexandru Mușoiu
With: Alexandra Caras, Paula Rotar, Paul Socol, Doru Taloș, Adonis Tanța
Stage design: Anda Pop
Original music: Danaga

Just like Romania, Anuța is turning 100 years old. Her family comes together to pay her a tribute, but some old conflicts are brought back to life and enhanced. Caught inbetween opposing thoughts and parallel speeches around him, Toma, the great grandson, tries to find the meaning of it all.

“There have been lots of celebrations in 2018 but, if we look around, including towards our families, we are far from united. At the same time, I see a higher emotional intelligence and less fighting spirit in today’s young generation than in the previous ones. And this seemed to me as something that needed portraying, even if done through a small metaphore that depicts our country as a family who fights when they should be celebrating.”

Maria Manolescu

Produced by Reactor

About the author: Maria Manolescu
Maria`s first play, With a Little Help from My Friends, won the DramAcum prize in 2007, being directed by Radu Apostol (Iași National Theatre, 2007). She wrote her second play, Sado-Maso Blues Bar, during a DramAcum Residency, and the play was directed by Gianina Cărbunariu (The Very Small Theatre, Bucharest, 2007). The same year, Maria graduated a MA in playwriting at the National University of Theatre and Film Bucharest, and attended the Royal Court International Residency, writing the play I`m not Jesus Christ, which was directed in 2016 by Melissa Dune (Papercut Theatre, Teatre N16, London).
Her recent plays include Slaves (directed by Theodor-Cristian Popescu, Fabrica de Pensule Cluj, 2017), Our Tiny Centenary, developed during Drama 5 Residency (directed by Dragoș Alexandru Mușoiu, Reactor de creație și experiment Cluj, 2018) and The Big B – the cabaret about burnout (directed by Adonis Tanța, Zug.Zone Cluj, 2019).
Maria is also a novelist, her latest book – Vânători-culegători (Hunters-gatherers), Polirom, 2019 – being a play-in-a-novel about becoming a writer, a failed relationship and the start of Romania`s anti-corruption protests in 2017.
In 2019 she won Scena.ro performing arts magazine`s prize for dramaturgy, part of the project Sofia Nadejde Prizes for Literature written by women.
She`s currently pursuing her PhD in Theatre at the University of Arts in Târgu-Mureș.
She lives in Bucharest with her husband and their son.

About the project:
Focus: Contemporary Playwriting
Eight performances written by eight contemporary Romanian playwrights.
The project aims to gather a selection of representative performances from some of Romania’s young playwrights working today. Despite differing styles, they are all dealing with current issues faced by their mostly young audience: from parental abandonment, the educational system or the complex ways they are being influenced by pop culture, to couple relations and the sense of imminent planetary disaster.

Six of these performances have been produced by the independent theatre Reactor, based in Cluj, Transylvania, while two others are coproductions of four other independent cultural organizations.

This cultural event is co-funded by The Administration of the National Cultural Fund (AFCN). The project doesn’t necessarily express the views of the Administration of the National Cultural Fund. AFCN is not responsible for the content of this project, nor for the way its products are being used. That is solely the responsibility of the grant beneficiary.

The project is also co-funded by the Cluj-Napoca City Hall and Local Council.

About Reactor:
Reactor (Reactor – a place for creative experiments – full name) is an independent theatre founded in 2014 and focusing on contemporary dramaturgy, artistic experiment and social themes. It is also encouraging constant artistic development by organizing workshops for theatre professionals as well as the general public, and by offering residencies for emerging artists. Two of the plays included in this series have been written during the Drama 5 playwriting residency happening at Reactor annually since 2016 (All’s Well That Ends and Our Little Centenary).

Reactor is also working towards a more open and reciprocal relation with its audience, by audience developing programs, cultural mediation and community activities. Three of the productions included in this series have been voted by the audience to be staged, after presenting the first 15 minutes of each of them (out of a total of five possibilities): I Like Sushi, Finally the End, and Glory.

Find out more at their website or follow them on Facebook or Instagram.

About HowlRound TV
HowlRound TV is a global, commons-based peer produced, open access livestreaming and video archive project stewarded by the nonprofit HowlRound. HowlRound TV is a free and shared resource for live conversations and performances relevant to the world’s performing arts and cultural fields. Its mission is to break geographic isolation, promote resource sharing, and to develop our knowledge commons collectively. Participate in a community of peer organizations revolutionizing the flow of information, knowledge, and access in our field by becoming a producer and co-producing with us. Learn more by going to our participate page. For any other queries, email tv@howlround.com, or call Vijay Mathew at +1 917.686.3185 Signal/WhatsApp. View the video archive of past events.

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