Vi me som rom/ I am Roma too – theater show for teenagers and adults
Directed by : Andrei Șerban, a production MACAZ Teatru Bar Coop (Bucharest)
Representation: Tuesday, August 13, 20:00, at Căminul Cultural in Telciu, free admission
A Romanian girl with a Romani boyfriend, a Romani boy but no one knows that he is a Romani, a Romanian-Indian (Romanian mother, Indian father) so brunette that he is considered by everyone to be Romani – these are three stories in one theater performance, three different angles of the story in which we can clearly see what it means to be a Romani in Romania, after almost 30 years of democracy won with blood, blood of Romanians and Roma, visible and invisible Roma.
“Vi Me Som Rom” is especially about those Romani who do not look like Romani, or about those who looks like Romani but they are not. It is about the relationships between them and the non-Romani, from school to maturity, the exposure to others, assumption, self-acceptance and pride. We wrote our text with a lot of affection, humour and sincerity, it is based on our real life experience, but also we did a serious research among our Romani friends and / or people involved in promoting equality and social justice. If at the end of the performance we make you to stand up and say Vi Me Som Rom, it means that we have done our job well – and we will be happy together that we have found ourselves, brothers and sisters of all colors.
The Memory Ballads – general audience
A show by: Ionela Pop, Raul Coldea, Nicoleta Esinencu, Oana Hodade, Doru Taloș, a production Reactor de creație și experiment (Cluj-Napoca)
Representation: Friday, August 16, 20:00, at Căminul Cultural in Telciu, free admission
Ionela Pop is 69 years old, she is retired, and she tells her own story on the stage, as well as her friends’ and acquaintances’. In this way, an alternative story is overcome, overlooked by the official discourse. This theater performance brings to the foreground the stories of Ionela’s generation. stories about work, social life and personal life. In a society that increasingly renders invisible and disregards the elderly, the voices of people who live in hope for a more solidary future can also be heard.
The Memory Ballads documents, archives and reproduces all these narratives, following the way in which they were influenced by the tough years of transition and capitalism.
Foreplay – theater show for adolescents and youth
Text and direction: Ozana Nicolau, a production of Centrul de Teatru Educațional Replika (Bucharest)
Representation: Thursday, August 15, 20:00, at Căminul Cultural din Telciu, free admission
10% of the mothers who give birth in Romania are underage. There are almost 22,000 teenagers who become mothers annually. Foreplay creates a theater play with the stories of three of them: Irina’s mother lives in Italy and her entire household remained in her care; Miruna goes to the best high school in town but although she has both parents at home, she does not communicate well with them; Carmen was married by her parents at the age of 12. This theater performance explores the vulnerable condition of these young women in a society that, on the one hand, idealizes maternity and, on the other hand, blames mothers under the age of 18. Foreplay talks about double standards, false-guilt, how to become a mother when you are a teenager. In a fast-forward way, the play is being built as a documentary collage based on a one-year research that brought together the experiences of 30 teenage mothers from Bucharest, Urziceni, Vaslui and Ploiești.
