Like every year, the National Theatre of Cluj-Napoca invites you to spend the World Theatre Day at the Gates Open Day, which reached its ninth edition. The event will take place Tuesday, 27 March 2018, between 11.00 a.m. - 7.00 p.m., in the halls and foyers of the theatre, and includes events destined to children, as well as to adolescents and adults. The entrance is free, within available seats.
The Gates Open Day starts with events for children.
The first event is the performance for children of the "Puck" Puppet Theatre, The Little Bag with Two Coins by Ion Creangă, directed by Decebal Marin. Scenography is realized by Sandu Marian, while the music soundtrack by Traian Păcurar. Cast: Ramona Atănăsoaie, Andra Ștefan, Andreea Bolovan, Angelica Pamfilie, Ion Iurcu, Iulian Lungu / Ionuț Constantinescu, Călin Mureșan, Robert Gutunoiu, Adina Ungur. The adventures of the rooster and his lost little bag arouse breathless curiosity and bursts of laughter from children, but also from adults, The Little Bag with Two Coins being story for the older too. The performance enriches the funny story of the smart rooster with new situations and characters, adding more savour to the original tale.
Within the Puppet Handling Workshop, led by two actors of the "Puck" Theatre, whom children had already met in the performance, Andreea Bolovan and Ionuț Constantinescu, little spectators will be able to watch - hopefully with great interest and joy - how puppets can be handled.
The Workshop of Puppets and Puppet Theatre Sets Manufacture, coordinated by the "Puck" Theatre scenographer, Elena Ilaș, will continue the program for children. This workshop attempts to build from imagination character-silhouettes able to create a small story. Characters will be drawn and clipped, having two faces, one drawn, one black. Based on silhouettes of grown men and children, of animals and fantastic creatures, a small show about the real and the fantastic world of shadows will be staged.
7-8th grade students are invited by Daniela and Grig to participate in Quiz à la T. The teams that finish on the first three places will be awarded invitations at performances of the National Theatre, a poster signed by a beloved actor, a badge with the Theatre logo, but also bill reductions for Doamna T, whose Café will be open during the entire event.
The same category of public is expected at the Drawing Masks creative area.
The events for adults start with the Interactive Review installation, an overview of the National Theatre's history from the beginning to these days, conceived as an interactive video installation.
Actors Sânziana Tarța, Radu Lărgeanu, Anca Hanu and Cătălin Herlo will lead the Debate The Comic Spirit on the Stage of the National Theatre of Cluj-Napoca, moderated by Ștefana Pop-Curșeu, the artistic director of the institution. The topics of discussion will include the comic parts played on stage by the four actors, and how they approached them, but also insider details about their work for a certain role and about the work approach of directors they had the chance to collaborate with.
The Creation and Experiment Reactor presents the performative installation Kaleidoscope. Kaleidoscope is an attempt to (re)write fragments from the recent history of theatre through 16 discourses. Even if we speak of discourses from all decades, made by different personalities, in the form of Messages for the World Theatre Day, of messages sent by representatives of Cluj theatre insitutions, or messages gathered from people working in these spaces (firemen, wardrobe assisstants, machinists, volunteers etc), the installation will try to build a map of things that connect or separate us, through our common passion and activity in service of theatre. And since theatre also belongs to the ones who see it, the installation will give spectators the chance to write their own messages. For two hours, the 16 selected discourses can be heard within a performative installation, and once every 30 minutes, performers will read texts left by the visitors of the installation.
Like every year, the program includes a "Restitutions" corner. This time, the event will consist of projected fragments from the performance directed by the late Mona Marian, Only during a Carnival, by I.L. Caragiale, a 2002 production of the National Theatre of Cluj-Napoca. After viewing the recorded fragments, spectators will have the chance to address questions to actors from the cast, Elena Ivanca, Ovidiu Crișan, Adrian Cucu, Cristian Grosu.
As in previous editions of the event, this time our visitors will have the opportunity to view an open rehearsal. This year, you can view a rehearsal of the performance Gallants of the Old Court after Mateiu Caragiale, led by director Răzvan Mureșan and by scenographer Andreea Săndulescu, which will also be followed by discussions with the public.
Special guests of the day are actors Dorina Chiriac and Tudor Chirilă. Dorina Chiriac is an actress of the Comedy Theatre of Bucharest, she directed four performances, she has worked with renowned directors like Andrei Șerban, Cătălina Buzoianu, Alexandru Tocilescu, Alexandru Darie, Alexandru Dabija, Radu Afrim. She played in films directed by Costa Gavras, Radu Muntean and Lucian Pintilie, receiving two awards and a nomination for the role of Norica from Terminus Paradis. She received twice the FestCo Award for Best Actress, and was nominated in two UNITER galas for Best Leading Actress and Best Supporting Actress.
Tudor Chirilă is a theatre and film actor, musician, composer and producer, former lead singer of the music group "Vama Veche" and founder of the music group "Vama". He works in the company of the Comedy Theatre of Bucharest. He played in more than ten movies, while in theatre he collaborated with László Bocsárdi, Alexandru Tocilescu, Alexandru Dabija, Alexandru Darie, Horațiu Mălăele, Iarina Demian, Gelu Colceag, Vlad Massaci. He received an UNITER Award for Best Supporting Actor (2004). He initiated several campaigns in support of the diseased, of natural disasters victims, or of young talented people willing to work in the field of journalism.
Spectators are welcome to ask the two guests questions and start a conversation with them.
This year as well, participants will get the chance to visit the backstage, the great hall and the theatre hall, guided by our actors.
In addition to that, theatre actors wil have epistolary meetings with the public, occasioned by the presence in the foyer of a Great Union Post Office. This way, right after entering theatre, vistors can see this Post Office where they can get post orders to lead them towards the Ist level boxes, where wonderful surprises await them.
The presentation-experiment Teach' by Jean-Pierre Dopagne tries to approach the disastruous perspectives of our (not only) local system of education. Having in direct view high-school students, but also their teachers, the fragment presented by Mihai-Florian Nițu aims to trigger a discussion-debate upon this satire-text regarding the behaviour of today's young people, who no longer care about Aeschylus, Sophocles, Euripides, Molière, Shakespeare, and other of the kind. Respect has completely vanished from school, common-sense is long forgotten, insolence is fashionable, and teach' feels his duty to put things back in order. As a consequence of that, he decides to shoot his students, on the day of Molière's death. This topic will surely lead to extremely challenging discussions.
The Film Booth has reached its fourth edition this year. This project invites spectators to enter our film booth and answer a few questions, helping us get to know better our spectators. These answers will provide the material for a featurette-length film, to be projected in another of our events, Gates Open Night.
During the entire event, the Popular Craftsmen of Cluj will exhibit egg decorating - after all, we are approaching the greatest Christian holiday -, as well as pottery and weaving.
In addition to that, the Librarium Bookshop and the Bookshop of the National Theatre will provide bookstands where visitors can find the volumes they have probably been looking for. It has already become customary that Doamna T should provide the most exquisite coffees and sweet treats at the Café with the same name, our constant companion year after year.
The complete program of the event can be found here.
