director: Dragoș Pop
set and costume design: Cristian Rusu
assistant director: Tudor Antofie
Cast:
Cornel, a stagehand: Ovidiu Crişan
Boss, another stagehand: Sorin Misirianţu
voci: Ramona Dumitrean/Ioan Negrea
stage manager: Doru Bodrea
lights technician: Alexandru Corpodean, Andrei Mitran
sound technician: Vasile Crăciun
prompter: Alina Forna
The comedy The Stagehands directed by Dragoș Pop has had its national premiere. It tells the story of two professional theater people, whom the public has never seen. Two stagehands (Sorin Misirianțu and Ovidiu Crișan), caught up in the frantic routine before any show, start playing a game of acting and directing. On a stage without an audience, they end up actually doing theater and, eventually, authentically reevaluating their existence, limits and wasted potential. For them, like for everyone else, art mediates this necessary process of self-reflection. The show invites the spectators to meditate on the relationship between theater and reality, in an engaging, humorous manner.
Sorin Misirianțu has created an atypical character, which makes him almost unrecognizable: an arrogant director, a complete stickler for his own beliefs but devoid of original ideas. Ovidiu Crișan, who is well-known for his difficult composition roles, is a pleasant surprise, with a variety of comic nuances: facial expressions, slap-stick comedy... In the end, he also reflects on the depth of the human condition, in a touching speech with a memorable climax: We, the stagehands, are always in the back of the stage, but we are also part of it! There were constant laughter and many rounds of applause, proving that the spectators resonated with this exemplary comedy.
Eugen Cojocaru, We are all STAGEHANDS! in Făclia, May 24th 2023
The director relied on the talent of the two actors, as well as on a healthy dose of realism, creating a memorable, necessary show ("we need stagehands"), with his characteristic rigor, balance and a new brand of humor. Ovidiu Crișan is an effortlessly charming presence, due to his protean and incredibly nuanced facial expressions and his coherent gestures. Sorin Misirianțu complements Crișan's performance in an admirable way: his acting is multifunctional, versatile, resulting in one of his best roles. The play also has dense, existentialist fragments, which discuss themes such as one's vocation, failure, amateurishness; laughter and sorrow at the same time, laughter as an antidote to sorrow. A show that is also an homage, which should be seen again and again and celebrated.
Alexandru Jurcan, Contaminated with the Dramatic Arts, in Tribuna, no. 501, 16-31 July 2023
George Lungoci was born in 1969 in Timișoara. As his father was an actor, he spent his childhood in the world of theater, and in 1997 he got his own acting degree. He appeared on the stage of The National Theater of Timișoara, The National Hungarian Theater in the same city and the State Jewish Theater in Bucharest. He was the voice of some of the most beloved cartoon characters in Romanian, such as Andy Anderson (Life with Louie), Courage (Courage The Cowardly Dog) or Edd (Ed, Edd n Eddy). Since 2001, he has been working for TVR (The Romanian Broadcasting Network), contributing to the scripts of many programs and series. He was a co-screenwriter for the feature film Zorillo's Secret. The play The Stagehands, directed by Dragoș Pop at the National Theater of Cluj, represents his debut as a playwright.
Q.:What inspired you to showcase in your play characters from a world destined to be in the shadows, invisible to the public?
G.L.: I think there is a fascination with the stage, with its hidden world. I "grew up" in the theater, my father was an actor at the National Theater of Timișoara, and every time I went backstage as a child, I was overwhelmed by what I saw. Various devices, lights, props, sets, nooks and crannies, the hustle and bustle of the entire team, the tense atmosphere, everything was a show in itself. Fascinating for anyone. Because the show happening onstage is just a part of the show. It is also happening backstage, with the essential contribution of all the employees, of the entire team. And yes, the contribution of the "stagehands", the unseen workers, who are nonetheless devoted to the theater, is significant.
Q.: Based on your experience in the world of theater, how does the actor view the people working backstage?
G.L.: As colleagues, how else! The phrase "a stagehand in the wings" is no joke. They are the most honest spectators and the most direct critics. Theater can't exist without respect for your colleagues, who are part of the show's team.
Q.:For your heroes, fiction and reality end up becoming one. How did you experience this overlap between art and reality, as a man in the world of theater and television at the same time?
G.L.: It's in the "job description". More often than not, fiction is born out of reality. A story can begin with a detail you notice one day, on the street or wherever. Observing people and their reality means creating at the same time, because by observing them you automatically weave a story about them. You start imagining, although you're pretending to be a simple observer.
Q.:Although your experience as a screenwriter is quite vast, this is your first dramatic project. What made you go back to the dramatic arts as an author?
G.L.: It's the first completed project. I do have others. And I feel I will have others in the future, as well. But a play is a script, after all. Only it's made for the theater.
Q.:How did your experience as an actor influence the writing of the play?
G.L.: Obviously, that is where it came from, from experience. As I wrote in the short description of the play, it contains events that I myself went through, or that I have seen unfold and that I just couldn't get over.
Q.: When writing the play, how did you adapt your skills as a screenwriter for film and television? How did you adapt to the requirements and the particularities of the theater?
G.L.: My whole life, I have lived and worked in theater, television or film. They have a lot in common, but they also have divergent paths. It is why it's so difficult to film a performance. There is something onstage which simply cannot be captured onscreen. Theater is made to be consumed directly, with no intermediary (the camera lens), it has no frame, which would only show you what the director wants you to see. On the contrary, each spectator creates their own frame. They can look wherever they want, they focus on whatever they find more interesting. Theater and cinematography build emotion differently, they create stories in different manners, using different means and techniques. And when I say "technique", I am referring first and foremost to the writing process.
George Lungoci on the play The Stagehands, which had its national premiere at the National Theater of Cluj-Napoca
The play The Stagehands is a satire. Of the stereotypes in the world of theater but also of impostors from all social domains. Because there are impostors who have a degree and impostors who don't, just as native talent and intuition can also coexist. It remains unclear whether the characters in the play embody one verdict or the other, just as unclear as the delineations and labels generated by subjectivity in the process of consuming and evaluating a work of art.
But the play The Stagehands is also meant to help us look within ourselves. It is a form of introspection in a moment of reflection and evaluation. It is about failure and success, about their fragile balance which can change the course of one's destiny. About decisions, chance, regret, struggle, resignation, and acceptance.
It is inspired by true events that I went through or that I merely witnessed but could not get over.
There is a saying in theater: if a stagehand appears in the wings during rehearsals, it's a good omen, it means that a particular scene is a good one. The stagehands who have worked for years and years in the world of theater start feeling its energy and identifying with the creative act. They often say: "I've got a show tonight".
The director assembles a show. The stagehands assemble and disassemble. They disassemble it after the spectators are gone, just as the critics do. And they all have something in common: they love theater. Just like us.
"The Stagehands is a show about the unseen people who work backstage. Who are they? What do they think? What do they feel? What are their dilemmas, dreams and aspirations in a show's collective, tumultuous destiny? These people are always steeped in theater. Their artistic sensibility is acute and their aesthetic instincts are precise. They have been refined by the hundreds of shows in which they have taken part, body and soul. This show aims to explore, reflect, and, last but not least, pay homage to the people who make the magic possible." Dragoș Pop
