The Beginnings of Stage Directing in the Romanian Theatre. A Historical View

Authors

  • Alina Gabriela Mihalache Center of Excellence in the Study of Image, Faculty of Letters, University of Bucharest, Romania

Keywords:

Romanian theatre, directing, scenography, performing, realism, modernism

Abstract

Lacking a consolidated tradition in the art of stage acting and directing, the Romanian national theatres, which had only existed for a few decades, faced a series of legislative, administrative and aesthetic reforms at the beginning of the 20th century. These reforms aimed to acclimatize the most important novelties of modern performance, just emerging on Western stages. Such changes strongly impacted the conservative world of declamation and rhetoric, still indebted to the Romanticist school of theatrical interpretation. This paper aims to provide a cultural-historical perspective on the generational and artistic conflict that led to the modernization of the Romanian mise-enscène and to the consolidation of the director’s status, in the “century of directing”, focusing on Alexandru Davila’s contribution to the process.

Author Biography

Alina Gabriela Mihalache, Center of Excellence in the Study of Image, Faculty of Letters, University of Bucharest, Romania

ALINA GABRIELA MIHALACHE has been awarded a PhD in Philology (2013), and authored the volumes Eugen Ionescu / Eugène Ionesco. From surrealist theatre to postdramatic theatre (2016) and Al. Davila. Theatrical Essays (2022). She is currently an Assistant Professor at the Center of Excellence in the Study of Image, teaching a series of courses on theatre history and theory. She participated in numerous national and international conferences, colloquiums and workshops, with various essays regarding the Romanian literary and theatrical avant-garde in a European context. She published works in several scientific journals and in collective volumes. She wrote literary and theatre reviews for the cultural periodicals România literară, Observator cultural, Teatrul azi, aLtitudini.

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Published

2024-07-27

How to Cite

Mihalache, A. G. (2024). The Beginnings of Stage Directing in the Romanian Theatre. A Historical View. Studia Universitatis Babeș-Bolyai - Dramatica, 69(1), 29–47. Retrieved from http://dramatica.ro/index.php/j/article/view/302