Two Faces of Le Bourgeois Gentilhomme in Cluj

Dialogue with Mihai Măniuțiu and Anca Măniuțiu about Molière

Abstract

Mihai and Anca Măniuțiu are theater professionals, artists, educators, and researchers who have collaborated on numerous stage projects for over 40 years. Mihai Măniuțiu is a renowned director in Romanian theater, with productions like Electra, based on Sophocles and Euripides, performed with the Iza musical group from Maramureș, having toured worldwide. As the author of books of poetry and prose, essays on the art of the actor, and Shakespearean theater, he has directed over 120 performances in major theaters in Romania and abroad. Throughout his theatrical career, many of his productions have received prestigious national awards in categories such as Best Show of the Year, Best Direction, Critic's Award for Originality in Creation, etc. He is currently the director of the National Theatre of Cluj and a distinguished professor at the Department of Theatre at the University of California, Irvine (U.C.I).

Anca Măniuțiu was a professor at the Faculty of Theatre and Film at Babeș-Bolyai University in Cluj, where she taught the history of modern stage direction. She has written numerous articles and several books dedicated to Michel de Ghelderode, Antonin Artaud, and key figures in 20th-century theater theory. As a translator of works by Samuel Beckett and Michel de Ghelderode into Romanian, among others, she has also worked as a dramaturge for numerous productions. In 2016, she received the UNITER Award for her entire career in the categories of Theater Criticism and Theater History.