We are launching Narratives and Performative Intersections, a multidimensional artistic research project carried out by the cultural association Narative, across several cities in Romania, co-financed by the Administration of the National Cultural Fund. Together, we will explore Romania’s theatrical ecosystem from multiple perspectives, beginning with a performance by artists Peca Ștefan and Cinty Ionescu.
We’ll travel from city to city to engage the public in discussion-game sessions on both timeless and contemporary topics, inviting local theatre teams to join the conversation. We’ll also host a series of creative workshops with students from Romania’s leading theatre universities, as well as with teenagers. Our aim is to examine both state-funded and alternative stages, speaking with the people who create art — cultural managers, independent professionals, and decision-makers — to better understand their visions and concerns in the face of today’s challenges.
All these experiences will be brought together in Narratives in Km2025, an online series available here.
Our first stop is on April 17 in Câmpulung Muscel — a small town with a blossoming cultural scene. We’ll continue in April with an event in Bucharest, and then, in early May, uncover stories of people and theatres in Târgu Mureș, Cluj, Satu Mare, Timișoara, and Sfântu Gheorghe. In June, we’ll hold two major public events in Piatra Neamț and Sibiu.
PSEUDO-INTERACTIVE LECTURE
At the heart of this tour is the performance 2025: Nouameapiesă?, based on a text by playwright Peca Ștefan. It will be presented as a traveling production in both state theatres and alternative cultural spaces. Peca, one of the most significant voices in Romanian playwriting post-2000, offers here his only text in which the dramatic tension stems from the author’s very presence on stage and his direct relationship with the audience. This new performative version is created in collaboration with multimedia artist Cinty Ionescu, who will perform live alongside the playwright and is also responsible for the video design.
“Just a text, just words written and then read.” Peca confronts the most challenging questions while describing a play that could have begun in a conventional way. The audience becomes his creative partner—changing the subject, improving the text—within a relaxed and non-intrusive format. Gradually, the journey moves from play pitches inspired by powerful real-life issues to extravagant adaptations of video games, Netflix series, or Dante’s Divine Comedy. This pseudo-(inter)active lecture, filled with humor and imagination, transforms into a performance in its own right—a disarmingly honest meditation on the unspoken contract between audience, author, and theatre, all while subtly revealing a deeply personal story.
Together, the two artists directly engage with the audience, turning each performance into a one-of-a-kind experience. The audience takes on multiple roles: meaning-maker, stage element, artistic decision-maker, and—most unusually—participant in a live survey about the values and interests of a potential audience.
GAMIFIED DISUSSION WITH THE AUDIENCE
Expanding on the themes of 2025: Nouameapiesă?, after each performance, local theatre representatives are invited on stage with the artists in a playful format designed to question and rethink the theatrical contract. Through a series of creative decisions and challenges, we seek answers together with the audience:
- How can we redefine the unwritten agreement between theatres, creators, and the public into a fair partnership?
- What will theatre do in 2025—and what can it still offer us?
- What can we, in turn, offer the theatre?
- What could a theatre of the future look like—one in which we feel truly represented?
- And what would be the ideal model for sustainable support for this kind of theatre?
NARATIVE IN KM2025
An online series. A subjective video documentary.
Follow us on the Narative.ro website and on the project’s social media platforms: Instagram, Facebook, and TikTok. This material will later serve as the creative foundation for a series of essayistic TV shows in collaboration with the Romanian National Television – TVR.
WORKSHOPS
Narratives and (Auto)Fictions of Participation is a series of masterclasses on participatory storytelling, open to students from theatre universities in Bucharest, Cluj, Târgu Mureș, and Timișoara. Each session will be co-facilitated by Peca Ștefan and Cinty Ionescu.
A special creative workshop will also be held in partnership with the new stART Center for Creativity for Children and Adolescents—a program developed by the Sub Stejar Cultural Association in Târgu Lăpuș for a community that typically lacks access to cultural events.
Structured as a questionnaire, the workshop features exercises that guide participants through defining and exploring a participatory performance project—starting from personal themes, urgent questions, and ideological dilemmas, and translating them into various participatory dramatic forms.
ARTISTIC TEAM, WORKSHOP & DOCUMENTATION
Peca Ștefan and Cinty Ionescu
PROJECT TEAM
Project Manager: Ioana Gonțea
Graphic Design: Sorin Păun
Poster Artwork & Photos: David Grohe
Communication: Evantia Barca
Social Media: Cristiana Andrei
Music: Gabriel Kirmaier
INSTITUTIONAL PARTNERS
Convivial Câmpulung, Replika Educational Theatre Center, 3g HUB, Reactor de creație și experiment, Teatrul de Nord Satu Mare, Trupa Mihai Raicu, Auăleu Teatru, Teatrul Andrei Mureșanu, Teatrul Tineretului Piatra Neamț, Teatrul pentru Copii şi Tineret GONG și Primăria Sibiu, Asociația Culturală Sub Stejar, Centrul de Creație pentru Copii și Adolescenți “stART”
Universities:
Ion Luca Caragiale National University of Theatre and Film, Bucharest
The Arts University in Târgu Mureș
The Faculty of Theatre and Film at the Babeș-Bolyai University in Cluj
The Faculty of Music and Theatre at the West University of Timișoara
MEDIA PARTNERS
Matca Literara, Radio Romania Cultural, Radio România Internațional, Revista 22, Teatrul Azi, scena.ro, Liternet, Propagarta, IQ ADS, SMARK, Revista Zeppelin, Modernism.ro, Zile și Nopți, Filme-Cărți, Daily Magazine, Ziarul Metropolis, Feeder, DigitizArte, HAPP, Agenția de carte, The Woman, Revista Golan, Arte Vezi, The Expert, Munteanu Recomandă
Câmpulung Muscel: Ziarul din Muscel, Muscel FM, Muscel Media, Evenimentul Muscelean, Clar FM
Sfântu Gheorghe: Magic FM, Covasna Media, We Radio, Radio Sepsi, Mesagerul de Covasna
Constanța: Revista Tomis, Radio Constanța, Info Sud-Est, Constanța 100 %, Observatorul de Constanța, Ziua Constanța, Cultura Constanța
Târgu Mureș: Radio Mureș, Cuvântul Liber, Zi de Zi, Punctul
Timișoara: Radio Timișoara, Puterea a Cincea, Press Alert, Civica Info, Orașul Timișoara
Cluj: Radio România Cluj, cluj.com, Cluj Life, Cluj Info
Satu Mare: TV1 Satu Mare, Nord TV, Radio Transilvania, ITV, Satu Mare Online, Leviathan, Satu Mare News, Buletin de Carei, Obiectiv SM, Sătmăreanul, SM Live, portalsm.ro, Gazeta de Nord-vest, Informatia Zilei
*This project does not necessarily represent the position of the National Cultural Fund Administration. AFCN is not responsible for the content of the project or for how its results may be used. These are entirely the responsibility of the funding recipient.