First volume of modern Moldovan plays published in Romania and launched in Chisinau

The first anthology of modern Moldovan dramaturgy published in Romania has been launched on Monday in Chisinau, as part of the 8th International Scenic Art Festival BITEI 2008 (Biennale of Eugene Ionesco Theater), Info-Prim Neo reports. The volume titled “Today’s Playwrights of Bessarabia”, an anthology by Andreea Dumitru and Oana Bors, is part of the “Today’s Playwrights” series published by the Bucharest-based “Camil Petrescu” Cultural Foundation and Teatrul Azi (The Theatre Today) Magazine. The compilation comprises plays like “Fotografi si clovni invizibili” (“Invisible Photographers and Clowns”) by Val Butnaru, “In container” and “Volodea, Volodea” by Constantin Cheianu, “Oameni ai nimanui” (“Abandoned People”) and “Concert la viola pentru caini” (“Viola Concert for Dogs”) by Dumitru Crudu and “Portret de grup cu Sfantul Nicolae” (“A Group Portrait with Saint Nicolas”) by Larisa Turea. The literary critic Florica Ichim, head of the “Camil Petrescu” Foundation and editor-in-chief of the Theatre Today, who wrote the preface to the volume, said that the modern dramaturgy series is particularly focused on the authors who had lived and written in the areas which were exposed to long-lasting dictatorships. It was hard to select the plays because their authors are serious playwrights who are never superficial. Florica Ichim mentioned that the publishers had selected the plays which could harmoniously compose a panorama of the Bessarabian existence. Andreea Dumitru pointed out that the plays, written starting 2005, cover genuine but multifarious themes, all of them worth being staged in Romania. The book’s appearance is everything but commercial, rather resembling to a ToR with its bright yellow cover. “This color, expressing a state of optimism, seems to tell us that the time has come to get to know each other better”, Andreea Dumitru remarked. The Bucharest-based foundation is planning to publish other Moldovan plays in the future. “Authors from Bessarabia can experience true devotion only when they become known in Bucharest”, Constantin Cheianu concluded. Earlier, the “Today’s Playwrights” series featured modern Spanish, Portuguese and American plays. At the same time the “Camil Petrescu” Cultural Foundation also intends to publish anthologies of Balkan, Dutch and Hungarian theater in 2009.