Sibiu International Theatre Festival 2009

Welcome to the Sibiu International Theatre Festival 2009

The 16th edition of the Sibiu International Theatre Festival will take place between the 28th of May and the 7th of June 2009 and with the theme "INNOVATIONS", coming to support the initiative of the European commission, which declared 2009 the Year of creativity and innovation.  The STIF, the most important annual theatre and performing arts festival in Romania and the third in the world, given its magnitude, proposes a program that brings participants from 70 countries and presents 350 events that take place in 55 venues, awaiting 60000 spectators per day. Renowned companies from the world of performing arts, Romanian and foreign stage directors, critiques, local and regional tourism operators, foreign cultural operators, tens of thousands of local, regional and international spectators meet in Sibiu for 11 days to celebrate creation within a cultural event whose sole purpose is promoting value at an international level.

The cultural offer of this edition is quite rich and varied, embracing representative productions of Romanian theatres, important international productions, street performances taking place in the old city, it's fortresses and medieval fortified churches, theatre-dance performances(flamenco and contemporary dance), light shows, music, pantomime, conferences, debates, photography expos, book-launches, meetings of international networks.

Theatre Performances - Event Performances

In premiere, The "Radu Stanca" National Theatre, Theatre D'Esch-Sur-Alzette and  Centre Culturel de Rencontre Abbaye de Neumünster will present Ovidiu's "Metamorphosis", directed by Silviu Purcarete, a mega-performance originally made in Luxembourg in 2007 for the Sibiu and Luxembourg and the Great Region - Capital Cultures of Europe programs. With "Metamorphoses" Purcarete succeeds in grasping the core of Ovidiu's poems and conquers their essence, creating a complete sensory experience, a disturbing and memorable performance, presented to the Romanian public with a new cast on the 28th and 29th of May.

Another two impressive creations of Silviu Purcarete will be presented on the 30th of May and the 6th of June: "Faust" by J. W. Goethe ("Radu Stanca" National Theatre of Sibiu, 2007) and "The mountain giants" by Luigi Pirandello ("Vasile Alecsandri" National Theatre of Iasi, 2009).

This edition of the Sibiu International Theatre Festival hosts some of the most important theatre stage directors of international level, giving the Romanian audience extraordinary performances based on classical texts. Eimuntas Nekrosius presents Anton Chekov's "The cherry orchard" (International Stanislavsky Foundation, Russia, and Theatre „Meno Fortas", Lithuania), an event performance on the Russian stage, in which the actors play magisterially, creating a tender, loving, joyful and even disappointing atmosphere. Andriy Zholdak proposes an avant-garde montage of Georg Büchner's „Woyzeck" (Agency Culture-Europe, Ukraine), and Antonio Latella holds a "Study of Medeea", after Euripides (Teatro Stabile dell'Umbria, Italia).

Dance performances

Theatre-dance performances occupy, this year as well, an important place in the Sibiu Festival's schedule. Polish Dance Theatre (Poland) present the performance „Carpe Diem", choreography Ewa Wycichowska, who invite us to feel things with all our being and to assimilate colours, tastes, sounds, movements in a suspended moment between past and future. The Flamenco Company Adrian Sanchez (Spain) present 12 types of flamenco in a single show that overflow with energy and harmony: „Taracea". The Suzanne Dellal Centre (Israel) propose in the performance „Monger", choreography Barak Marshall, a precise theatrical body language, which includes contemporary ethnic motives, and Nadine Bommer Dance Company (Israel), a humoristic dance inspired by animation in „Manimation", choreography Nadine Bommer.

Street performances

Impressive street performances, of installations or itinerants, circus elements, exploiting air, water or fire, will animate yet again the historical centre of the city. The French company Korbo presents a „Elephant parade" of lights, Treteaux du Coeur Volant (France) brings us the miracle of technology which create life in the performance „Coconi", Teatro do Mar (Portugal) gives life to the Faust's myth in the performance „Daimonion", which unites theatre, dance and circus, Neighbourhood Watch Stilts animate the streets with huge birds and ants in „Les oiseaux de lux" and „The ant Orchestra", cal Y Canto Teatro (Spain) creates a panorama of fantastic animals that swarm over the public in „A-Ta-Ka!" , and the Malabar Company (France) presents us with two fantastic journeys with „L'Odyssée des Saltimbanques" and „Le Voyage des Aquarêves".

Music performances

As far as music goes, The International Theatre from Sibiu is preparing us two special moments of fado, traditional Portuguese music, with the group Fado Português (Portugal) and Stockholm Lisboan Project (Portugal/Sweden), a project that concentrates on the creation of musical ports between north and south, taking on Portuguese music, as well as the Scandinavian one. Also, the Mexican-American group Tito & Tarantula, famous for hits life „After Dark", „Back to the House that Love Built", „Strange Face to Love" or „Angry Cockroaches", will perform for the first time in Romania, in this Festival from Sibiu.

Major events of the festival

Throughout the festival there will be exhibitions, book launches, reading-performances and lectures, that will bring personalities of the national and international cultural world, like Jonathan Mills, Theodor Paleologu, Horia Roman Patapievici, George Banu, Andriy Zholdak, Mike Phillips, Saviana Stănescu, Emile Lansman or Mircea Dinescu. The 16th edition of the Performance Scholarship will take place from the 3rd to the 6th of June.

A major event of FITS 2009 is the exhibition organised by the Centre for Documentation of Tadeusz Kantor's work CRICOTEKA, Cracow, with original design pieces from "Closed Work", which fit perfectly in the context of George Banu's book launch "Repetitions and renewed theatre - the century of stage direction".

Organizers

The Sibiu International Theatre Festival is organized by The "Radu Stanca" National Theatre of Sibiu with the support of the City Hall of the City of Sibiu, the Local Council of the City of Sibiu, the Ministry of Culture, Cults and National Heritage, the "Lucian Blaga" University of Sibiu, the Council of Sibiu County.

Co-organizers: "Democracy through culture" Foundation, Romanian Lottery.

Associated producers: the Romanian Television Society and the Romanian Radio broadcasting Society.

This event takes place under the high patronage of the President of Romania and of the Representative of the European Education, Training, Culture and Youth Commission.