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Dragos Buhagiar is associate professor at Lucian Blaga University Sibiu and the set designer of the Romanian Opera Bucharest. He is a set designer for theatre, opera, film and television.

He was born in Braila in 1965, he graduated from the Art High School in Cluj Napoca and the Nicolae Grigorescu Academy of Fine Arts in Bucharest.
After finishing his studies, he was co-opted in the troupe of the Little Theater in Bucharest and later in the troupe of the National Theater in Bucharest. From the beginning of his career as a stage designer, he joined the Union of Theaters in Romania and the Union of Visual Artists in Romania. From the beginning he was noticed as an artist with potential and was noticed by important directors, such as; Alexandru Dabija, Catalina Buzoianu and Alexandru Tocilescu with whom worked in turn, in the first 15 years of scenographic activity.

Together with Alexandru Dabija, he produced two of the most important shows in his career: "The Orphan Zhao" and "Brothers", for which he received the first UNITER awards and the Premilu of the International Association of Theater Critics from Romania. Performances, that marked the moment in the theatrical movement of the 90s.

Also, together with Catalina Buzoianu, he created the famous performance "Chira Chiralina" and together with Alexandru Tocilescu, he created the successful shows "Elisaveta Bam" and "Oblomov", shows for which he once again received the recognition of the theater community in 

Romania through the UNITER awards and the UAP award.

During all this time he worked with Romanian and foreign directors Andrei Serban, Gabor Tompa, Botond Nagy, Vlad Masaci, Cristian Teodor Popescu, Radu Nica, Anca Colteanu, Dragos Galgotiu, Charles Muller, Andriy Zholdak, Armin Petras with whom he performed shows important in different Romanian and European theater spaces.

The last 15 years of his career are marked by the co-optation in the creative team of the director Silviu Purcarete, the period in which together they recreated over 30 theater performances, opera and the feature film "Somewhere at Palilula", although he had also worked in theaters from Europe, together with Silviu Purcarete, won international recognition with the performances "Gulliver's Travels", "Oedipus", "The Scarlet Princess", "A Storm", "The Ploughman and Death", performances that participated in important festivals such as those in Edinburgh, Tokyo, Gdansk, Shanghai, Budapest, etc.

Along with Silviu Purcarete, he fulfilled his career as a set designer, having the chance to work on shows in theaters in France, Japan, Slovenia, Hungary, Russia,Shows such as, "Richard III" "A Midsummer Night's Dream" "Winter's Tale" "The Birch Orchard" "War and Peace" "The Miser" "The Miser" "As You Like It" and as Dragos Buhagiar declares ; "Together with Silviu, I completed my true "master's degree" in scenography"

Although he is awarded many times in the country and abroad, dear Buhagiar does not focus on these awards, but rather continues to focus modestly on his work as a set designer-teacher, considering that it is worth standing among the young students and trying to share them with attention to personal experience, that's why Dragos Buhagiar dedicated to students not only his books "Scenographer at the Crossroads of Arts" and "A new space A new theater" but also the time and attention to hold workshops and conferences in the universities of the country.

And as a crowning of his career, in the last 3 years he is the elected president of the Romanian Theater Union and he was decorated by the President of Romania with the Order of "Cultural Merit" in the rank of Knight - Performing Arts, a distinction handed out by the Minister of Culture and the Councilor presidential for culture, on the occasion of the World Theater Day, "In appreciation of the cooperation with the increase in the prestige of the performing arts and for the involvement in the promotion of the Romanian theater both in the country and abroad".

Velica Panduru is one of the leading Romanian scenographers of her generation, whose work over the past twenty-five years has shaped the visual identity of numerous theatre, film, and opera productions in Romania and abroad. A graduate of the Scenography Department of the “Nicolae Grigorescu” Academy of Fine Arts in Bucharest in 1998, she has developed a distinctive artistic language defined by visual precision, emotional depth, and a constant exploration of the relationship between space, image, and narrative.

Throughout her career, she has created sets and costumes for more than one hundred productions, collaborating with major Romanian theatres including the National Theatre Bucharest, Odeon Theatre, Bulandra Theatre, and the National Theatres of Timișoara, Târgu Mureș, and Sibiu. Her work has been closely associated with some of the most important voices of contemporary Romanian theatre, among them Cătălina Buzoianu, Radu Afrim, Alexandra Badea, Eugen Jebeleanu, Theodor Cristian Popescu, Bobi Pricop, and Radu Nica.

Her international career has taken her to some of Europe’s most prestigious stages, including Piccolo Teatro in Milan, Théâtre National de la Colline in Paris, Teatre Lliure in Barcelona, Thália Theatre in Budapest, and the National Theatre of Conakry in Guinea. Notable international collaborations include projects with Guy Régis Jr., Frédéric Fisbach, Dieudonné Niangouna, and Eugen Jebeleanu, whose productions have been presented at major venues and festivals such as the Festival d’Avignon, Théâtre Vidy-Lausanne, and Schauspiel Stuttgart. She also contributed to Alexandra Badea’s acclaimed trilogy Points de non-retour, one part of which was selected for the Festival d’Avignon in 2019.

A defining artistic partnership in her career has been her long-standing collaboration with director Eugen Jebeleanu, spanning theatre, film, and opera projects in Romania, France, and Germany. Together they have created compelling visual universes in which scenography becomes an essential dramaturgical force.

Velica Panduru’s achievements have been recognized with four UNITER Award nominations and three UNITER distinctions: the Debut Award (2007), the Award for Best Scenography (2009) for The Disease of Family M directed by Radu Afrim, and the Award for Best Scenography (2024) for Restlessness by Ivan Vyrypaev, directed by Theodor Cristian Popescu.

Through each of her projects, Velica Panduru explores the poetic potential of scenic space, creating visual worlds that transcend decoration and become integral parts of the theatrical experience. Her scenographies and costume designs transform the stage into a territory of memory, emotion, and imagination.

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Event in Romanian, with translation into English
Romania, Germany