Reactor presented a performance of Not Us, Not Ever livestreamed on the global, commons-based, peer produced HowlRound TV network at howlround.tv on Friday 23 October 2020 at 10 a.m. PDT (San Francisco, UTC -5) / 1 p.m. EDT (New York, UTC -4) / 20:00 CEST (Cluj, UTC +3).
A performance by: Alexandra Caras, Radu Dogaru, Olivia Grecea, Petro Ionescu, Paula Rotar and Cosmin Stănilă
with: Alexandra Caras, Radu Dogaru, Paula Rotar, Cosmin Stănilă
Set design: Gábor Zsófi
Has it ever happened to you to use the wrong argument just to sustain your point of view? Did you ever feel like some words didn't exactly belong to you? Have you ever jumped to the wrong conclusion? Us neither...
By deconstructing different types of speech, the performance tries, through (self) irony, to stimulate critical thinking and to playfully overlay personal biography and history.
Work method: devised theatre. The entire artistic team has participated in research, followed by writing and improvisation exercises, which laid the basis of the play.
Produced by Reactor
About the dramaturg: Petro Ionescu
Petro Ionescu (1988) is a stage dramaturge and works at Reactor as an artist, but she is also part of the staff coordinating cultural projects. Concerning her artistic activity, she is interested in political theater projects that imply collaborative ways of working, preceded by research periods. So far she has collaborated with different venues and independent cultural associations from Romania: Paint Brush Factory, Teatru FiX, ARENA Association, Macaz- Teatru Bar Coop. Petro Ionescu graduated from Babeș-Bolyai University, Faculty of Theatre and Television, in Cluj-Napoca, (BA in Theatre Studies in 2010), she pursued her studies at Universite Libre de Bruxelles, Department of Philosophy and Letters (MA in Performing Arts, 2014).
About the project:
Focus: Contemporary Playwriting
Eight performances written by eight contemporary Romanian playwrights.
The project aims to gather a selection of representative performances from some of Romania’s young playwrights working today. Despite differing styles, they are all dealing with current issues faced by their mostly young audience: from parental abandonment, the educational system or the complex ways they are being influenced by pop culture, to couple relations and the sense of imminent planetary disaster.
Six of these performances have been produced by the independent theatre Reactor, based in Cluj, Transylvania, while two others are coproductions of four other independent cultural organizations.
This cultural event is co-funded by The Administration of the National Cultural Fund (AFCN). The project doesn’t necessarily express the views of the Administration of the National Cultural Fund. AFCN is not responsible for the content of this project, nor for the way its products are being used. That is solely the responsibility of the grant beneficiary.
The project is also co-funded by the Cluj-Napoca City Hall and Local Council.
About Reactor:
Reactor (Reactor – a place for creative experiments - full name) is an independent theatre founded in 2014 and focusing on contemporary dramaturgy, artistic experiment and social themes. It is also encouraging constant artistic development by organizing workshops for theatre professionals as well as the general public, and by offering residencies for emerging artists. Two of the plays included in this series have been written during the Drama 5 playwriting residency happening at Reactor annually since 2016 (All’s Well That Ends and Our Little Centenary).
Reactor is also working towards a more open and reciprocal relation with its audience, by audience developing programs, cultural mediation and community activities. Three of the productions included in this series have been voted by the audience to be staged, after presenting the first 15 minutes of each of them (out of a total of five possibilities): I Like Sushi, Finally the End, and Glory.
Find out more at their website or follow them on Facebook or Instagram.
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