Oltita Cintec: I am more busy than before the pandemic

Someone from a national cultural Romanian journal asked me how my work as theatre critic  functions during the lockdown. My answer was that, somehow, I am even more busy than before the pandemic.
One of our initiatives is a new collective book about the ways theatre artists and theater-goers are „gathering”, still respecting the required social distance. Romanian creators are trying to find aesthetic solutions to work and perform. We hope we can realease this autumn, under the title „Romanian Theatre Scene facing Coronavirus”.
Another challenge is a „Romanian Theatre Multimedia Dictionnary (1950-2020)”, innitiated by Romanian Associations of Theatre Art Professionals, lead by our colleague Cristina Modreanu. IATC Romania Group is a main partner together with Babes Bolyai University Cluj (Faculty of Theatre and Film) and Tg Mures Arts University (Faculty of Theater). The dictionnary will be the first tool of this kind in our country.
In Romania, some of the theatre critics are also curating festivals.  This year that means working and creating an adapted version of the classic festivals that probably will have to go online – even though we have to face difficulties such as massive budget cuts, as well as the limited possibility to share the same space as the spectators. Due to the pandemic, it is most likely that the first performances available to a ”live” public will take place in outdoor spaces.
Romanian theatre celebrates, in 2020, its 30th year of freedom of speach, after the fall of communism. This beautiful anniversary is affected by an invisible enemy, but nevertheless, everyone is determined to do what is needed by adapting and reinventing. So what is the IATC Romania Group doing these days? We are very active. We watch online streaming shows, we write, and we curate festivals.
Oltita Cintec, Ph D in Theatre Studies, president IATC Romania Group