Spotlight on Constantin Chiriac, President, Sibiu International Theatre Festival

                                Photo by: Rares Helici

Tell us about the Sibiu International Theatre Festival and the impact the past year has had on the Festival and the Romanian performing arts sector as a whole.

In March of last year, the Sibiu International Theatre Festival (FITS) was ready to go, as it has been for the last 27 years. The programme was ready and we had 585 performances from 75 countries planned in 75 venues, with an expected number of 75,000 daily spectators. On 14 March 2020, a state of emergency was declared, everything was closed down, and all of the performances scheduled at the "Radu Stanca" National Theatre in Sibiu were cancelled.

At this point, we decided to cancel the in-person performances, move the Festival to June, and use the Festival archive to kickstart the online dimension. We managed to stream shows from 38 countries. We reached over 1 million people, with spectators from 104 countries, and everything was free of charge. Besides the Festival, we also developed the Sibiu Performing Arts Market, which took place during FITS, the International Doctoral Platform, and Therme Forum. Based on this experience, we decided to try and prepare online versions of all of the performances of the Sibiu National Theatre, a repertory of 120 in-person shows. We aimed not simply to record them as theatre shows, but tried to find alternative solutions in proper spaces to make them into film-like productions. As a result, every weekend, we have managed to stream some of the performances we had shown during FITS 2020. We also developed the Digital Stage, which offers 1‑month, 3‑month, 6‑month, and 1‑year subscriptions, each offering 8, 12, 18, or 30 performances respectively. We are the only theatre and the only festival in Romania that accomplished this. At the same time, we organized all of the other conferences under these auspices, and all our new productions have a double dimension: a performance clearly designed for spectators physically in the room, and a film version of the same show that is streamed online with English subtitles.

How has the pandemic influenced the Festival's programming?

Of course, the “normal” everybody dreams to return to will have to be redesigned. It will be a “new normal,” in which, most likely for a good while, masks will play an important role, as will the distance between spectators and actors. It is important that we learn from this experience, which is why we have envisioned this year's Festival as a hybrid, themed Building Hope Together, along with the Sibiu Performing Arts Market, the Doctoral Platform, and Therme Forum.

At this point, the National Theatre performs at one-third of its capacity, and all available tickets are sold-out. We stream performances through the programme developed for the Digital Stage platform. In addition, we are trying to organize the Festival with companies that cannot come to Sibiu physically, but will perform especially for FITS live from their own venues. Moreover, we will receive high quality recordings of performances, which we will stream in a pay-per-view system. Furthermore, we will develop a free heritage section which includes the most important productions from top theatres around the world. All of the events, including the ones within the Performing Arts Market, Therme Forum, and the Doctoral Platform will be organized as hybrid events, meaning they will include opportunities to attend in-person and virtually.

How has the pandemic influenced your plans for building a new facility?

The building of the new facility is currently in progress. Based on our experience, we wish to develop a visionary facility connected to our audience in Sibiu, in the region, in Romania, and in the world. To this end, the Festival will be accessible to those spectators who will attend performances in our venues, outdoors, and in churches which we will fill with music, fado, choirs, concerts, etc.

From all these places, we will also try to stream live performances for regional, national, and international audiences, as well as in the venues that wish to become FITS partners. We will try to do the same with the regular season of the Radu Stanca National Theatre (TNRS), at least on Thursdays, Fridays, Saturdays, and Sundays. On Thursdays, the German Department prepares performances in German, while on Fridays, Saturdays, and Sundays, we stream English-subtitled performances by the Romanian Department. What’s more, we will try to partner with smaller cities that have no theatres, but do have performance venues, or at least a cinema, with a view to developing an educational programme including all the activities developed by the National Theatre in Sibiu – the theatre gifts, play-readings, etc. We also want to get involved in everything related to pupils’ culture and education, as we are trying to enrich the educational curriculum for Romanian and universal literature with excerpts recorded by our actors related to the topics studied at school.

What future changes to the festival industry do you envision materializing as a result of the pandemic?

Big changes will certainly take place. First of all, congresses, conferences, meetings, including the educational dimensions, will likely change. We will launch an MA programme in Directing in English, at the “Lucian Blaga” University of Sibiu, which is our partner in all TNRS and FITS activities. We will also launch another MA in Theatre Studies, also in English, which will be fully taught online, by professors from all over the world. At the same time, we will launch an MA in Stage Production, focused on training technical experts, i.e., light and sound designers, technical directors, stagehands, prop handlers, all those people who serve the stage and ensure the smooth unfolding of the artistic act.

Unfortunately, such studies are not available in Romania, nor in Central and Eastern Europe, and through these new master programmes, we aim to fill this specialized staff gap. I am sure that the digital environment will greatly influence artistic activity over the coming years, but direct contact to creation and beauty, will be the supreme argument in everything related to theatre, dance, music, and the performing arts, so we will go on with our partnerships with artists on all continents, with festivals, performing arts institutions, schools, and the educational environment, to ensure that direct contact with and dialogue between creators is stimulated and supported.