Elements of Ethics and Aesthetics in New Romanian Theatre

Abstract

Young Romanian theatre artists are very concerned to address issues from the recent past and in using collaborative art to educational and therapeutic ends. The implications of the increased ethical consciousness in their work is addressed here by Cristina Modreanu, who focuses on the productions of directors Gianina Cӑrbunariu and David Schwartz. She analyzes the relationship between ethics and aesthetics in contemporary work against the backdrop of post-Communist Romanian society and in a global context, as well as the dynamics connecting the new wave of Romanian theatre to internationall tendencies in contemporary art, as observed by authors such as Jaques Rancière and Claire Bishop. Cristina Modreanu's doctorate on Romanian theatre after 1989 is from Bucharest University of Theatre and Film, and she has also developed the subject in lectures at Tel Aviv University and Plymouth University. A Fulbright alumna and former Visiting Scholar at New York University, Performance Studies Department, Modreanu currently lectures in Contemporary Performance at Bucharest University. Her publications include articles on Romanian and Eastern European theatre for journals such as Theater, Theater der Zeit, and Alternatives Théâtrales, and for the anthology Romania after 2000: Five New Plays, edited by Martin E. Segal.