INTERNATIONAL ARTS SHOW FESTIVAL TÂRGOVIȘTE 2015- BABEL FAST

At the end of festival-with actor Liviu Cheloiu and german journalist Dietter Topp

In the last day of Babel Festival, precisely Friday, 12 June 2015, Oficial Media team was present at \ Tony BulandraTheatre as it happened during the entire festival. After two weeks of hard work, but also artistic holiday-as we like to call it-we had with us, for a summary of the event, not only Liviu Cheloiu, the well-known actor of Tony Bulandra Theatre, who also happened to be the organizer of Babel Festival, but also Dieter Topp, a german journalist and a guest of the Festival.
We discussed about how this year edition went and, of course, about the image and the impact that Babel Festival will have it beyond Romania’s borders.

Oficial Media: Liviu Cheloiu, actor and organizer, were you one of the principal pawn of this serie of events?
Liviu Cheloiu: All I did was to choose some shows which were brought at the festival, to coordinate at some point certain activities such as transportation and organising shows like the street ones, the concerts in front of the City Hall or the performances at the theatre.

Oficial Media: So you were the utility man..involved in all the activities, maybe not directly, but anyway, you were there to give directions, advice.
Liviu Cheloiu: Now, behind the organizing of a single event stands an entire team and it would be a shame to say that I stand before them. Many of us are talented people and I thank all my co-workers who were involved in the festival and here I’d like to mention Chris Nedeea, Mircea Laslo, Radu Câmpeanu. Then it comes the ones in charge with the account- Mircea Macarie, Maria Nicola , Ioana Farcas, mister Ranin and all the people behind the scenes, who were never mentioned.
Besides that, we had some excelent media partners and I would like to thank them all, because a media partnership is a part of the festival and without it, you will not succeed it. Of course, there are rumours too, but I don’t mind them, I just do my own thing.

Oficial Media: We were here for the love of the theatre. There are extraordinary things that you do and maybe they don’t seem like it now, but they will 2-3 years from now.
Liviu Cheloiu: Exactly. You know, you are not far from the truth, because all that we are doing is our pleasure and I hope that the impact will be higher as time passes. In what concerns my co-workers, the impact can be seen already, they are more involved in this festival and I hope that this can be seen in the number of the public.
Here with us, we have a special guest from Germany, Dieter Topp, a journalist from Cologne, President of Cultural Forum from Europe (KultuForum) and director at PPS Presse Sevice, a german press agency. Since 2007 he has been writing about the cultural and social aspects of Romania and he takes positive images from our country and promote them in the West European countries. He has a vast experience in international festivals. He makes connections between them and he helped us a lot by being our special guest. He will come the next year, too, because we already made some connections to create a visible image of Târgoviște in the world, to hear from this city a lot more.

Dieter Topp: I would like to thank you very much for your invitation to this festival, I am a german journalist who creates connections between international festivals and I think that this is the best way to connect various cultures and to promote them in the whole world.
Thank you again for your invitation and I hope that for you is a good thing promoting the information about this festival. Last year I heard for the first time of Babel Festival, and this year I was really happy to honor your invitation. I saw good and very good performances, both in the theatre and outside, like the open space in front of the City Hall. I felt great in a pleasant environment, the festival created such an extraordinary atmosphere. The only thing I missed in this festival was the presence of more special guests from other organisations (international festivals) in order to popularize the event worldwide.
One thing characteristic of this festival is to have very special things, there was a diversification of shows and events and in this regards I have seen many performances based on stage movements, contemporary dance , all in an international trend. I, also, enjoyed in this festival the presence of the independent theatre which you do not see it everywhere in Romania and I believe that it should be very well supported by the likewise intitutions in Romania.

Liviu Cheloiu: Dieter already wrote about the performances that we brought from outside, but I would like him to talk about the performances of the host theatre, especialy about the Balcanicele, directed by Alexander Hausvater and excellent played by our actors. He would feel very sorry if the show would not be present at the Bucuresti National Theatre Festival. Dieter saw many performances well played by the independent theatres from Romania which he will promote for this kind of international festivals and he told me earlier, that in 2005-2006 when he came for the first time in Romania, he asked where was the young generation of theatre, why nothing was happening with these young people and from then he started to develop stronger the idea of an independent theatre, but in his opinion, this is not enough, there should be much more of this kind.
I thank you very much for your invitation and I will do my best to promote any information about the Babel Festival of Targoviste. I believe that the foreign guests were very attracted to this festival, but also the citizens of this city should come and support it in a large number.

Oficial Media: We would like to thank Deter on the behalf of Târgoviște, because we love the city and we really appreciate all thatis done by his pressence here.
Dieter Topp: Is very hard to organize an event like this one, without the press. With the press is a lot better, because you can bring the attention of all people, even the attention of the Government and local autorities, that through such a festival you can promote a city in the world, in your case Târgoviște.

Oficial Media: Liviu, going back to you, we talked about the organisation and your contribution in Babel Festival, in bringing some bands here, but beyond that, you were the protagonist in Satierikon, in a masterely role in Balcanicele, how did you manage to pass from organising a festival to entering the stage interpretation of a character?
Liviu Cheloiu: I would say that it is a secret, but it is not, I love what I do and when you love it, these are the results. And I also had a role in Fundulea’s Dream which should not have been played on the festival, but it happened to come back on the stage. It was a successful representation that lasted more than usual, but we did our best for the guests to feel good.

Oficial Media: Our opinion, the ones who were at the previous edition every day, is that it has clearly been an evolution from last year, not only in interest, but also in organization.
Liviu Cheloiu: I agree with you, but let’s not forget that the last year the show lasted a week, even five days, while this years the show went for 12 days. The interest for this theatre and for the festival should be higher from the people. I, at least, was a bit disappointed with what happened at the scene in front of the City Hall, because I brought some famous bands and they could have enjoyed quality music. We did our best, in order that each person to feel good. There were about 3000 tickets sold out, so that means a higher interest for the theatre. Let’s not forget the volunteers, we are very glad to have them in such a big number- 160 people. They will be the next audience of Tony Bulandra Theatre of Târgoviste.

Cristi Iordache & Oana Grigore

Picture operator:

Andrei Constantinescu

Eusebiu Barbu

Editor: Anca Dinu

Translator: Roxana Iordache

Oficial Media

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