Monday, March 1, 2021, 20:00 EET (GMT +02:00)
Iran
Director: Mehrdad Rayani-Makhsous / Iran
Actor: Romanița Ionescu
Episode: Day 8. Story 1
about the Director
Mehrdad Rayani-Makhsous
Mehrdad Rayani-Makhsous is a critic, playwright and director as well as a principal lecturer at Azad University, Tehran, Iran. He was educated in Manchester University, and his PhD research was Audience and Mise-en-scène: Manipulating the Performative Aesthetic.
He has directed 25 performances, and written 29 scripts so far. Mehrdad has published 18 books (theories and scripts), and has also been involved in various programs for TV and radio. He has attended ten international activities through different positions from 1997. His latest performance, called Sound and Fury, was performed in Tehran, 2018.
His previous positions and activities are: director and the head of City Theatre Complex in Tehran, the head of researching and publishing Namayes at Dramatic Art Centre of Iran, the member of selecting committee and the member of the jury committee in the various festivals (Fadjr, Sooreh, Mah, etc), publisher and director of Honar-e-Hafte (Weekly), editor of Namayesh (Monthly Magazine), editor of Iran Theater Website (www.theatre.ir), a member of board of editorial in Namayesh (magazine), getting different awards, director and a member of selecting board of some Iranian seminars (Religion and theatre, Private Theatre in Iran, National theatre, etc).
about the actor
Romanița Ionescu
Romanița Ionescu graduated from the Bucharest University of Theatre and Film (UNATC), Faculty of Theatre, class Prof. Florin Zamfirescu, in 2000, and, since then, she has been an actress at the „Marin Sorescu” National Theatre in Craiova.
Her characters – explosive combinations of sensuality and strength, emotions and precision, fragility and impetuous energy – are chameleonic, expressing a permanent search and a creative anxiety.
She surprises through her richly nuanced acting that allows her to play cleverly with the possible cliches, and to make an intense and unforgettable experience out of each of her roles.
Dr. Romanița Ionescu is teaching Acting at the University of Craiova, Arts Department, and she is in permanent contact with younger generations of artists, exchanging experiences, energies and sensitivities that influence her extremely open and creative way in which she discovers and builds her characters. A special impact is also represented by her directorial work at the Craiova National Theatre, where she staged: Crimes of the Heart by Beth Henley (2011) and Dangerous Liaisons by Choderlos de Laclos (2012).
As an actress she made her debut as Beatrice in the Gossip Carnival after Carlo Goldoni, directed by Vlad Mugur, and at present she plays in 14 performances of the current season; her most recent character is Blanche, a young woman who suffers from nosophobia (dread of contracting disease), in the comedy TOC TOC, directed by Alexandru Boureanu and Raluca Păun. Her roles in tv shows, musical clips, and especially cinema are also worth mentioning: May You Be Blessed, Prison! directed by Nicolae Margineanu (2001); The Necessary Angel, directed by Gheorghe Preda (2004) or Somewhere in Palilula, directed by Silviu Purcărete (2010).
Last autumn, Radu Afrim’s premiere of Heart and Other Meat Products by Dan Coman took place. It is her third collaboration with Radu Afrim, after her roles in his performances of If We Thought Out Loud by Adnan Lugonić and The Chocolate House by David Drábek.
Romanița Ionescu is also part of the cast in three of Bobi Pricop’s performances staged in Craiova: Illusions by Ivan Vyrypaev, Talk Radio by Eric Bogosian and The Religion Teacher (for her multiple roles in this performance she was nominated for the UNITER Prizes).
In the current season she can also be seen in: Bang! by Marius von Mayenburg, directed by Theodor Cristian Popescu; White Room by Alexandra Badea, directed by Florin Caracala; The Smell of the Kill by Michele Lowe, directed by Alexandru Boureanu; Fȇte after Molière, directed by Andreea Ciocîrlan; The Sands’ Monster by Csaba Szekely, directed by Irina Crăiță-Mândră; The Jays by Al. Kirițescu, directed by Alexandru Boureanu; The Other Country by Herta Muller, directed by Alexandru Istudor.
