The country must decide if it needs the theaters, culture or not. If the answer is positive, it should take into account the fact that the theaters, culture in general mean people of culture, artists, personalities who deliver this culture to the population, said Petru Vutcărău, founding director of the National Theater “Eugene Ionesco”.
Contacted by IPN for a comment, Petru Vutcărău said the people of culture need to be stimulated, promoted and supported. “To develop, exist, prosper and bring a benefit to society, culture should be financed to the extent of the importance society attaches to it. We can speak about a healthy cultural life in society when the decision makers realize the importance of culture for the people. I think that as a result of this pandemic, this thing became more acute, which is the need to have culture, to maintain a spiritual center through the agency of culture in society becomes absolutely necessary,” stated the director.
Petru Vutcărău insists on the financing of theaters in 2021. He said that until now the Ministry of Education, Culture and Research hasn’t obeyed the law saying that the theaters get state budget funding to cover 80% of their needs. “The national testers are financed from the salary fund. They haven’t got money for maintaining the building, for technical needs, for staging plays, for paying for public utilities during many years and we cannot speak about the development of theaters in such a situation.”
Petru Vutcărău noted that during the pandemic, the theater’s troupe produced two plays, but could not present them to the public. They are now working on the third play, a French comedy, but they don’t known when they will be able to put it on. The theater continues to work at internal level and they have rehearsals for themselves.
“Eugene Ionesco” prepared a repertoire that consists of ten old plays that will be put on again for the public and three premieres. This year the theater celebrates the 30th anniversary of its founding and therefore they produced an online theater marathon that includes all the plays from the 30-year-old repertoire of the theater. “We cannot present the plays from the current repertoire online as the spectators will not come to see them in the performance hall when we will be able to stage them live. Tickets cannot be yet sold for online plays,” explained the director.
According to him, the authorities should take into account the WHO recommendations, but should not follow them blindly. They should listen to what the people who stay inside homes say. “We can now speak about culture “under house arrest”, but this is not justified when, in parallel, the markets are open, there is crowdedness in public transport and the restaurants and bars work until 10pm. There is no logic here or there is a sick logic. Did the institution of culture become the top danger in society? The spectators come, enter the performance hall, disinfect their hands, wear masks on the nose and mouth, do not move, do not communicate with anyone during the play, stand up, applaud and leave without communicating and coming into contact with other persons, maintaining the distance. Where does the danger derive from?” asked Petru Vutcărău, saying this is injustice and the authorities should explain why the theaters pose a threat.
