Ovidiu Mihăiță: The street is much more alive and true when it comes to the public-show relationship
When it comes to determination, Ovidiu Mihăiță is not motivated by anything stronger than the desire to make a show or the attraction for a certain theme. He wants to tell stories that will give you the opportunity for new discoveries. This also attracted him to the Romanian fairy tale Youth Everlasting & Life Without End. He says he likes street shows more than indoor ones. The street is much more alive and true when it comes to the public-show relationship, he says.
Ovidiu hopes that the show will be successful, because it is relevant, as a theme and in the current context. We experienced a lot of death this year and half and that’s what the end of the fairy tale is about. It would be nice to have relevance at national level, but also at international level in 2023, because it is the product of a fairly large team of independent artists who are a voice in the city.
Ovidiu is a theater director, actor and musician, co-founder of the independent theater Auăleu (the smallest theater in Romania) and founder of the Museum of the Communist Consumer, both of which can be seen at the Scârț Loc Lejer coffee house based in Timisoara. Ovidiu is also the president of the Romanian Independent Theaters Association and founder of Smanes Records. He got a BA in theater and performing arts at the West University of Timisoara, Faculty of Music and Performing Arts. Between 2018-2019, Ovidiu directed the large-scale performances Light of Freedom and Light of Unity, co-produced by Timisoara 2023 – European Capital of Culture. He will direct the Everlasting Youth & Life Without End show, as the Centriphery Romania final presentation, which will take place between July 23-25, 2021, in Liberty Square, Timisoara.
Conny Zenk: I feel very happy that I had the opportunity to be part of this project, to experience the life of the city, art, culture and music in Timisoara
Conny Zenk is a media artist and a great lover of bicycles, which is why she decided to combine them. For many years she has been collaborating with musicians, but also with bands and performance projects. She likes to create, she likes to invite people to the events she organises and she thinks that Centriphery is a participatory project, which she was interested in from the very beginning.
She thinks that the fairy tale Everlasting Youth & Life Without End will be presented in a very different way and that it is a story related to our current global situation. So far, she says her experience in Romania has been amazing. People are so friendly. I feel very happy that I had the opportunity to be part of this project, to experience the life of the city, art, culture and music in Timișoara. Within the theater show Everlasting Youth & Life Without End, Conny will deal with the sound.
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Short interviews conducted by Anitta Pelin Photo credit: Andreea-Eva Herczegh
