Iasi inspires you!, a ZF project supported by Banca Transilvania. Christian…

♦ What the director of the National Theater in Iasi, a director at the base, notices is the presence of a large number of young people, many of them students, especially since the city is recognized as a university city.

Attractive, quality shows that attract the public is what must be brought before the spectators in the big cities, so that young people become more and more willing to enter the theaters, believes Cristian Hadji-Culea, the general director of the National Theatre. Iasi.

“Slowly, in the last ten years, the public has returned forcefully to the four halls of the National Theater in Iasi. What makes me happy is that a good part of the audience is young. It all depends on the quality of the performances. We have an audience not only from Iasi, but also from other parts of Moldova, from the Republic of Moldova or even from abroad. About 80% of the public is still local. Iasi is eager for culture”, said Cristian Hadji-Culea on the online show ZF Iasi inspires you!. He came to manage the theater in 2006, at a time when the building had just been closed for renovation. The process took a long time until the construction works started, then in two years they were finished, he recalls.

“Since the theater was rebuilt, from an occupancy rate of 50% in the best case, we ended up having shows with the house closed and last year we even doubled our own income, which shows a large affluence of the public. We reached almost 2 million lei.”

In Iaşi, another important cultural institution is that of the opera, which also operates within the Iaşi National Theatre. The Ministry of Culture plans to build a new performance hall, from scratch, for which the land has already been identified and transferred to the public domain, and the tender for the design will begin. The chosen place is in the Copou area, an emblematic park for the capital of Moldova.

“Iasi also has the Luceafărul Theater and the Athenaeum, which also host theater performances. Unfortunately, the independent theater did not develop as much as in other cities, such as Cluj-Napoca or Bucharest. We make available one of our halls, Uzina de teatru, for such performances, but it is still a deficient area in Iasi.”

What the director of the National Theater in Iaşi, director at the base, notices is the presence of a large number of young people, many of them students, especially since the city is recognized as a university city.

“Our smaller venues show us more clearly which audiences are interested in which type of shows, so we can create shows targeted to certain types of audiences. About 50% of the audience is made up of young people.”

In the theater, increasing the value of the performances, the audience’s appetite also increased, because people find out and want to come to see, and the audience grows and comes if they have something to receive.

“The land is still thirsty in Romania and cultural rains can still swallow a lot. There will always be room for culture, as long as we know how to sell it. Everything also comes from education.”

Until the end of June, when the season ends, the Iasi National Theater will stage five premieres, being in a stage close to overproduction, so more shows cannot be scheduled.