Interview with Alex Fifea and David Schwartz about "You Didn't See Anything!" (Romania)
Channel: HowlRound Theatre Commons
Date: 10/12/2021

Between 2014 and 2015, Alex Fifea conducted research into the circumstances of a young man’s murder. The play analyzes and reconstructs the social processes underlying the murder. Testimonies from police officers, insights from family members, and media reports all come to life in the performance.

Trailer for You didn't see anything!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P5jBs7Mx_QQ

Writer and performer: Alex Fifea
Music: Catalin Rulea
Director: David Schwartz
Languages: Romanian, Romani
Subtitles: English

Interview by Rosamaria Kostic Cisneros.

Independent Theater Hungary, in partnership with HowlRound Theatre Commons, presented the Roma Theatre Retrospective 2021. An entirely virtual endeavor, this project featured forty livestreamed events—twenty performances and interviews, each streamed twice—from seventy Romani artists in ten countries. These livestreams enact a climate and public health-conscious approach to theatremaking and viewing. An entirely virtual endeavor, the Retrospective anticipates carbon emissions similar to flying just six artists round-trip from New York to Budapest. Simultaneously, it invites international connection and access to this unique and robust performance community.

These performances were all initially featured during four editions of the Roma Heroes International Theater Festival in Budapest, which the Independent Theater Hungary has organized annually since 2017. The Roma Heroes International Theater Festival is the only international Roma theatre encounter in the world. It aims to showcase the diversity and value of Roma theatre and to draw attention to Roma communities by focusing on the challenges of their everyday heroes.

Although Romani or Roma are the largest ethnic minority in Europe, they still experience high levels of racism and social barriers. Additionally, Roma regularly face stereotypical representation in media and culture. Stigmas like these contribute to Roma theatre being relatively unknown despite more than a century of performance history within professional theatre groups in many countries. Join us in changing that narrative, and introduce yourself to the work of Roma artists from across Europe during the 2021 Retrospective.

The 2021 Roma Theatre Retrospective was supported in part by a grant from the Trust for Mutual Understanding.

Find the entire series on HowlRound Theatre Commons:
https://howlround.com/series/roma-theatre-retrospective-2021