#Interview. Adriana Teodorescu, manager of „Colibri” Theatre: „Puppets Occupy Street, an ambassador for Craiova and Dolj”

#Interview. Adriana Teodorescu, manager of „Colibri” Theatre: „Puppets Occupy Street, an ambassador for Craiova and Dolj”


Every year, at the end of August, Craiova vibrates with energy and authentic joy. Puppets Occupy Street, present in the heart of the city since 2014, managed to gather, to the pandemic edition last year, 10.000 spectators. In an interview given to Discover Dolj, the manager of the „Colibri” Theatre for Children and Youths, Adriana Teodorescu, explained why Puppets Occupy Street is one of the best ambassadors of the county, talked about the warm community of the people in Craiova, and also about this year’s edition, Dystopia.

Why this title, Dystopia, for this year’s edition?

I think we’re all living a dystopia and I think that this edition is somewhat of an exorcism, because what we have all been living since last year threw us in a dystopia. We don’t know it all the time because we are stuck in life’s little nothings and this daily reality makes us rougher but, I wonder, from dystopia could we not go towards utopia, towards joy, towards fantasy? I think you have to go through this purgatory that we’re all in now.

Is this pandemic a purgatory for the „Colibri” Theatre?

It is for the entire theatre in Romania and especially for us because, it is very true, the artists need their public, no matter what kind of art they’re making. Talking about us, where the public is made mostly of children – which are, for me, the supreme beings -, they make us miss the stage more and the most natural connections with them. And there is drama, everywhere. The public made of children is a special one, honestly, and their reactions to the shows are vigor for the actors and creators. Going back to the dystopia, I think we all need this purgatory for our own health.

How many and what theatre band will come this year to Dystopia? Will it be a national or an international edition?

There are over 100 applications as we speak, and the edition will be split in sections. We have made the applications international, like we did in 2020. If we will have so much bad luck that we will host a national edition, we will do it, although I think that the 2020 edition was a successful one in the given pandemic conditions. Anyway, everybody got scared then we stated that we will indeed host the 2020 edition, truly speaking, with the major lacks that the spectators felt, and I am referring to the two giant puppets parades that are the point of attraction of the festival. This doesn’t mean that the shows, concerts or workshops didn’t have the same success or popularity like they did in the former years. It was very hard for us, as a team, a very small team, to organize this edition, but it was all about our ambition to demonstrate that we can do it. Not because of arrogance, but because of ambition. It was our answer to all the confusion and depression caused by the pandemic. We could demonstrate that, if you want to organize an event in the limits of the law, you can make it pleasant and unforgettable and in maximum safety conditions. It doesn’t matter anymore that my colleagues had their hands wounded from their gloves at 30 degrees Celsius, as the weather was last year. That didn’t matter anymore. This year, we are also ready for the both alternatives, international and national. I don’t think that we will go as high as we did in 2019, because the context doesn’t allow us, but I think that with the experience gathered last year, it will be easier for us this time. I think the people wait for the festival to happen.

As we also wrote, that it would be strange for the people that the festival would not take place, exactly in that well-known time.

In 2020, as I said, we couldn’t have the parades and I heard people saying that the festival is nothing without them. This affirmation hurt me a lot. But to say the truth, the parades are the easiest part. The events inside the festival are not just the parades, but all that happens during the six days that make, together, the meat of the festival, its content. Last year, when we decided we will go on without the parades, there were still people waiting, in the evening of 25th of august, near McDonald, the point in which the parades usually happened. This is very encouraging for us and because of the pandemic, last year we had many applications from Romanian theatre groups. 

How many people, from the theatre and volunteers, put together Puppets Occupy Street every year?

We are 28 people, and the volunteers have varied between 20 and 40, but they are selected attentively. They leave the boat sometimes, because they have to respect some rules, which mean seriousness, loyalty, punctuality, dedication. When we are weak at some of these chapters, we’d rather have less people, but people we can really count on. What I enjoyed most regarding the volunteers is that they all want to participate to the next edition and I got encouraged by the road we started on with the youngest of them. Even after they surpassed the age of volunteering, they still came to us to ask that they can do for the festival. From all this team, I cannot exclude the people of the institutions of Craiova, whatever the administration is, which are more that into this with us, the press and all the institutions that have a well-defined role in this. A gentleman, a driver from an institution who helps us very much with the transportation of the puppets, was so proud that he is driving that vehicle that he was on the point of managing the street. Not that the Local Police and the Constabulary, our guardian angels, weren’t there. That is why I am saying that the festival belongs to the community. He is managed by the theatre and financed by the local authority, but it is indeed the festival of the community. We give back what we receive from it, in the best way that we can. And we can make something beautiful of this city, getting together in this way, through this festival, and a proof of that is the fact that, in 2019, there were over 50.000 participants at the festival, and last year, with all the pandemic, there were about 10.000.

Because we are talking on Discover Dolj, I want to ask you what does Puppets Occupy Street means for the local tourism, or what it has meant, let’s say, until 2019 inclusively.

We have started in 2014 like this, starting from undoubtable data: Craiova is not a touristic city, for no reason at all. You have no reason to come to Craiova as a tourist. Sure, you can have a city break, go to the museum, to the theatre, although the cultural scene is closed in summer. But, again, why come here? What can we do, how can we bring people here? And then we said that we need a big event. And that’s how the idea of the festival came up. The word spread rapidly and the tourists started coming since 2015, 2016, timidly, but they have started coming. We know where we find ourselves and we cannot compare to the festival in Sibiu, for example, but I wouldn’t bow my head in front of Sibiu, just in this context. It is very true that Dolj is a county with a quelque chose of its own, as all counties have, but we’ve got an advantage, we have the Danube, the old defense towers, we have Craiova, Segarcea, Calafat. There are beautiful places. My always reoccurring dream was – I continue to believe and try – to make this festival visible at the level of the county. Either to bring children from other villages in Craiova, because they are the future, to accommodate them here, so that they can assist the workshops, visit the city and see the shows in the evening. And then, the bus can take them home safely and half asleep. At least one day. That is, if we cannot give them a night here, like on a road trip. That’s what I would love to do. I’ve had the experience of some children’s visits from some villages – some of them hadn’t gotten out of their birthplace and they were like 12 or 13 years old – which came to the theatre and told me that they didn’t think that stories really exist. I thought it was the most beautiful compliment. I’ve had also experiences with people from Dolj, but also from Olt, that came especially to the festival. I think we are obliged to try to go to them in exchange. It is very hard, but not impossible. We’ve always tried to give breaks between the events inside Puppets Occupy Street so that the children and artists alike have time to visit the city. Craiova is one of the top cities with the oldest buildings standing up and renovated. And it is also a beautiful city through its community: we’ve had moments in which the people brought us blankets, donuts, fruit for the technical teams, for the artists. This is the spirit of the community and this is the community, and the festival can be a great promotion agent and an ambassador for Craiova and for Dolj.

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