I am a Romanian-born playwright and ARTivist with Balkan and Roma roots. I spent my formative years during Ceausescu’s dictatorship and I worked as a journalist after the fall of the Iron Curtain. I published my first collections of poetry in Romania in mid-late 90s (Love on Barbed Wire, Advice for Housewives and Muses, The Outcast), and I wrote my first play in English in Germany, as a fellow of the Ruhr International Theatre Academy, mentored by David Harrower and Phyllis Nagy. My first produced text was the dramatic poem Outcast, in Paris, at Théâtre Gérard Philipe de Saint-Denis. In 2000, in Romania, my first full-length play Inflatable Apocalypse won The Best Play of the Year UNITER (Theatre Guild) Award.
I came to the US two weeks before 9/11, as a Fulbright fellow, and I chose to get enrolled full-time at NYU’s Tisch School of the Arts, instead of just being a visiting artist. I always feel that’s so much more to learn. I hold an MA in Performance Studies and an MFA in Dramatic Writing (John Golden Award for Playwriting, shared with Rajiv Joseph), and a PhD in Theatre from the National University of Theatre&Film in Bucharest.
Between 2004-2012, I taught part-time in NYU’s Drama Department and at Primary Stages – Einhorn School of Performing Arts. I currently teach Playwriting and Contemporary Theatre at Ithaca College.
At this point I am used with the inbetweeness of my NYC-Ithaca or NYC-Bucharest life: two languages, two countries, two continents, two cities…
I am a global foreigner addicted to New York. An alien with (extra)ordinary skills. A single woman playwright who supports herself and her dreams.
My creative work revolves around topics of immigration, identity, 'otherness', oppression, displacement, and resilience.
Un/documented immigrants often experience the fear of not belonging, of being THE OTHER - a stranger, a foreigner with a funny accent, an alien who 'doesn't deserve' to be in the USA. The American Dream can turn into a nightmare at any given moment. My plays Waxing West, Ants, Useless, Lenin's Shoe, Hurt, Toys, Bechnya, Aliens With Extraordinary Skills are all exploring stories of hardships and immigration with a certain degree of humor.
Paraphrasing George Bernard Shaw: If you are to tell people the truth, you better make them laugh, otherwise they’ll kill you. I believe in serious stories told with playfulness and humor, so the truth gets to the audiences with an emotional 'punch' wrapped in a smile. There is a folkloric saying in Romania – “one eye cries, one eye laughs”. This is the response that I imagine my plays induce in audiences.
I do my best work when I am a valued part of a community of inspiring and supportive theatre professionals. Lark Play Development Center and Women’s Project have been my main creative homes, where my favorite plays got born: Waxing West (2007 New York Innovative Theatre Award for Outstanding Script), Lenin’s Shoe, and Aliens With Extraordinary Skills. New York Theatre Workshop and EST have also been very helpful. I need a theatrical home that nurtures my work and pushes my limits in an environment that’s supportive and friendly, yet rigorous and constructive.
Thank you for reading this statement!