Artistic director Caciuleanu says HOP Gala is about motion

The 22nd edition of the HOP Young Actor's Gala kicked off at the Constanta State Theatre House on Monday evening, with 48 young graduates of Romania's performing schools competing for the best actor title. HOP Gala artistic director Gigi Caciuleanu told the opening of the event that he wanted this year's edition "to be dedicated to motion." "I wanted this gala to be dedicated to motion, but not to any motion, not to any kind of motion, but to motion arising from talent and thinking, from thinking and talent, not serving as ornament or entertainment in a stage play, but having a self-contained value, a motion as elaborate as is required of a theatrical text, a musical composition, a painting, a sculpture, a film. The so-called natural motion, inborn and/or intuitive, not taken in its raw state, but processed, passed through the sieve of metaphorical thinking, in other words translated into a dancing movement language," said Caciuleanu. He added that the stars of the gala will be the competitors, and the strengths of the evenings will be the performances of each one of them. "Without their talent and skills, step by step, I do not think it would have been possible for us to try and propose the theme so clearly and resolvedly today, this theme of the dancer and dance theatre. The dance act, associated with the magic of the theatre, the choreography as a form of mise-en-scene, the courage to propose to the public plays written and performed differently than just by word and gestures," said Caciuleanu. The theme of the 22nd edition of the HOP Gala is "Dance theatre. Dance actor as a phenomenon of the current theatre." In a June preselection, a jury consisting of Oana Cristea Grigorescu (cultural journalist), Florin Fieroriu (choreographer), Lari Giorgescu (actor), Oana Leahu (director) and Gabi Lupu (cultural journalist) chose for the final in Constanta 48 young actors in the "Individual" and "Group" sections. The HOP Gala participants will compete for the Stefan Iordache Prize - the Grand Prize of the HOP Young Actor's Gala; the prize for the best actor and the prize for the best actress - in the "Individual" section, the Cornel Todea Award (the prize for the best company) and the Sica Alexandrescu Award (the special prize of the jury). The 1/10 FILM at TIFF Award and a public prize will also be awarded. The 22nd edition of the HOP Young Actor's Gala will take place at the Constanta State Theatre House, September 2-5. Admission is free and allowed until 18:30hrs. The HOP Gala is also broadcast live on the www.galahop.uniter.ro website, and on the Facebook page of the gala. The HOP Young Actor's Gala is a project of UNITER - National Union of Romanian Theatres - that supports the debut of young artists, providing opportunities for professional training and future collaborations. AGERPRES (RO - author: Petronius Craiu, editor: Oana Popescu; EN - author: Corneliu-Aurelian Colceriu, editor: Adina Panaitescu)