Theatre Director
A theatre director working between the Romanian and the German-speaking stage. Head of the German Section at the Radu Stanca National Theatre in Sibiu.
Photo: Alexandru Cîrneală
“I want to feel more than I want to understand.”
I was born in 1989 in Mediaș and grew up in Biertan, a Saxon village in Transylvania. My first stage was an abandoned barn, where my friends and I hung thick, dusty blankets on a rope and called it a curtain.
I studied acting at UNATC “I.L. Caragiale” in Bucharest and performed at the National Theatre Bucharest during those years. Then I moved to Germany for a master's degree in directing at the Athanor Akademie, under David Esrig. The fears and insecurities that had followed me as an actress turned, in directing, into a creative engine.
I went on to assist Herbert Fritsch at the Volksbühne Berlin and the Schauspielhaus Zürich, and from 2017 to 2019 I was an assistant director at the Schaubühne Berlin, working alongside international directors. Since 2020 I have been directing my own productions in Germany, Switzerland and Romania.
I teach at the West University of Timișoara, and since 2025 I have led the German Section of the Radu Stanca National Theatre in Sibiu.
Selected work
by Sasha Marianna Salzmann
Three women, three generations, one family, and a mother tongue that turns out to be a lifelong foreign language of love. A sharp-tongued play and a homage to Jewish humour.
Main Prize, 12th Sächsisches Theatertreffen, Leipzig 2024
after Johanna Spyri · stage version by Thomas Birkmeir
A playful adaptation of the classic children's novel: orphaned Heidi has to warm the heart of her gruff grandfather and convince him to let her stay. A story about friendship, family and what “home” means.
World premiere · devised by Petra Rațiu and Stephan Bestier
Welcome to the school of laughter. A clown, a dancer and the children of the Freiberg theatre club in a fast, poetic and absurdly comic journey about power, failure and the laughter that wins in the end. Created for Chemnitz, European Capital of Culture 2025.
A crime comedy by Robert Thomas
An idyllic family gathering, a dead man with a knife in his back, a cut telephone line and a locked gate. Eight women, and one of them did it. Robert Thomas' crime comedy, made famous by François Ozon's film, as a family reunion that escalates into the grotesque.
Dance short film · co-directed with Johan Planefeldt
A six-minute dance film exploring love from a multidimensional perspective. If love is a frequency, how can we surrender to its magic?
by Sasha Marianna Salzmann · stage version with Hakan Savaş Mican
A reading performance of Sasha Marianna Salzmann's multi-award-winning novel in its stage version, presented in Romanian translation at the Sibiu International Theatre Festival with actors of the Radu Stanca National Theatre.
oder Warum Prinz Heinrich die Sphinx versetzt · by and with AnniKa von Trier
A reading performance with accordion and song by the Berlin artist AnniKa von Trier, staged at the original locations: the Sphinx staircase in the pleasure garden and the Hall of Mirrors of Rheinsberg Palace. Why did Prince Heinrich have the sphinxes moved?
by Harold Pinter
Harold Pinter's “The Lover”, worked on with the second and third year students of the German-language acting class in Timișoara.
Performance and interactive installation
A performance and interactive installation created with the actress Anastasiia Starodubova, with the voice of Iulia Grigoriu, shown at Galeria Fantom in Berlin.
freely after Ivan Vyrypaev's “Oxygen”
The perfect rush of being alive, the release from all rules and constraints: Vyrypaev's cult text about a modern couple and the Ten Commandments, staged with three puppeteers, choreography, live video and music.
by David Ives, after Leopold von Sacher-Masoch
An early production from the Athanor years: David Ives' two-hander about an audition that turns into a game of power. Where does the line run between the actor and the role?
Path
Radu Stanca National Theatre, Sibiu
West University of Timișoara, working with the German-language acting students
Co-organised the international young theatre festival at Teatrul Excelsior, Bucharest, with Vlad Cristache and Andrei Marinescu
Productions in Germany, Switzerland and Romania
Schaubühne am Lehniner Platz, Berlin
Volksbühne Berlin and Schauspielhaus Zürich
Athanor Akademie, Germany, under David Esrig
UNATC “I.L. Caragiale” Bucharest, with appearances at the National Theatre Bucharest
Sibiu · Hermannstadt
Since 2025 I have led the German Section of the Radu Stanca National Theatre: an ensemble of thirteen, playing in German in a city where the language has centuries of history.
I keep directing while running the section, and I do not think the two roles exclude each other. I want long-term partnerships with German-speaking theatres, a wide range of directorial voices on our stage, and more work with schools and rural communities.
Our 2026/27 season opened with “Alice”, directed by Ștefan Lupu, and continues with “Das Urteil”, a co-production with the Staatstheater Cottbus directed by Timofey Kulyabin and funded by the German Federal Cultural Foundation.
Radu Stanca National Theatre“Theatre is perhaps one of the most beautiful places for this, because here language is not only spoken, it is lived.”
Press
Contact
Radu Stanca National Theatre · German Section
Sibiu, Romania
