The JANUS Festival of Autobiographical Theatre, hosted in Romania, was an innovative celebration that showcased the transformative power of personal narratives in theatre. This festival was a pivotal event for the JANUS project, bringing together participants from various regions to perform their autobiographical theatrical pieces. It offered a space for vulnerable young people to express their stories, challenges, and triumphs through a creative and therapeutic lens. The festival did not only highlight individual stories but also fostered a deeper understanding and appreciation of mental health issues among the audience. By integrating performances, and interactive discussions, the festival aimed to reduce stigma, promote social inclusion, and encourage dialogue about mental health and resilience in a supportive community setting. This event was a culmination of the project’s efforts to use theatre as a means of empowerment and healing, making a significant impact on participants and spectators alike.

 

June 2nd 2025

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BREAKING THE SILENCE

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On stage, six characters unfold a history that has shaped their path, a history that could well be your own. Word by word, they dismantle the myth of happy adolescence, revealing what often remains hidden in silence: the paralysing anxiety, the brutal pressure to conform, feigning joy when everything crumbles within, the unnamed violence, the panic of others' judgment, wanting to be heard without anyone attempting to fix your life.

Each experience is deeply personal, yet it resonates in the voices of the others. Through intimate objects, everyday gestures, light, and shadow, the stage transforms into a safe space where what burns within can finally be articulated.

In the end, they look at you and ask: what will you do with what you keep silent?

This is testimonial theatre where the narrative does not seek to instruct, but rather to stir.

CAST:

Marieta Ujica - Actor 1 

Anisia Chivu - Actor 2 

Alexandra Beianu - Actor 3 

Maia Stefania Șoș - Actor 4

 Sergiu Borz - Actor 5 

Miruna Truță - Actor 6

Directed by Erika Domokos

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What started as an experiment in the art of storytelling turned into an emotional and deeply creative experience for everyone involved. The play "Breaking the Silence" is the result of the lived stories of these six young people, later enriched with the particularities of theatre. Sharing personal stories in such a vulnerable way was something entirely new. In this phase, we used simple but effective activities to relax their minds and bodies. Exercises such as mindful breathing, group movement games, and even silent eye contact taught them to feel safe. Step by step, we observed how their initial hesitations began to fade. By the end of this stage, they were smiling, laughing and, most importantly, starting to trust in this Process and one another.

Watching them bring their stories to life on stage was an unforgettable experience, both for the participants and for us. We wanted the play to be as authentic as the participants themselves. Thanks to their contributions, we created an atmosphere that reflected the personal and authentic nature of their narratives.

Connecting with the audience is, for the participants, a validation of their stories, while audience members shared how deeply moved they were or how they felt at certain moments. The six young people from the Papiu Theater Club reminded everyone that stories have the power to inspire beyond any stage. They create sound waves, connecting people in ways we can't always predict. The spread and success among the audience are entirely thanks to these six young people, aged 16 and 17.

It is worth highlighting the prominent role of the artistic director Erika Domokos, an artist from the National Theatre, and the contribution of the Professional Foundation represented by Angela Cotoară, who organized this event.

By Angela Cotoară

 

June 3rd 2025

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BIRTHDAY PARTY - collective creation

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Cast: Ilinca Bălcescu, Adrian Murariu, David Nichita, Alexandru Nicoară, Verona Obreja, Luca Suci, Raluca Troncotă.

Coordinator: prof. Laurențiu Blaga

Târgu-Mureș National Art College - Acting Department

 

BIRTHDAY PARTY is the result of a devised theatre laboratory developed during the period of February - May 2025 as part of the acting art classes with the participation of students of the XI class (Târgu-Mureș National Art College). Using elements of autobiographical theater, the students questioned the importance of the birthday in everyone's life through a nostalgic incursion into the past but living the present with a look into the future.

 

June 4th 2025

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PERSONA

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ShipCon - Cyprus

The Adolescent Transformation a dance piece about turbulent female puberty. A choreography of changes, hormones, validations, loves, losses. A gaze into the chaos and beauty of growing up.

During puberty, your female body shifts without warning. While prey to hormones, you feel how they upheave every cell, producing surges of estrogen and progesterone, triggering a transformation: breasts develop (thelarche), pubic and underarm hair appears, hips widen, your first menstruation arrives (menarche). You either shoot up or remain hobbit-sized. All this unfolds with a brain still evolving.

Psychological and emotional shifts provoke irritability, sadness, or sudden euphoria. Body insecurity stalks the physical changes. One morning you wake euphoric; two hours later, tears fall because someone glanced at you wrong. Self-esteem sways wildly, and every comment feels definitive.

Some girls grapple with polycystic ovary syndrome: androgen excess, irregular periods, acne. Others face precocious or delayed puberty. Each of us wrestles with unpredictable mood swings on that emotional rollercoaster, neurotransmitters soaring and plummeting uncontrollably

Hypersexualization and overexposure on social media breed a brutal paradox: you’re expected to show yourself, but if you do it “too much,” you’re condemned. Your body becomes “normative” or “hegemonic,” embodying dominant cultural standards of beauty—often narrow and exclusionary. “Desirability” slips into “objectified body,” making you a consumable object, especially for the male gaze. That damned song from girl to woman. Show yourself, and you get labeled; don’t, and you vanish.

Amid the sexualized and decontextualized fragments of your identity lie first loves, jealousy, breakups, the loss of childhood friendships, the fear of exclusion... first disappointments, peer pressure. All while trying to get good grades, choose a career, sometimes even working for money just to “fit in.” Experimentation unfolds: with alcohol, drugs, first nights away from home, and travels.

At home, your parents wrestle with their own chaos: divorces, money struggles, or simply not knowing what to do with you. Perhaps they never spoke about sexuality—shame or culture held their tongues. Rebellion emerges as survival, a way to say, “I’m beginning to be myself.” You change style every month, shift urban tribes, confront teachers and parents. You seek an authentic version while everyone expects the model daughter, perfect student, ideal friend.

Some develop eating disorders seeking control. Others fall into anxiety or depression. Many feel lost in a spiral. Moments of beauty and days you want to die.

Here, five dancers have forged something extraordinary: transforming that jumble of hormones, changes, and experiences into movement... into choreography that fiercely unleashes our nature.

For the girls in the audience, we hope it tears out truth. They understand their experiences matter, that their story deserves to be told, and what happens to them is genuine—and happens to all of us. For the boys, to feel a world they misunderstand. To understand that friend whose moods shift, that sister who cries, that girlfriend who is more than a whim. For adults, a reminder that female adolescence demands real respect and support. That behind every “teenage drama” lies an epic transformation.

We have all been that girl, lost between two worlds, trying to decipher who we are while the world dictates who we should be. Seeing it through dance, with rhythm and beauty, liberates those years where everything seemed life or death. Because it was.

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CAST:

Choreography by Melina Nicolaidou 

Marieleni Demosthenous

Paola Sawidou

Melina Ioannidou

Irene Leondiou

 

June 5th 2025

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SHARDS OF LIGHT

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CAST:

Bianca Baciu,

Constantin Bucătaru,

Ștefania Burdușa,

Adriana Burlacu, 

Maria Constantin, 

Alexandru Cruceru, 

Irisz Kovacs, 

Timea Moga, 

Mihai Rădoi, 

Raisa Simionov, 

Bogdan Țenț, 

Ariana Vintilă, 

Polya Zubati

Concept and choreography – Cristina Iușan (Olar)

Project coordinator – Lia Codrina Conțiu

Video design – Paul Beică

Photo credit – Raul Blaga

Poster design – Alexandra Conțiu

Lighting – Vlad Grecu

Lighting Technician – Szász Endre

Sound Technician – Strete Claudiu

Props Technician – László József

Stagehand – Birta Ladislau

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From the very beginning, our work was rooted in personal truth. Through a series of workshops, we created a safe space for vulnerability—where performers could step beyond the surface, listen to their inner voices, and let those voices shape movement. The process was not just about crafting a performance but about revealing what lies beneath: fragments of life, often unspoken, that needed form and release.

Improvisation became our language. With each session, we dove deeper—into the tension between the physical and the emotional, between presence and absence, silence and expression. We explored how the body carries memory, how gestures can become testimony, how breath can hold meaning when words are no longer enough.

Choreographic moments emerged gradually, born from individual experiences that we translated into movement. These pieces—intimate, raw, and sometimes fragile—were shaped and reshaped, like shards of glass reflecting different shades of the self. Slowly, they began to connect, like a mosaic of stories waiting to be told. This is a piece about embracing vulnerability, about finding strength in fragility, and about the slow, determined act of rebuilding balance—even in life’s darkest seasons. Multimedia elements are used throughout, deepening the emotional landscape and drawing the audience closer.

Shards of Light is a performance that speaks through the body—through silence, breath, and movement. Built from deeply introspective moments, it unfolds as a living journal of an inner odyssey. Where words fall short, the body finds its voice.

The themes explored—loneliness, despair, confronting the self and the past—intertwine with memories of childhood, dissimulation, fear, and a restless search for meaning. We meet inner demons, painful silences, invisible fears, and emptiness that aches. We look for answers in the tremble of the body, in pauses, in the faltering rhythm of a heart learning to beat again.

Through therapy, memory, and the courage to face oneself, a fragile but meaningful return to the self becomes possible—a quiet, luminous journey back to light.

The 13 actor-performers take the stage to share a visceral struggle with absence, trauma, and anxiety—a collective confession about the power of vulnerability and the possibility of change. Above all, though, this is a performance about hope. About the courage it takes to look into a fractured mirror and say, “I’m still here.”

Shards of Light doesn’t offer clear-cut answers, but instead opens a space for reflection, empathy, and recognition. It invites the viewer to face their own shadows—and to know they are not alone.

Choreographer: Cristina Olar (Iușan)