Artistic director

Date and place of birth: 15.12.1950

Studies: Institute of Theatre and Cinematography "ILCaragiale" Bucharest, acting department (class of Prof. Radu Penciulescu) and directing (class of Prof. Octavian Cotescu), 1975

Actor and director, director of the Satu-Mare North Theatre and the Târgu Mureş National Theatre, Cristian Ioan directed the Oradea Theatre for a year, combining two management positions: an experiment, a premiere for Romanian theatre, which would perhaps have borne fruit if the authorities had provided him with a house to live in. The director staged both comedies and dramas in the theatres he directed, but also in others, as a guest. His performance of the difficult play “A Princely Celebration” by Theodor Mazilu was unanimously appreciated by the specialist press. With a keen sense of humour, he began to stage – well! – comedies, and was soon billed as a “comedy director”. As he himself admits, staging a comedy is much more difficult than a drama.

At the State Theatre in Oradea, he staged, in his own adaptation, Mattiuzzi's comedy "Three Venetian Twins", in which actor Daniel Vulcu - one of the director's favorite actors - received much applause, playing the three characters... twins with humor. He then staged "The Holiday Trilogy", a show produced in collaboration with the Northern Theatre in Satu-Mare. An original and ambitious project. In a colorful and functional setting, created by the eminent Dan Jitianu, Cristian Ioan put on a lively, engaging show, to the taste of the audience. There were quite a few moments - writes Dumitru Chirilă - in which "the machinery designed by director Cristian Ioan operates at maximum speed". A follower of "image theatre" - and also the initiator of the "Image Theatre" Festival in Satu-Mare, Cristian Ioan signed a show with special images in Oradea: "Trial for the Shadow of a Donkey" (1997). In the set, also designed by him, the director staged, in a spectacular new version, Dürrenmatt's complex play, staged in 1995 in Braşov. The exceptional, "fabulous" costumes, designed by Doina Antemir, also contributed to creating the show's particularly attractive image. The chronicler Dumitru Chirilă appreciated the director's successful attempt to "uninhibit" the troupe, emphasizing the success, in the not-so-easy role of the donkey, of the wonderful actor Nicolae Toma.

(Presentation by Elisabeta Pop)

Artistic sheet – Oradea State Theatre

• Stage adaptation and artistic direction of THREE VENETIAN TWINS by Antonio Mattiuzzi aka Collalto, 1993
• Stage adaptation and artistic direction of ARRIVEDERCI, LIVORNO (THE HOLIDAY TRILOGY) by Carlo Goldoni, 1994
• Art direction and set design for THE TRIAL FOR A DONKEY'S SHADOW by Friedrich Dürrenmatt, 1997
• Artistic direction for COMEDY IN THE DARK by Peter Shaffer, 2008