Text taken from LiterNet.ro

Razvan Rocas: „"Things I Know to be True" is a text that comes from a dramaturgy that is perhaps less explored in our country: Australian dramaturgy. How did you arrive at this text? What do you find most appealing from a directorial point of view?
Vlad Balan: I was familiar with Andrew Bovell's playwriting. I saw a show in Ploiești a few days ago, When will the rain stop?; it was directed by Radu Afrim. I also saw a dissertation performance based on this text and, somehow, it stuck in my mind. Initially, in our discussions with Vichi (Victoria Balint – interim manager of the Regina Maria Theatre), we had another plan; we had to make a dramatization based on a novel. It was a complicated situation with the rights and in the end I ended up making other proposals. I remembered this text and said to myself to read it – I only had the impression of the dissertation performance I had seen. I read it and I know that it struck me from the first moment, I sent it to him and said „This is what I think it is!”. It was a perfect fit: and Bobi Pricop said „Yes, I support it” immediately – he already knew the text. I had great support in this sense and it seemed appropriate to me also because I have the feeling that it is a fairly classic text, in terms of structure, at the story level. It's a text that deals with this generation gap and does so with great wisdom, without passing judgment. It seems to me that we live in a moment where we are polarizing in two directions – conservative and progressive. Usually, that's what I look for: texts that position themselves in the gray area.

RR: Thematically, the text is complex, tackling certain topics that may be challenging for a more conservative audience, with complicated character dynamics. What is the direction you specifically want to examine? What do you want to highlight through this text and these themes?
VB: I am interested in how, because of principles, ideologies, people from the same family end up arguing. We also go through disputes like this… I mean, the whole situation with the cancellation of the December elections, I know, has given rise to many conflicts in many families. I have colleagues who discovered their parents or grandparents were on the other side of the political spectrum. I have read and listened to podcasts about how we have gone through these kinds of moments of social rift. In the 90s, I know that the whole discussion was, do we vote for Iliescu or not, for or against. We have always been on this edge and what I find interesting, in fact, is that I have the feeling that this text does not take sides, but, on the contrary, creates a bridge. Fundamentally, it is a text about love, about family, about what brings us together rather than what separates us.

RR: What do you consider to have been the main challenges and difficulties in the work process, from all points of view?
VB: It's a script that relies heavily on actors and that can be a great asset, but at the same time it puts you in a position of incapacity; it actually imposes a lot of responsibility on each member of the cast and I don't think it's the kind of show where you can hide behind some artifice. It's a story that works through characters; the story develops through characters and nothing else. I mean, yes, I used various tools, but they only work to enhance certain moments, but fundamentally, I think the story can also work in the rehearsal room and that's how it should be. It's nice because, as an actor myself, I love working with actors and I think that, somewhere, that fascinated me the most about the directing process. At the same time, it imposes a lot of responsibility on the shoulders of everyone on the team. That's on the one hand. On a personal level, the idea of being away from your own family and, as it's a text about childhood, working on this show, I found myself thinking about my little girl a lot, missing her, thinking about my parents, my wife. It's very strange that you're actually working and giving examples from your own life.

RR: The show will take place at the Transilvania Hall. How essential is the space for the success of the show? Do you think the intimacy that a studio-style hall creates helps to shape a deeper connection, or a more empathetic reception from the audience?
VB: When I started going to the theater, I discovered it through studio-type halls. The first shows that touched me deeply were in studio-type halls. I think it also has to do with the moment when I discovered contemporary dramaturgy and that theater is not just that thing with period costumes, where some people talk on a stage. Personally, I am a big fan of them and, as a director, I prefer to work in such a hall, maybe because I have the feeling that the actors can act more naturalistically in a way. On the other hand, in the first days when I arrived here, we were proposed to do a show in the Great Hall and the decor would have integrated. I went, I saw both spaces. Obviously I like the Great Halls too. On the one hand, I was flattered and happy that I could work at the Great Hall, but talking to Gabi (Albu – the show's set designer) and seeing both spaces, I considered that the Great Hall would be just a setting, while the Transilvania Hall could be a world that invades you. I think the dimensions we thought of for the setting have something to do with this, that we want it to be a type of experience where you feel part of the story, not just the comfort of sitting in your chair and that's it.

RR: You are basically an actor. What attracted you to directing? How did this path begin for you? How much of your experience on stage do you bring to the director's chair? How different is Vlad Bălan the director in contrast to Vlad Bălan the actor?
VB: I think I've always had a tendency towards directing. I remember working with a high school band back in college. Thinking back now, retrospectively, I initially thought I just liked the pedagogical process, but I also liked the idea of generating a world. I still like pedagogy and it's something that attracts me, but there's a kind of repetitiveness in the pedagogical process: you have to go over the same exercises, the same dramaturgical area, and you do it over and over again with different students. When you have groups of high school students, you have some introductory games and then you take some steps. I remember that, simply, at a certain point, before the pandemic, I was very close to burnout, I was working very hard, but I felt like something was missing. The break period shaped this idea of directing a show. Back then, I just had the curiosity to explore a text from one end to the other, not just scenes with the actors and what it's like to build a universe. The fact that the show (Side Effects) was well received and was accepted into the FNT gave me a kind of confidence in myself and, in a way, was also the incentive to do it again. After that, I did another show; and there was a very nice working process. Then I met Bobi (Pricop). He came and saw a show, Risipire de la unteatru, called me and told me to do a master's in Cluj-Napoca. Gradually, I did two more shows, this being the fifth. From this point of view, more and more things are being built and it excites me that I finally have the budgets to be able to build those worlds the way I dream. Working in independent theater, you have to make do with two chairs and a table, with decor brought from home. Until now, I was used to losing money.

As for the director-actor duality, for me they are different tools. Obviously the means of analyzing a text are the same, but I like to think that when I work with a director – and I have encountered this fear of directors towards actors who direct – I try to complete the universe that he proposes to me, to integrate myself, to be a part and to help. I never try to propose something else, to give my opinion on his vision; I don't think that is my role there. I think they are simply two different things.

RR: Your artistic work takes place predominantly in Bucharest. How is this change for you, from the capital to the province, working in a new theater, with new people?
VB: It's the first experience of this kind, when I come, I meet with the actors and propose a text based on them. I knew some of the actors because I had seen shows in the FNT, others I saw for the first time. On the one hand, for me, it's very nice to have the luxury of time because I have the feeling that the process here goes much smoother, in the sense that there are many more hours allocated to rehearsals; in Bucharest, people run from one place to another. The idea of working 8 hours a day on a show is almost impossible. The idea of having time in the evening, from 6:00 PM to 10:00 PM, is impossible because the actors either have shows, or if they have two free evenings a week, they also want to spend time with the children. On the other hand, so that it doesn't seem like I'm only speaking against the actors in Bucharest, I have the impression that the lack of time often causes them to do things faster because they have things to solve. I don't know how it's better: now I have the feeling, at the end of the rehearsals, that there was a deeper process here, that we were able to rehearse more. I don't fully understand it. It's very interesting and I'm glad that I was received by the Oradea troupe in a warm and professional way, they received me very well; it seems to me that we got along very well. It was rehearsed in peace and harmony, without any shouting. Beyond this, including on a human level: after my wife and daughter, who stayed for the first nine days, left, they started writing to me – "Hey! Do you want to see me? I know you're lonely." – and it meant a lot that I didn't feel like a stranger in an unknown city.

RR: If viewers were to be left with one thing once they left the theater, what would you want it to be?
VB: I can't imagine or intuit what's going on in another person's mind. Certainly, when I chose the text, I did so because, on the one hand, it accessed something personal for me; on the other hand, because I have this feeling that that personal thing in me is anchored in the universal. Because, fundamentally, that's why we go to the theater: when we all react to the same thing, we cry for the same thing, we are assured that we are not actually alone and that what we feel is like a wave that connects us all. In a way, I feel that we are in a period in which we need to create bridges between us and I am convinced that social networks have led to the gradual polarization of society. I think it's time to start being a little more tolerant of the point of view of others.