The 2016 Oradea International Theatre Festival successfully concluded this weekend, after a week of extraordinary events. Performances, book launches, conferences, director portraits, competitions, all of these completed the picture of a cultural feast in Oradea.

FITO is therefore a complex theater festival, which includes several sections. One of these components that defines the Oradea festival is the DRAMATIC CREATION COMPETITION. The purpose of this competition is to encourage original Romanian dramaturgy, especially short theater. The rules of the competition are simple: without imposing a specific theme, the creators have the freedom to give free rein to their imagination, the only limiting element being a formal one, required by the rigors of short theater, meaning that the text must have a maximum of 25 pages.

Since this competition was not organized in 2015, the submitted plays were judged together with those submitted this year. The jury, composed of Ioan Moldovan – poet, director of the magazine Familia, Victoria Balint – artistic director, Elisabeta Pop – theater critic, did not have an easy mission at all and they thoroughly analyzed all 21 dramatic texts that entered the competition. After a critical reading, the following texts were selected as meeting the criteria imposed by the Regulations:

• Chekhov's Bazooka by Mircea M. Ionescu
• Domestic Rhapsody by Laurentiu Budau
• a little girl named Eugen by Laurentiu Budau
• Hello, Switzerland! by Laurentiu Budau
• Opa opa bouzoukia by Ion Martin
• Love? "What's up girl?" by Ion Martin

And the winning text of this competition was designated Chekhov's Bazooka, by Mircea M. Ionescu, a renowned journalist and one of the most performed contemporary Romanian playwrights.

Mircea M. Ionescu is a member of the Romanian Writers' Union, author of 25 published volumes, mainly of dramaturgy. The "Best Short Play Award" at the Oradea festival is the fourth award for dramatic creation won by the author. To our honor, Mircea M. Ionescu was present in the hall at the awards ceremony and went on stage to the thunderous applause of the Oradea audience.

The award-winning text, Chekhov's Bazooka, will be published in the magazine Familia and sent to all theaters in Romania, with special recommendations from the Regina Maria Theater.

Congratulations to Mr. Mircea M. Ionescu and thank him for offering Romanian dramaturgy another valuable text!