{"id":14896,"date":"2026-04-01T12:01:45","date_gmt":"2026-04-01T09:01:45","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.teatrulreginamaria.ro\/?p=14896"},"modified":"2026-05-27T10:02:57","modified_gmt":"2026-05-27T07:02:57","slug":"tenderness-interview-with-director-mihai-gligan","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.teatrulreginamaria.ro\/en\/tandretea-interviu-cu-regizorul-mihai-gligan\/","title":{"rendered":"TENDERNESS | Interview with director Mihai Gligan"},"content":{"rendered":"

Mihai Gligan is a theater director from Cluj-Napoca, a graduate of the Faculty of Theater and Film at UBB, where he completed both his bachelor's and master's degrees. His directorial debut took place with the show "The Marriage" by NV Gogol, staged at the Baia Mare Municipal Theater, a production distinguished at the Atelier 2022 International Theater Festival with the Special Jury Award for Direction and the Award for Set Design.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

In the following years, he signed and co-signed several projects noted for their artistic coherence and favorable reception in the contemporary theatrical environment. His first collaboration with the Oradea theater brought him the position of assistant director for the show "De\u021beptarea" by Doru Vatavlui, produced under the stage direction of Bobi Pricop, a collaboration that was later continued by staging the comedy "Tenderness", as director.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

On the occasion of this new project, Mihai Gligan agreed to answer a few questions about the universe and mechanisms of the show "Tenderness".<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n

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#Mihai Gligan <\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Florina Dometi: Mihai, before we talk about the new show you are creating in Oradea, please tell us a few things about yourself as a director. Why did you choose this profession and how do you define your vision of theater directing?<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Mihai Gligan: <\/strong>I think it's too early to talk about how I define my vision. I started doing theater in an amateur troupe in high school. There I discovered something essential that I took with me: the ability to not take myself too seriously and to play. I've always liked the idea of building a universe in which things are not just said, but become visible, almost physical. And, honestly, I think I ended up directing because I was never interested in practicing a single discipline. For me, directing doesn't mean coming up with an authoritative response over a text, but creating a living framework in which the text, actors, space and spectators can together produce meaning. I like a theater that is dynamic. A theater that can be playful, poetic, ironic, but that doesn't lose sight of human fragility. Basically, I try to make shows in which I don't forget the responsibility of telling meaningful stories for the community, but also the fact that we are late children who like to play.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

FD: Do you feel like you've already outlined your own directorial aesthetic, or do you still prefer to experiment and explore different directions?<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

MG: <\/strong>I don't think I look at this job in these terms of career, of aesthetics, of a serious artist who is consolidating his own language. A quote from a David Bowie interview comes to mind, which seems to me to be very healthy artistically: If you feel safe in the area that you're working in, you're not working in the right area<\/em>. More than an aesthetic, I feel like I have a certain type of restlessness that takes me from one project to another. That's where I recognize myself most clearly. And the forms, languages, and means of expression I hope remain open. It seems more alive to me this way than to arrive too quickly at a formula about which to say: this is me. I think the most dangerous moment is when you stop surprising yourself. Sometimes I succeed, sometimes I catch myself still ending up with mine. But at least I catch myself.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

FD:<\/strong> \u201e"Tenderness", the text chosen for this project, is at the same time a romantic comedy and a historical parody, which approaches, in a playful way, the old conflict between women and men. How did you balance these registers in your stage version and which one seems predominant to you?<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

MG: <\/strong>What I find very interesting about this text is that it sets a beautiful trap for you: it invites you to laugh and enter into a seemingly lighthearted convention, but beneath this surface there is a lot of tension related to power, fear, seduction, the need for closeness and, at the same time, the inability to sustain it to the end.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

We live in a culture of polarization. We imagine very quickly who the other is and we listen very hard to them. The song speaks precisely about this imaginary production of the enemy and how difficult, but necessary, it is to get out of it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In working on Tandre\u021bea, one of the references that inspired me was Monty Python. Not in the sense of copying a certain type of gag, but in the way they manage to take very serious conventions and analyze them through an absurd resignation and through sudden changes of register. And Sanzol's text works very well precisely in this area: it has something of farce, of travesty, of artificially assumed convention, but underneath all this play, very hard things are happening. And I think that all these registers coexist in an interdependence; they are not as disparate as they seem. And under this umbrella of parody, I think they each found their place.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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#Tandr\u0113tea <\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

FD: <\/strong> During the work process, you also chose to collaborate with a playwright. Why did you feel the need for this collaboration and how important do you think the presence of a playwright is in the construction of a show?<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

MG: <\/strong>Collaborating with a playwright is not a sign of insecurity, but of lucidity. It's very easy, as a director, to fall in love with your own ideas, your own associations, your own "concept", and sometimes you need someone to tell you very calmly: yes, it's interesting, but it doesn't work. Or: it's beautiful, but it's not clear.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I felt the need for collaboration precisely because the text has multiple layers and multiple registers, and the presence of a playwright helps enormously in dosage, in coherence, in the articulation of meanings. It seems important to me that in a show there is someone who can look at the structure with a very careful and slightly detached eye and who also understands the process, not just the result.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

FD: The great curiosity about the creative laboratory of a show is the relationship between the director and the actors. What was the casting process like for you and how did you feel collaborating with the actors of the Iosif Vulcan Troupe?<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

The cast was part of the construction of the show, not a separate stage from it. I was interested in working with actors who can support the convention of the text, but who remain alive and self-ironic within it. Who have this ability not to take themselves too seriously and to play. Because it is precisely there, when the actor has the courage to be a little ridiculous, a little exposed, that something alive begins to appear. With the actors of the Iosif Vulcan Troupe, I felt these things very quickly, and this made the process a very organic one. I don't believe in rehearsals where the director comes with the whole show prepared and the others just perform. I believe in that space where the show clarifies itself through the encounter, and in this case that's exactly what I felt.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

FD: The show is a comedy accessible to the general public, but it can also raise some serious questions. What thought, message, or question would you like the audience to leave the theater with?<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

MG: <\/strong>I would like the audience to leave the theater with the feeling that they truly enjoyed the show, that they laughed, that they got into its game, but also that, somewhere on the way home, they start to wonder why certain things stayed with them (if they did).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I don't like theater that delivers messages as ready-made conclusions. Perhaps one of the important questions here is how much of the conflict between women and men is real and how much is maintained by roles, fears, and mechanisms that we repeat almost automatically. And perhaps another: how often we confuse tenderness with weakness, when, in fact, sometimes it requires more courage than any demonstration of strength.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

FD: At the end of the interview, I'm curious to know if there's any question you'd like to receive in an interview, but haven't been asked before? And how would you answer it?<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

MG: <\/strong> Yes. I would like to be asked: What scares you the most when you start a show?<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

And I think I would say: I'm afraid of making something inert. To come out with something correct, well-made, even intelligent, but lifeless. It seems to me one of the saddest possibilities in this profession. Because you can have nothing much to criticize about such a show and, yet, it doesn't move anything.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

At the beginning of each process I oscillate quite strongly between joy and panic. One day it seems to me that everything is possible, another I have the feeling that I know nothing and that I have to start all over again. But I think that is normal. Maybe even necessary. This fear reminds me that I am not there to repeat something I already know, but to look for something I have not yet found.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Mihai Gligan este regizor de teatru din Cluj-Napoca, absolvent al Facult\u0103\u021bii de Teatru \u0219i Film din cadrul UBB, unde \u0219i-a finalizat at\u00e2t studiile de licen\u021b\u0103, c\u00e2t \u0219i pe cele de master. Debutul s\u0103u regizoral a avut loc cu spectacolul \u201eC\u0103s\u0103toria\u201d de N.V. Gogol, montat la Teatrul Municipal Baia Mare, produc\u021bie distins\u0103 \u00een cadrul Festivalului Interna\u021bional […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":9,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":"[]"},"categories":[213],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-14896","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-aparitii-media"],"aioseo_notices":[],"aioseo_head":"\n\t\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t