Sibiu- Festival

Heading into Romania was a tremendous shift because suddenly I am almost indistinguishable.  Women ride bicycles.  There are even bike lanes.  No one is rushing up to me to get me to buy something.  There are trashcans all along the roads and most lights are on sensors which can create comical dance moves in dark bathrooms as you try to recover the light source. 

I met up with Benjamin in Bucharest.  It has been a new challenge to travel with another human being.  I have lost my solitude and, I feel, some of my power.  But have gained companionship and less male attention.  And now there is someone to laugh with at the absurdity of this voyage.  

Romania was good to us.  In Bucharest we stayed with friends and I would rehearse in parks during the day.  In Sibiu, I performed in the International Theatre Festival (FITS) among companies from over 70 countries including Iran, Israel, United Arab Emirates, Japan, China, Canada, France, Spain and the startlingly good company from Romania who dazzled the crowds with their spectacle production of Faust which transported the whole audience into a giant warehouse full of fire breathers, flying demons, puppet rhinos and pigs.  High-lights were Paper Cut- an imaginative one-woman object theater show from Israel coming to NY Fringe- look for it!, the surreal Beijing Opera of such precise style and artifice they seemed to be aliens from a far off planet, Spaniards flying in a rock and roll Miro-style mobile in the sky above the town square, and the greatest high-light is the people of the festival who were at ease, ready to laugh and ever so helpful.

         I performed in a bar, Oldies Pub at 10:30pm at night.  Smoking is still permitted indoors in Romania and it was a struggle to maintain a voice by the end of tech.  Benjamin excellently operated lights and sound with extreme limitations.   This is the first time I performed with giant beer logos all around the stage.  But I made it through both shows to full houses and managed to snag a good review, too. 

Half of it I got translated by a Romanian and the other half I translated on google so please forgive the strange wording:

“Whether you are a Romania, Arab, American, what we have in common is that we live on the same planet, we are all humans and we all have dreams and wishes. 

Wednesday night, Oldies Pub hosted an unconventional show, an exceptional monologue acted by Monica Hunken. 

Blondie of Arabia describes the true story of her odyssey through desert.  

Her monologue is extremely ? and it was incredibly well sustained by gestures and mimic, despite the simple décor, a bicycle and a chair. 

The artists’ show amused and amazed at the same time but it also has a deep meaning. 

Her acting suggests she followed her dream no matter what the shape is. Dreams make people human, it helps to know better and to explore their capabilities. You can not know what you can do and what you can accomplish in life if you do not unleash the adventurer in you. An ounce of courage and you can begin to materialize things you've never imagined that you're able. She is originally from California, then continued her journey in New York, where she joined a band of street theater. Over time with a team, she organized social meetings, never leaving the hope of her love, her bicycle. Cute, exuberant and May especially, possessed a contagious optimism, "typical American", as she herself confesses, Monica Hunken succeed by this unconventional performances, every spectator to ignite the flame of a dream. And because the purpose of any performances is to delight the public we can say Blondina completed her independent mission. Reports of applause that filled the room said the word.”

-Applause FITS paper

Before we left Sibiu, we stayed a couple nights at a hostel, Felinarul built lovingly by a young married couple, an Irish redhead and her husband the chef at their restaurant.  The charming redhead regaled us with stories of Ireland and the many characters that have passed through her hostel from all over the world.  She told me of the days when Ireland subsisted on coal and she would dry her clothes right on the coal stove and all of Dublin had “the permanent stench of slightly damp teenagers” covered in soot.  We arrived in Sibiu a week after they had just begun a recycling program.   But they have yet to install a pick-up process so right now only the Roma gypsies go collecting cans and this young couple at Felinarul.  On Sunday I joined them on the recycling trip.  With their 7-year-old son towing along boxes in the lead, the chef and a young Mexican man who’s doing Theater of the Oppressed work in town carrying a big stack, me carrying the glass bottles, and the lovely red head bringing along the baby, we paraded down the street as a tiny circus of sustainability!

It’s always hard to say goodbye to the kind people I meet along the way.  I just begin friendships and then in one or two days time, I fly away again.  But they all leave their stamp upon me as I walk out the door.