Theatre History Overview - Part 37 - Romanian Theatre

Theatre in Romania itself doesn't seem to have that long of a history. This is probably because most of it goes back to Greek theatre. On August 19, 1876, Avram Goldfaden establish the first professional Jewish theatre in the world at Yassy (or Iasi), Romania. The first theatre performance was done with Goldfaden's own theatre troupe and the Romania poet, Mihai Eminescu, wrote the first review of the play. Goldfaden put on more successful plays and then moved his theatre to Bucharest and followed with having his theatre troupe tour.

In 1917, Jacob Sternberg started practicing the revue style. Then in 1923, a theatre troupe from Vilna (Vilnius), Lithuania toured in Bucharest and had a direct influence on the Jewish theatre there. Word War II brought difficult times for the theatre in Romania. Jewish artists were banned from performing in their own language and even appearing on stage. Even thought this happened, the Jewish theatre in Bucharest was founded in 1940 and stayed open through World War II.

From 1991 to 1996, the State Jewish theatre in Bucharest organized the International Festival of Yiddish Language. The Jewish State Theatre in Bucharest is stil strong today despite having to overcome obstacles like the one occurring in 2014 where snow made the roof collapse.

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