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Giuvlipen

Giuvlipen Theater Company

Compania de teatru Giuvlipen

Year of foundation of the theater	2015
Place:	Bucharest, Romania
Leader of the theater:	Mihaela Drăgan
Main artists:	Mihaela Drăgan - actress, playwright Ema Zita Moldovan - actress, costume designer Oana Rusu - actress Bety Pisică - actress, interdisciplinary artist Nicoleta Ghiță - actress, singer Andrei Șerban - actor Ninel Petrache - actor Claudiu Dumitru - actor Raisa Mihai - actress Alexandru Fifea - actor Raj Alexandru Udera - actor, make-up artist Alex Bălă - music producer Bianca Mihai - actress, musician

“Giuvlipen is more than a theater company; it is our safe space of Roma actresses, in which we claim the right to use our voice to fight against Eurocentric principles in art and to produce a revolutionary, feminist, queer and anti-racist art.”

- Mihaela Drăgan (Roma actress and co-founder of Giuvlipen)

“They are the vanguard of the Romani revolution, a counter-attack, through art and activism - to centuries of oppression.”

- Reuters Agency

ABout the theater

Giuvlipen means feminism in Romani language and is the first independent Roma feminist theatre company in Romania.
It was founded in 2015 by a group of Roma actors, artists and cultural experts with the purpose of creating a structure for reflection and action in the art field, as a form of combating Roma exclusion.

Our art is provocative, experimental and of high performativity. The subjects of our shows are diverse, but also share a common theme:

We openly discuss subjects that have been passed over in silence, sometimes because of history, sometimes because of mentality and social or political mores. With each show we aim to reclaim the Roma art, history and cultural identity, through stories told by us, Roma artists.
Some of the main goals of our theater company are taking responsibility for showing the value of Roma culture, contributing to changing social mentality and instilling a sense of pride for cultural and identity heritage among Roma communities.

AWARDS

2020
UNITER Awards Gala 2020 - Special British Council Romania Award for promoting and supporting social inclusion and encouraging civic engagement

2018
AFCN Awards Gala 2018 – Social inclusion and intercultural dialogue award for the cultural project “Roma Theater is Not Nomadic: The Memory of Transnistria

2019
The distinction of high appreciation for their artistic performance and the promotion of Roma culture by the Prime Minister of Romania of that time, Viorica Dăncilă for Zita Moldovan and Mihaela Drăgan, the co-founders of Giuvlipen.

Main productions

2023
Mihaela Drăgan: Viral on TikTok (Virală pe TikTok)
D.: Mihaela Drăgan

In the performance we witness a deeply moving overview of the lack of sexual education affecting Romanian society, particularly the Roma communities, and its tangible societal consequences. TikTok, as the currently most popular social media platform, provides an excellent framework for the play.

Giuvlipen, Romanian Playwright's Theater
(Giuvlipen, Teatrul Dramaturgilor Români)
Bucharest, Romania

2022
Mihaela Drăgan: Trauma Kink (Trauma Kink)
D.: Gabriel Sandu

The show is about how early life and adult traumas define our perception of intimacy and pleasure. It opens the conversation about trauma in a natural way, through the stories of five artists who open up to the public in a performative approach that combines confessional elements with fiction and the hedonistic imaginary.

Giuvlipen, Romanian Playwright's Theater
(Giuvlipen, Teatrul Dramaturgilor Români)
Bucharest, Romania

2019
Mihaela Drăgan: Romacen – The Age of the Witch
(Romacen – Vremea Vrăjitoarelor)
D.: Tina Turnheim

Romacen - The Age of the Witch marks the birth of a new artistic trend, Roma Futurism, which we hope will be taken over by many Roma artists to move to the next level, where we imagine a future in which we can stop the historical cycle of oppression against us. Roma Futurism claims the figure of the Roma witch, so stereotyped in the collective imaginary, and witchcraft becomes our artistic and political response to the social inequalities and injustices of the world we live in.

Andrei Mureșanu Theater (Teatrul Andrei Mureșanu)
Sfântu-Gheorghe, Romania

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2019
Mihaela Drăgan, Antonella Lerca Duda, Nicoleta Ghiță, Zita Moldovan, Bety Pisică, Oana Rusu, Raj Alexandru Udrea: Sexodrom (Sexodrom)
D.: Bogdan Georgescu

SEXODROM is a group theatrical production made following the dramatic writing workshop “Politics in private”, which aims to explore taboo subjects in the Romanian public space in cooperation with young Roma artists.

National Centre of Dance (Centrul Național de Dans)
Bucharest, Romania

2019
Catinca Drăgănescu: Urban Body (Corp urban)
D.: Catinca Drăgănescu

Urban Body fictionalizes the stories of four Roma women and investigates the connection between them and their own bodies, through a personal lens, in a social context: the body as an instrument of production, the body as property, the body as a cradle of maternity; the healthy body, the sick body, the shameful body, the physical body as the mirror of one’s social life and as the only personal possession.

Bucharest, Romania

2018
Mihai Lukács, Mihaela Drăgan: Kali Tras/Black Fear
(Kali Tras/Frica neagră)
D.: Mihai Lukács

Kali Traš tells the gut-wrenching story of the Roma Holocaust under the political regime of Ion Antonescu. We follow a travelling theatre company of Roma performers in the 1940s as their lives are impacted by the immediate threat of deportation to Transnistria.

Jewish State Theater (Teatrul Evreiesc de Stat)
Bucharest, Romania

2018
The Cult of Personality (Cultul Personalității)
*dark comedy theatre show*
D.: Mihai Lukács

A dark comedy theatre shows about the history of the Romanian Communist Party during the 1950s.

Macaz Theater (MACAZ - Theater Co-op)
Bucharest, Romania

2017
Liana Ceterchi, Mihaela Drăgan, Zita Moldovan, Mihai Lukacs: Who killed Szomna Grancsa?
(Cine a omorât-o pe Szomna Grancsa?)
*documentary theater*
D.: Mihai Lukács

The performance is based on the true story of a Roma girl who was found dead at her home, in a village in Romania, in 2007. Her death left us with a lot of question marks and premium material for the media of the time. The play is a challenge to the simple and sensationalist version of Szomna’s story, covered in the Romanian media, that said a young woman, from a traditional Roma community, died because her parents hadn’t allowed her to continue her high school studies.

Macaz Theater (MACAZ - Theater Co-op)
Bucharest, Romania

2017
Joe Penhall: Blue / Orange (Albastru / portocaliu)
D.: Mihai Lukács

The performance’s scenario introduces us into a difficult world. We can see the double experience of a young Roma woman as a patient of the psychiatric ward, and we also find out about the isolation she feels outside the hospital.

Educational Theater Center Replika
(Centrul de Teatru Educațional Replika)
Bucharest, Romania

2015
Giuvlipen: Gadjo Dildo (Gadjo Dildo)
D.: Mihai Lukács

Three Roma women are working for Gypsy Experience, an exotic cabaret show. Each character has a special story

Bucharest, Romania

2013
Mihaela Drăgan: Del Duma: Tell Them About Me
(Del Duma: Vorbește-le despre mine)
D.: Liana Ceterchi

The stories of four Roma women combine with traditional Romani music in a documentary theater performance.

The National Museum of Art of Romania
(Muzeul Național de Artă al României)
Bucharest, Romania

Guest performances

Mihaela Drăgan: Romacen – The Age of the Witch
(Romacen – Vremea Vrăjitoarelor)
2020
-> Andrei Mureșanu Theater (Teatrul Andrei Mureșanu)
Sfântu Gheorghe, Romania

-> Csiky Gergely Hungarian Theater (Csiky Gergely Színház)
Timișoara, Romania

-> Theater Aufbau Kreuzberg (TAK)
Berlin, Germany

-> Roma Theater is Not Nomad 2020 tour

2019
-> Andrei Mureșanu Theater (Teatrul Andrei Mureșanu)
Sfântu Gheorghe, Romania

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