DramAcum, launched in 2003, was created by a group of Romanian theatre directors and playwrights (Gianina Cărbunariu – director and playwright, Andreea Vălean – director and playwright, Radu Apostol – director, Alexandru Berceanu – director, and the professor Nicolae Mandea, now Dean of the National University of Theatre and Cinema in Bucharest).

DramAcum means “current drama” or “drama now” and its starting question was “how to write drama today/drama that is representative for today?” The project is searching, through a biennial contest, for young dramatic writers (under 26 years old) and is focused on two main goals: encouraging the collective work of the playwright and the director, and connecting the drama with today’s realities. Besides discovering new strong voices in Romanian theatre, dramAcum works as a mediator for them, integrating them into the theatrical team.

Another objective of dramAcum was to discover, translate and produce contemporary plays from Europe (“My name is Isbjorg. I’m a Lioness” by Havar Sigurjonsson, “Norway Today” by Igor Bauersima, “Straight as a Line” by Luis Alfaro, “Marisol” by Jose Rivera, “Family Stories” by Biljana Srbljanovic and so on).

After 6 years from its start, dramAcum is widely known as one of the most interesting movements in Romanian theatre. Not because it won the Award of AICT (International Association of Theatre Critics of Romania) for best theatrical project, but because dramAcum playwrights as Gianina Cărbunariu and Peca Ştefan are among the most well known and provocative Romanian contemporary playwrights. Their plays – “Stop the tempo”, “Kebab” (Gianina Cărbunariu) and ”The Sunshine Play”, “Romania 21” (Peca Ştefan) are widely acclaimed throughout Europe.

6 of the nine Romanians that attended the Royal Court Residency for Emerging Playwrights were part of (or discovered by) dramAcum.

Among the other young playwrights discovered by dramAcum are Vera Ion (“Vitamins”), Bogdan Georgescu (“Romania! I kiss you”), Nicoleta Esinencu (“Fuck you, Eu.ro.pa!”) Maria Manolescu (“Sado-Maso Blues Bar”, “With a little help from my friends”) and Gabi Pintilei (“Elevator”). All of these plays were directed by dramAcum directors, making some of the most interesting and vivid shows in the Romanian theatre for the past 6 years.