Interview with The Director of the German State Theatre in Timisoara, Lucian M. VARSANDAN

“The consequences of enforcing Ordinance 63/2010 were not considered.”

“The recently adopted Government Ordinance no. 63/2010 establishes the maximum number of positions that can be assigned within the territorial-administrative units, and this measure may also affect the performance institutions subordinated to local authorities. In a context in which the Timisoara Municipality finances four such institutions – the German and Hungarian State Theatres, the Banat Philharmonic and the Municipality Culture House – the new regulatory act may have extremely serious effects on the activity and even the existence of the German State Theatre in Timisoara”. This is how GSTT began, on July 8, the line of protests against the enforcement of Ordinance no. 63. Director Lucian M. Varsandan explains in the interview bellow, which may be the effects of enforcing the Ordinance in the institution he leads, in case it would prove… that GSTT is subject to it.

The German Theatre issued a release announcing the danger of closing down further to the enforcement of Ordinance no. 63/2010. Why did you use the word “close down”?
Because the actual inability of the theatre to function is equivalent to closing it down. When something can no longer function, it means that it loses its consistency, its identity, you name it.

Foto: Alex Matusciac

What would the consequences be in case of cutting of personnel by 25% for the German Theatre in Timisoara?
Going 20 years back. As an irony of fate, in 1990, when Germans ethnics were largely emigrating from Romania, this theatre lost about 20 employees or so in a very short time, which, at the time, led to a situation where we nearly had to close down. Only the merit and perseverance of the director at the time, Ildikó Jarcsek-Zamfirescu, made it possible for this theatre to stay alive. She and the team at the time extended Sisyphus efforts, along the years to rebuild an institution virtually from scratch. This work of reconstruction could vanish now, further to the entry into force of the ordinance. If you take a look at the list of premieres during 1990, you’ll see that there is a break of about eight months when there were no productions.

Because there was no money?
Because there were no people.

Yes, but things are twinned. If you have no employees, you can contract people for collaboration. But if there is no money, you have no people, and no performances.
If there is no money, you can do neither, but the issue on the status of the collaborators is something else. A repertory theatre, with a standing season, must have base personnel to carry out its activity normally and regularly. It must have some functions that it can meet at any time, with its employees. We’re talking about the danger of damaging the core existence of such an institution. Not be misunderstood: the number of collaborators that the German Theatre works with is proof that I’m not the advocate for the idea of having many employees. There are performances where we employ many collaborators, but still, apart from that, we’re talking about damaging the basic cell, the institution’s basic framework of functioning.

Foto: Alex Matusciac

The German Theatre summoned press at the beginning of July, together with the Hungarian State Theatre in Timisoara and the "Banat" Philharmonic, which are in the same situation. What were the effects of your public protests?
The first effect was raising awareness of the public opinion, but also that of the policy makers on the danger posed by irrational enforcement of the ordinance. Now we expect the concerned authorities to interpret their own regulation. Let me explain this. Emergency Ordinance 63/2010 provides that it applies to the professional staff of the mayor, and of the county council, respectively - which we do part of -,  as well as to the staff in the public institutions set up by resolutions of the decision-making authorities. According to Law 215 of the local public administration, the decision-making authorities are the county council, the local council, namely the General Council of the Municipality of Bucharest – and the theatre was not set up by any of them. The German Theatre was set up as a legal entity in 1956 by the Resolution of the Council of Ministers - today we would call this a Government Resolution; therefore, by a central executive authority. There is this contradiction in the text of the ordinance which the government intends to interpret extensively and extend it on our theatre; I have no idea on what grounds.

What are the solutions that you foresee at the moment for n the institution you are running?
There may be administrative, political or legal solutions. I put forward, in a meeting with the Minister for Culture, Kelemen Hunor, the administrative solution, i.e., taking the three performance institutions from the subordination of the Municipality of Timisoara and subordinate them to the Ministry for Culture, but he will not undertake it. The political solution would be that the authority responsible realizes the risk of damaging institutions that do not meet the spirit of the regulatory initiative and amend the resolution by an amendment or an official interpretation in the terms previously mentioned. And the legal solutions, which we consider to resort ultimately are possibly three: the Ombudsman procedure, a few days ago, in which we challenged the ordinance with the Constitutional Court - so we are expecting the deliberations; there is also a possibility of challenging the ordinance on contentious matter, as well as the possibility of challenging in contentious matter the resolution of the Local Council, requiring us to cut of personnel a regulatory act that we continue to believe it is not applicable to our theatre. There are many possibilities which were not tried. We hope, however, that they will find the political solution. It is not acceptable that a regulatory act of such effects does not take into account that each local community has its own socio-cultural and ethno-historical distinct features. Therefore, it has different profile and stretch public services. If we accept that the criterion of the number of inhabitants may be reasonable in issuing a regulatory act related to civil servant, we can no longer accept the same criterion when we talk about services meeting the needs adjusted to the profile of each community in the country... how can they not take it into consideration?! Even for a city with a number of inhabitants similar to Timisoara… Unless it has the historical and cultural specificity of Timisoara, there can be no grounds for them to have theatres in three languages. Therefore, there will be no ground for having so much staff. Then why is the normative the same for everyone, when these specificities, therefore needs of the community are fundamentally different? One other thing they did not take into account is the institutional constellation. Timisoara has approximately the same population as Cluj Napoca, where two operas and two national theatres are financed by the Ministry for Culture, and the Philharmonic by the Cluj County Council. It is not natural to say that normative must be the same for Cluj and Timisoara, as long as Timisoara finances as well, but from its own revenues, four performance institutions. There’s no logic to this, I can’t get it round my head. The consequences of enforcing this ordinance were not considered. I believe that such an approach, of such serious consequences should be considered separately for each case, taking into account all of the above.  You can not put everything in the same melting pot and say “this is the normative, period", because if we do that it means punishing industrious communities and institutions that have projects, and an offer of public services - in our case, performances, and therefore employees, as we organize events... I will not accept any solution that would affect the consistency of the German State Theatre’s activity and no solution affecting it legal status.

Foto: Alex Matusciac

However, if you were to start cutting of personnel, what would you begin with?
I asked myself and I have not gotten very far. Furthermore, I reached conclusions and figures - related to the theatre’s specifics - that stopped my proceedings. We have about 30 vacancies out of 108 total. There are 17 vacancies with the artistic staff only. Where should I cut? We have 15 actors employed. I have two light designers, two sound designers, and a prompter- difficult to find anyhow! I cannot say more and neither do I want... I deny this reality. And if we were still forced to dismiss staff, the problem itself will not solve the problem of the expenses- on the contrary, as those services that remain uncovered will have to be outsourced. And the same person you fired will negotiate with you a contract for a higher amount - and then where’s the saving? The purpose of saving money will not be met.

GSTT is the only theatre in Romania with performances exclusively in German. At the end of the 2009/2010 season, in June, it premiereed "Shaking Shakespeare", directed by Radu Alexandru Nica, who teamed with scenographer Dragos Buhagiar, playwright Lia Bugnar, musician Vlaicu Golcea and choreographer Florin  Fieroiu . GSTT’s first performance in the 2010/2011 season will be "Don Carlos" by Schiller, directed by Alexander Hausvater and with the scenography of Velica Panduru. The premiere is scheduled on October 31. Eurothalia Theatre Festival, organized by the German Theatre and to be opened with a performance of Münchner Kammerspiele, "Sold Out" by Gianina Carbunariu, will be held in Timisoara between 13 and 21 of November.