Romanian Director Liviu Ciulei Dies at 88

According to published reports, Romanian theatre and film director Liviu Ciulei passed away yesterday, October 25. He was 88 years old.

He made his theater debut in 1946, as Puck in an Odeon Theatre production of Shakespeare's A Midsummer Night's Dream. Soon after, he joined the theater company knwon as Teatrul Municipal din Bucureti.

In 1961, Ciulei gained an overall recognition for his version of Shakespeare's As You Like It. He was the recipient of the Directors' Award at the 1965 Cannes Film Festival for The Forest of the Hanged, the film version of the Liviu Rebreanu's eponymous novel (where he also starred in the role of Klapka). In the 1980s, he was marginalized by the regime and transferred to work at Sahia film studio, as documentary filmmaker. 

Ciulei was the artistic director of Teatrul Bulandra for more than a decade. After that, he worked in several European countries, as well as in the United States-notably at The Arena Stage in Washington D.C., where he directed Leonce and Lena (in Canada and Australia). Between 1980-85, he was the artistic director of Guthrie Theater in Minneapolis, Minnesota. After 1986 he taught at Columbia University and at New York University.

After the Romanian Revolution of 1989, back in his native Romania, Ciulei has directed a series of stage productions that have been both publicly and critically acclaimed. He was named Honorary Director of the theater he has always loved the most, Bulandra. Besides being the costume and set designer of the majority of his own productions, Ciulei, as an architect, contributed to the rebuilding of the auditorium of Bulandra Theatre. In 1996, UNITER (Uniunea Teatral din România) awarded its annual prize to Ciulei.