Organizers: International Association of Theatre Critics (IATC) — Doctoral School of the Faculty of Theater and Film, Babeș-Bolyai University, Cluj-Napoca, Romania
Thursday, 9th October 2025
19.30
Performance at the National Theatre in Cluj (Main Stage):
THE DEMONS, STAVROGHIN’S CONFESSION, based on F.M. Dostoievski, script by Tudor Lucanu, directed by Tudor Lucanu (1h45)
https://www.teatrulnationalcluj.ro/en/production-710/the-demons.-stavroghins-confession/
Friday 10th October 2025
9.00
Introduction: Welcome by Ioan Pop-Curșeu
ACTING AND DIRECTING IN THE AGE OF AI
Moderator Ioan Pop-Curșeu
9.30-10.40
Cătălin Ștefănescu (UBB Cluj): Zeitgeist. Theatre Versus the Spirit of Our Time
Mercè Saumell (Institut del Teatre Barcelona): The Coexistence of Humans and Non-Humans on Stage
Andrianna-Anna Tsiotsiou (Aristotle University of Thessaloniki): Human Method, Machine Actor: Rethinking Director’s Theatre in the Age of AI
Ravinder Kaul (IATC India): Theatre in the Times of Technological Revolution
10.40-11.00 Coffee Break
11.00- 12.30
Keshav Kumar Proch (DLC State University of Performing and visual arts, Rohtak): Reclaiming the Actor’s Agency in the Digital Age: Theatre-Making Amid AI, Immersive Media, and Technological Spectacle.
András Hatházi (UBB Cluj): The last of the Mohicans
Marius Alexandru Teodorescu (UBB Cluj), Synthetic Voice, Authentic Feeling? The Emotional Labor of AI in Theatre
12.30-14.30: Lunch Break
14.30- 16.20
Raluca Sas-Marinescu (UBB Cluj): Romanian Literary Management between heritage and technology
Dana Rufolo (Theater Research Institute of Europe): Pre-filmed Sequences Fracture Dramatic Cohesion in Elfriede Jelinek’s Burgtheater as Directed by Milo Rau
Konrad Szczebiot (Stefan Wyszyński University Warsaw): AI, Video and Puppetry: Hybrid Performances in Contemporary Object Theatre (online)
Simin Meshkati (Iran): A Comparative Study of Biodanza and AI-Based Interactive Dance from the Perspective of Gilles Deleuze
Daiana Sargan (UBB Cluj): The Disembodied Choreographer: A Choreographic Experiment with ChatGPT-5
16.20-16.30: CONCLUSIONS of the day
20.00
Performance at the National Theatre in Cluj (Main Stage)
HARPAGON’S BRAVE NEW WORLD, by Michele Santeramo, directed by Roberto Bacci (1h30)
https://www.teatrulnationalcluj.ro/en/production-772/the-brave-new-world-of-mister-harpagon/
21.30 (Foyer, 3rd level): Cocktail Dinner
Saturday 11 October 2025
CASE STUDIES
Moderator Oana Cristea Grigorescu
9.00-10.40
Savas Patsalidis (Aristotle University): Haunted Presences: Theatre After the Real
Hana Strejčková (Academy of Performing Arts Prague): Multimedia as a Narrative Language Non-verbal Theatre for Yearly Years
Evangelos Kosmidis (Mariupol Theatre, Ukraine): Reconstructing Presence: AI Animation, Interactive Mapping and Post-Traumatic Testimony of the Theatre of Mariupol, Ukraine, in the projects “Alaska” and “My Country – My DreamLand”
Tudor Nicorici (UBB Cluj): Teatru-spălătorie and Technological Innovation in Sound Design
Dany Karmakar (Rabindra Bharati University): Transforming Indian Theatre through Technology: Bikhre Bimb and the New Dimensions of Contemporary Performance (online)
10.40-11.00 Coffee Break
11.00- 12.30
Ștefana Pop-Curșeu (UBB Cluj): Maeterlinck’s Android and Craig’s Übermarionnette: a Theatrical Dream Becoming True in the 21century?
Cristina Seleușan (UBB Cluj): Digital Technology in the Theater of the Absurd: a Contemporary Theatrical Language
Ece Yassitepe Ayyildiz (University of Ankara): Sous l’effet inévitable de la technologie sur le théâtre : l’hologramme dans les créations théâtrales de Michel Lemieux
Bishal Prasad (Central University of Punjab): Theatre in the Digital Age: Trends, Challenges, and Creative Opportunities (online)
Karim Jawad (IATC Oman): Technology and Arab Theatre
12.30-14.30: Lunch Break
14.30- 16.20
Ilinca Tamara Todoruț (UBB Cluj): Algorithmic Dramaturgies: Shifting Narrative Structures in Digital Cultures
Daniela Șilindean (AICT.Ro): Framing Illness Stories in Theatre – An Identitary and Storytelling Approach
Mihai Lukács (AICT.Ro): Cruelty of the Code: Artaud, AI, and the Theatre of the Real
Anca Ghenoside (UBB Cluj): Acting in VR Theatre Productions: Performance Capture
16.20-16.30 CONCLUSIONS of the day
20.00
Performance at the National Theatre in Cluj (Main Stage)
SIX CHARACTERS IN SEARCH OF AN AUTHOR by Luigi Pirandello, directed by Tudor Lucanu (1h40)
https://www.teatrulnationalcluj.ro/en/production-717/six-characters-in-search-of-an-author/
21.40 (Foyer, 3rd level): Cocktail Dinner
Sunday 12 October 2025
INTERNET WORLDS/ THEATRICALITY AND AI
Moderator: Ștefana Pop-Curșeu
9.30-11.10
Andreea Iacob (UBB Cluj): Oasis of Silence or TECHNO-THETA: Inducing the Theta State Through Participatory Digital Art
Mihai Dragolea (UBB Cluj): Videochat Industry Theatrics and AI’s Visual Takeover
Horea Avram (UBB Cluj): Distributed Bodies and Automatic Sensorium: AI in Performative Arts (Three Case Studies)
Florin Marc (UBB Cluj): Double Presence Extended: Actor, AI-NPC and the Stage Between Worlds
Oana Capriș (UBB Cluj): Canon and Countercast: The Public Theatre of Normativity between the Televised Altar and the Digital Stage
11.10-11.30 Coffee Break
11.30 – 13.30
AUDIENCES CONFRONTED TO AI
Teodora Crișan (UBB Cluj): Theatre Without Anchor. Reception Drift and the Platform as Site of Representation
Cosmin Matei (UBB Cluj): Missing Futures: Gaps and Instabilities in 21st Century Theatre Research and Education, with a Focus on Romania
Ana Tecar (UBB Cluj): Digital Archiving of One-to-One Performance… From Singular Co-presence to Collective Engagement
Adelina Bulibașa (UBB Cluj): Re-Wiring Theater: Spectatorship and Technology in the Age of Digital Expansion (online)
José Gabriel Antuñano (IATC Madrid): Théâtre numérique, les nouveaux paradigmes sur la scène
Mirella Nedelcu-Patureau (IATC France and Romania): Quel théâtre pour demain ? Pas si artificiel, mais assez intelligent
CONCLUSIONS
13.30-15.00 Final Lunch
19.30: Performance at the National Theatre in Cluj (Main Stage)
THE GAMBLERS by N.V. Gogol, directed by Ionuț Caras (2h00)
https://www.teatrulnationalcluj.ro/en/production-715/the-gamblers/
21.40 (Foyer, 3rd level): Final Cocktail Dinner
