We were lucky to catch up with Ioana Groza recently and have shared our conversation below.

Ioana, thanks for taking the time to share your stories with us today What’s been the most meaningful project you’ve worked on?

The most meaningful project I’ve worked on, was an exhibition I was invited to attend based on my bachelor thesis project where I created a stage design together with a scale model for Eugene O’Neill’s “Long Day’s Journey Into Night”. I was invited to create an immersive installation inspired by that for the DIPLOMA Exhibition that takes place in Bucharest. The exhibition promotes the best bachelor and masters artistic projects in the country and is an opportunity for young graduates to show their work to a bigger and wider public.

I created an installation based on my scale model and adapted my stage design into an immersive installation that tied together sound, light and space design into a warehouse type facility. I had to build everything from scratch, without a team or workshop. I had some money aside from working as an assistant stage designer and put it all towards creating this piece, A 6m high by 4m wide carved plexiglass panels, suspended on metal wire from the ceiling. I learned a lot and looked for guidance when I was lost, but I was lucky to have supportive parents and a helpful partner that climbed up on the ceiling with me.

The exposer was great for a recently graduated artist, but what this project really taught me is that I can turn my concept into reality. It was my first exhibition of this kind that was based totally on my design concept and gave me the confidence to move forward into the professional world. It is still one of my favourite concepts I worked on and even though there were challenges along the way, navigating a project of this magnitude, it kick started my freelancer carrier as a stage designer in Romania.

Awesome – so before we get into the rest of our questions, can you briefly introduce yourself to our readers.

I was a theatre kid from a young age, from being in the drama club to volunteering in high school at the “Ioan Slavici” State Theatre in my hometown, I decided to pursue a Stage Design Bachelor at the National University of Theatre and Film in Bucharest. It was the place that formed me but, because my classes transferred to online when the pandemic hit, I wanted nothing more than to get out of the house and work. I got the change to be an assistant stage designer for one of the big scenographers in the country and standing next to him the last two years of my studies helped me understand the professional world I will be in. I learned a lot and had the opportunity to work on the biggest stages in Romania, so when I finished my bachelor I already had projects I was working on as a freelancer.

From theatre set designs and costumes for theatre, to art direction for short films and commercials and everything in between, I worked with a lot of great people and had my hands full for the past four years. As a scenographer I want every piece I am part of to become an immersive experience, to offer a different view on reality than what the audience is used to, while creating a unique universe for the play. The last two years, I was the stage designer for the German State Theatre in Timișoara, where for the celebration of the city being named The European Capital of Culture 2023, I created designs with the scenographer Șteff Chelaru for Shakespeare’s A Midsummer Nights’s Dream and Sidy Thal, productions that are still part of the theatre’s repertoire.

In September 2024 I started my Master, studying Scenography at the University of Arts Utrecht, in the Netherlands. I wished to expand my knowledge about this craft and study what scenography is beyond the walls of the theatre, what is the relationship with the audience when you lose the frontal theatre setting and how I can adapt my art into a more performative personal way.

For you, what’s the most rewarding aspect of being a creative?

I think the most unique part of being an artist is that it is not just a job, it more than that, it’s your personal taste and your way of thinking, it’s your personality, your gut instinct and there is no greater satisfaction than this. My job is to make my dreams a reality and having theatres or production houses believe in my instinct, my concept, my dreams and helping me making them come true is the most rewarding part of being a creative. It’s a different type of satisfaction that I am pretty sure you don’t encounter in a different job.

Of course this high reward has a proportionally low disappointment – if the highs can be high, than the lows can…

when something goes the wrong way, but I feel like the final result is always worth it. That is why having a creative job is for the passionate people, Creating a stage design and being there from the concepts to the choosing of material, overseeing (or doing) the construction and the assembling, having the actors bring it to life on the opening night, and ultimately the applause at the end from an audience that knows you were responsible for creating this universe, there is no greater feeling than that.

Can you share a story from your journey that illustrates your resilience?

Being a young freelancer, new to the theatre industry, you always have to have aces up your sleeve, but in my opinion every beginning is complicated and requires resilience, otherwise you don’t want it bad enough.

Working in the theatre means working up to 12-14h a day, every day, most weekends, some holidays and being in the start of my carrier, mostly being underpaid. Budget cuts for production or misunderstanding of the workshops, haggling with team members, finding the best materials and sticking to unsure deadlines, a scenographer always has to be flexible and be able to do damage control. These are just some of the obstacles that you encounter during a production where in the end, when the opening night is set, everything has to be ready and perfect. I have this advice from a former teacher that I always think about during a production, “the audience doesn’t know what happened during production, and doesn’t care, all they care about, and you, as a stage designer should care about, is the final product everybody is going to see once the curtains are drawn.”

Contact Info:

• Website: https://grozaioana18.myportfolio.com/work
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/ioana.groza/
• Other: Behance:
  https://www.behance.net/grozaioana

Image Credits

Photo credit: Ovidiu Zimcea/German State Theatre Timișoara
for :
A_Midsummer_Night’s_Dream_1_2023
A_Midsummer_Night’s_Dream_2_2023
Sidy_Thal_1_2023
Sidy_Thal_3_2023