Bucharest City Hall prepares competitions for managers of 15 municipal theaters

The Bucharest City Hall announced that it is in the process of organizing competitions for the positions of manager at the 15 theaters subordinated to the municipality. Local authorities claim that the procedure will be transparent and based on professional criteria. The Mayor of the Capital, Ciprian Ciucu, had a meeting with representatives of the Federation of Metropolitan Theaters, an organization that represents eight performance institutions in Bucharest, to discuss details regarding the organization of the competitions. "We want to choose the best, the most suitable, the most competent. We also want the entire recruitment process to be perfectly transparent and objective,” the City Hall of the Capital posted on its Facebook page.

• Regulations in public debate

The mayor stated that the local administration launched the regulations for organizing the competitions in public debate, precisely to avoid suspicions of influence or favoritism. "I have no hidden agenda. I don't know anyone, the only connection I have with the theater is as a spectator," the mayor told the actors and representatives of cultural institutions present at the discussions. In the coming period, the competition committees will be established, consisting of specialists in the theater field and representatives of the municipal administration.

• Conditions for committee members

According to the procedures published by the municipality, the experts who will be part of the competition committees must meet several conditions: to have experience and notoriety in the cultural or theater field; not to have had contractual relations in the last two years with the institution for which the competition is organized; not to have had contractual relations with any of the candidates. A separate competition committee will be established for each performance institution, and an expert can be part of several committees. The municipality announced that the registration deadline for interested experts has been extended until April 5, and they must send their CV and a letter of intent.

• Debate with artists and specialists in the field

In the next stage, the City Hall of the Capital will organize a public debate with actors and specialists in the cultural field, scheduled for March 28, at the ARCUB headquarters. According to the mayor general, the discussions will focus on three essential elements of the selection process: Competition regulations; Objective notebooks for future managers; Criteria for establishing evaluation committees.

The competitions will be organized for the management of the following cultural institutions: Municipal Theater L.S. Bulandra, Metropolis Youth Theater, Odeon Theater, C.I. Theater Nottara, Comedy Theatre, Small Theatre, Ion Creangă Theatre,

Constantin Tănase Revue Theatre, Jewish State Theatre, Excelsior Theatre, Masca Theatre, Comic Opera for Children, Ţăndărică Animation Theatre, Stela Popescu Theatre, Romanian Playwrights Theatre. The selection process is expected to establish the new managers of the main theatre institutions financed by the municipality, at a time when the local administration states that it wants to professionalize cultural management in Bucharest.