Well-known Moldovan actor, stage manager marks birthday

Chisinau, 11 July /MOLDPRES/ - A well-known stage manager and film director, founder and artistic director of the Eugene Ionesco National Theatre, Petru Vutcarau, marks his birthday today.  

Petru Vutcarau was born in the Bardar village, central Ialoveni district, in 1960. In 1979-80, he was student at the Acting Faculty of the Gavriil Musicescu State Arts Institute and during 1980-85 he studied at the Boris Shchukin Higher Theatre School from Moscow, acting faculty. In 1985, Vutcarau joined the troupe of the Luceafarul Theatre from Chisinau. He finished the Faculty of Stage Management of the Shota Rustaveli Theatre Institute from Tbilisi, Georgia, during 1987-1989. In 1988-1989, Vutcarau was stage manager resident of the Army Theatre from Moscow.   

In 1990, along with colleagues actors he left the Luceafarul Theatre and founded a new troupe, called Eugene Ionesco Theatre, the first independent theatre from Moldova, with temporary headquarters in Romania, at the Anton Pann Theatre from Ramnicu Valcea. After five months, the theatre made its first tour to Romania (Targu-Mureș, Oradea, Timisoara, Arad și Bucharest), getting prizes at diverse theatre festivals and recorded two of its plays at the Romanian Television.      

After returning to Chisinau, Petru Vutcarau became first stage manager (1991) and artistic director (1995) of the Eugene Ionesco Theatre. The theatre was officialized as state institution in September 1991 by Minister of Culture and Cults Ion Ungureanu, with temporary headquarters at the Palace of the Republic.   

In 1994, Vutcarau was one of the organizers of the first Festival Biennial of the Eugene Ionesco Theatre. As stage manager, he staged more than 100 plays, both in Moldova and in another over 20 countries: France, Japan, Italy, Romania, Russia, Turkey, etc.  

He played in more movies and plays. In 1994, Petru Vutcarau was awarded the National Prize in the field of art, literature and architecture, for the part of Extragon in the play, Waiting for Godot, by Samuel Beckett. In 2011, he was awarded the People’s Artist honorific title.