International Experimental Theatre Festival

I am now in Cluj, a beautiful college town in Transylvania. The organizers of the fest, Cristian Nedea and Ramona Dumitrean, were kind enough to give me a week-long pass to all the plays and two square meals a day. Here's a link to the site: http://maninfest.uv.ro/festival.html. It's a little hard to navigate, but if you click on the right side flag that says "archive," and click "4th edition," you should be able to see a schedule of shows.
I'm staying with a fellow Fulbrighter, Rachel Renz, an American who's been living in Tuebingen, Germany for the past year, and has been kind enough to let me sleep on her air mattress. She's here researching the preservation of German minority culture in Transylvania. Last night, we saw a 45-minute long play called Hats and Stars and Chicken Pox, presented by the Czech Continuo Theatre, a group that incorporates dance, live music, puppets and text to create a truly remarkable experience. I have never seen anything in The States, other than perhaps some early Richard Foreman plays, that compares. Maybe it's because the performers are all so young and talented and sincere that I felt my heart-door open, and, inspired and filled with hope, wandered out into the night, past the gothic churches, the psychedelic fountains, the smoky coffee houses, feeling connected to everyone and everything, knowing that it's all unfolding perfectly.
PART II: Saw an amazing piece last night called Dancing vs. Rat Experiment by a NYC-based group called WITNESS RELOCATION. The show was done at the National Theatre of Cluj, a fat lady opera house whose make-up covers all her faded beauty, and whose insides are a haunted, broken down penny arcade. Here's a link to the Witness Relocation site: http://www.witnessrelocation.org.