COMMUNITY ART WORKSHOPS FOR SENIOR CITIZENS IN SECTOR 6
Rhea Platform facilitated a series of community art workshops throughout the summer of 2025, under the title Trecut. Prezent.
In short, we preserved and created memories with members of the communities at the “Mihail Sadoveanu,” “Stela Popescu,” “I.L. Caragiale,” and “Iulia Hașdeu” Senior Centres, in a safe environment that encouraged creativity, recreation, and free expression.
Art workshops:
- archival film
- creative writing
- clowning
- forum theatre
Archival Film
01.
For three weeks, through more than 10 meetings, we worked with and explored the personal archives of 10 senior participants. As a complement, the storytelling workshop was designed to bring the retrospective stage developed during the archival film workshop to a close.
We documented the entire process and created two archival short films, which were screened at all four partner senior centres: “Iulia Hașdeu,” “Ion Luca Caragiale,” “Stela Popescu,” and “Mihail Sadoveanu.”
The short films “Three Bedtime Stories” (dir. Andreea Chiper) and “Portraits of Work” (dir. Andra Tarara) are also available on the Cinepub platform.
”WORK PORTRAITS”
2025 | 25’28” | directed and written by Andra Tarara | sound by Laurențiu Coțac | English subtitles
Featuring: Maria Vișan, Maria Țanea, Ioan Cojocaru, Paul Hera
Four senior citizens from Bucharest look back on their professional journeys—from the dreams of their youth to everyday work and the meaning they give to their past today. Through fragments of interviews and photographs from their personal archives, the film explores how personal choices intersect with social circumstances, shaping each person’s relationship with the world.
”THREE BEDTIME STORIES”
2025 | 21’ | directed, written and edited by Andreea Chiper | sound Iulian Nunu | English subtitles
Featuring: Marica Popescu, Constanța Borunteia, Anica Bumbu
Three Bedtime Stories is a female triptych that takes us through the lives of three women as they revisit their past.
Clowning
02.
There is a common misconception that play is only for children. Somewhere along the way, it disappears from our daily routines. At the clowning workshops with senior citizens from Sector 6, the participants proved otherwise: they played with imaginary objects and gave themselves the freedom to do the most naive things. Each of them found and expressed their own personal way of playing.
It was a wonderful opportunity to laugh and not take ourselves too seriously, all under the protection of red noses. The weeks we spent together exploring the world through a clown’s perspective were as entertaining as they were tender.
The clowning workshops were led by actor Tavi Voina.
Forum theatre
03.
Together, we went through the stages of creating a forum theatre performance and explored concepts such as power and, implicitly, the abuse of power through debate games and improvisation. We started from one of the true stories from a participant’s life.
In The Fraud,Maria is deceived over the phone. She is told that she must transfer the money from her bank account to another account because her account has been compromised. Maria believes the person claiming to work for the bank and makes three bank transfers.
The participating senior women and men performed at three senior centres in Sector 6. After each performance, we opened the floor for discussions with the audience about the situation presented and searched together for ingenious, practical solutions.
THE FRAUD
forum theatre performance
Coordinators: Anamaria Feraru, Mirică Iulia
Featuring: Dobrina Bran, Valeriu Stănescu, Tudor Mămăligan, Mihai Marton
partners:
CO-FUNDED BY:
Graphic design: Catinca Dumitrescu
Photo credit: Alex Vasiliu
A project by: Artistic Explorations Platform RHEA
Partners: General Directorate of Social Assistance and Child Protection District 6, Bucharest, The Platform CINEPUB, The National Museum of the Romanian Peasant
Cultural project co-funded by: Administration of the National Cultural Fund
* The project does not necessarily represent the position of the Administration of the National Cultural Fund. AFCN is not responsible for the content of the project or the manner in which the results of the project may be used. These are entirely the responsibility of the funding beneficiary.
