The Andrei Şerban Traveling Academy is a unique initiative providing young Romanian actors with open space to experiment, learn, and explore their creative capacities both in Romania and abroad.  The Traveling Academy endeavors to bring the artistic energies of writers, actors, and directors together within a laboratory-like setting, under the innovative guidance of prominent director and inspiring teacher Andrei Şerban.

The journey

Conceived and launched under Romanian-American auspices, the Andrei Şerban Traveling Academy debuted in July 2007 in Romania, with a workshop developed around Deadly Confession, a nonfiction novel written by Tatiana Niculescu Bran.

 Gathered in the remote Transylvanian village of Plopi near Cluj, a group of thirteen actors have been working together with Andrei Şerban and Tatiana Niculescu Bran in developing Deadly Confession into a theatre piece. Their creative journey takes them from that reclusive setting to the bustle of New York, where, on September 11, they commence a three-week workshop hosted by La MaMa E.T.C. The American journey culminates with a public performance of the resulting work-in-progress at La MaMa Theatre on October 1.

The actors are: Csilla Albert, Richard Balint, Ionuţ Caraş, Ramona Dumitrean, Cristian Grosu, Cătălin Herlo, Cristina Holtzli, Silvius Iorga, Nora Labancz, Mara Opriş, Florentina Ţilea, and Andrea Tokai.

 Deadly Confession – the story

“Crucified by fellow nuns and a priest, a young nun dies during a ritual of exorcism performed in a remote Romanian monastery.” Thus read the headlines in dozens of newspapers around the world in June 2005, the medieval scenario and spectacular coverage stirring the imagination of journalists and public alike. Gothic novels and horror films couldn't have done better. But what is fact and what is fiction in regard to this sensational tale? For anyone skeptical of a gothic drama made real, the story of the life and death of 23 year-old Irina Cornici proves to be far more complex than its media coverage indicates.

In her nonfiction novel Spovedanie la Tanacu (Deadly Confession), Tatiana Niculescu Bran renders a dramatized account of this bizarre episode. Bran, the editor-in-chief for the Romanian service of the BBC World Service in Bucharest, bases her book upon more than fifty interviews she conducted in the wake of the tragedy with those involved.