The scientific journal Studia Universitatis Babes-Bolyai Dramatica was created at the beginning of 2006, as a biannual academic publication, being one of the youngest series in the wide collection of Babes-Bolyai University, Cluj-Napoca. The appearance of this journal is closely linked to the evolution of the Faculty of Theatre and Television, currently the Faculty of Theatre and Film, which became an independent, modern and dynamic institution in 2005, having been a department within the Faculty of Letters for more than a decade (1991).
As the faculty offers specializations both in the Performing Arts (Department of Theatre: Acting, Directing, Theatology) and in the Visual Arts (Department of CFM: Cinematography, Filmology, Photography, Media), the journal Studia UBB Dramatica has included articles, studies, essays, interviews, reviews, book, performance and film reviews, grouped according to the fields of interest of the faculty’s professors and students.
All along its growth, the journal has tried to constantly adapt to the scientific demands of both form and content. Leading personalities in the field of performing arts, both from home and abroad, such as Silviu Purcărete, George Banu, Andrei Șerban, Visky Andras, Marian Popescu, Alina Nelega, Marc Bogaerts, Monique Banu Borie, David Zinder, Claudia Tatinge Nascimento, Jean-Jacques Lemêtre, Eugenio Barba, Roberto Bacci, Marco Biagini, Thomas Richards, Bearice Picon-Vallin, Patrice Pavis and many others have given interviews or published in our magazine.
From the very first issues onwards, the focus has been put on scientific articles and studies, theatre creation, interviews, reviews and critical reviews of performances, theatre books, films or cultural events in the performing arts. However, while at the beginning texts were accepted in several languages (English, French and German) and in Romanian, since 2008 only the reviews section has remained in Romanian, and since 2012 the entire content of the magazine has been published and is still published only in English and French, but each article has a mandatory English summary. The main reason for this choice was the desire to open the journal to the international circuit of scientific publications and to ease the access of foreign specialists to the research results of Romanian specialists in the fields of: performing arts, cinema and related.
Up until 2011 the dates of publication of the journal were June and December, and the issues were co-ordinated on a rotating basis by an academic responsible for the journal. Since 2012, Studia UBB Dramatica is aligned with the publication dates of the international reference publications in the field, namely March and October of each calendar year. Also, the design of the magazine in terms of pagination and cover has undergone a refreshing upgrade, starting with issue 1/2014, dedicated to the 50th anniversary of the founding of Odin Teatret.
With regards to those in charge for the publication of each issue, the work of the editorial team (made up of prestigious staff of our Faculty as well as nationally and internationally renowned specialists) has always been coordinated, in addition to the person in charge of each issue, by the editor-in-chief (Prof. Dr. Liviu Malița until 2012, and then by Prof. Dr. Ștefana Pop-Curșeu until now) assisted by the secretary (currently lect. Dr. Mihai Pedestru) and by the main editor of all Studia series, Mrs. Alina Vesa.
In order to encourage discipline and scientific rigor as well as to highlight topics and fields of study that stimulate the interest of researchers and theatre professionals of this day and age, the choice of grouping the different issues of the journal, especially according to thematic criteria, was appropriate. Analytical and historical studies, essays, artists’ testimonies and critical reviews have been grouped throughout the magazine’s existence around themes such as:
-Rethinking Theatricality. Modes of Performing: On and Beyond Stage (1/2011);
-The Studio of the Artist, the Laboratory of Creation (2/2011);
-Tadeusz Kantor Today. Polish Theatre: Presence and Perspectives (1/2012);
-Rewriting, Revisiting and Adaptation of Dramatic Texts (2/2012);
-The Theatre’s Text Today: Production, Interpretation, Reception (1/2013);
-Le Théâtre et la nuit : au-delà et au cœur du dramatique. En l’honneur de Georges Banu (2/2013);
-Eugenio Barba. Celebrating 50 Years with Odin Teatret (1/2014);
-Mind, Body, Voice: Ways of Theatricality (2/2014);
-The Actor’s Body: Image, Metaphor and Sign (1/2015);
-Spectator’s Body, Emotions & Empathy (2/2015);
-DADA >100: Life/Art/Museum. Dadaism and Perfoming Arts (1/2016);
-DADA >100: Life/Art/Museum. Dadaism and Perfoming Arts II (2/2016);
-Narrative Structures in Contemporary Performing Arts (1/2017);
-New Perspectives in Theatre History and Criticism (2/2017);
-Romanian Theatre: New Perspectives. Celebrating the Centenary of modern Romania 1918-2018 (1/2018);
– Romanian Theatre seen from Outside the Boders: Artistic and Critical Perspectives. Celebrating the Centenary of modern Romania 1918-2018 (2/2018);
-Between Shaping Mirrors: Discourses on Performing Arts (1/2019);
-Copy-Past. Revaluating History, Memory and Archive in Cinema, Performing Arts and Visual Culture (2/2019);
-Images of Witchcraft: Theatre, Cinema, Visual & Performing Arts (1/2020).
The archive of Studia UBB Dramatica reflects the dominant interests at the beginning of the 21st century, so that present and upcoming issues continue to take the pulse of theatre world of today.