about me: my name is Bogdan Dumitrescu, I am an professional actor, I graduated PhD, Master in Theatre Pedagogy and Bachelor in Acting in Romania. There I have worked as actor, then as acting teacher since 2012 at two theatre universities, in Bucharest and in Pitesti.
Experience: film, tv, improvisational theater (20 years of improv), acting teacher. I like to play cajon.
True story: Francis Ford Coppola told me at a filming that I was, quote, “a very good weapon”. I smiled politely and moved on with my life. And so did he: he moved on with his life too. When I see him again, I’ll ask him to elaborate.
Technical infos:1.70 height, 62 kg, 47 years old. I moved to Norway in June 2023 and have been living near Oslo ever since.
Tata a murit la 68. Eu am 48. În cel mai bun caz, mai am minim 20 de ani de trăit. În cel mai rău, mor mai devreme: De o boală nediagnosticată în câțiva ani, De un accident, mâine, De un atac de cord chiar acum, Când scriu poezia asta care o să rămână, Indiferent de cât de mult m-aș opune.
E o poezie fără rime, Una ca mine, Fără sare și fără piper, Dar e una care va rămâne, Atunci când eu, Poate peste 20 de ani, unul sau chiar acum, Nu voi mai fi.
E ora 4 dimineața. Sunt străin într-o țară care nu e a mea. Mă uit pe geam, Iar sus copilul visează Într-o limbă care nu e a lui.
Înainte cu 20 de ani, Un singur an, Sau poate, Doar o oră înainte să mor, Îmi scriu, fără să știu, Dosarul vieții mele care încă e, Posibil să nu:
-Nu am excelat la nimic, în afară de: Câteva iubiri, Doi copii, Și două sau trei momente cool. -Am iubit, dar nu destul, Iar de iubit, am fost prea mult.
“Sunt imatur”, cum mi s-a zis, Poate ar trebui să cresc, Numai că, așa cum ziceam, Am ultimul sprint în fața morții, Nu mai am timp, Nu mai am timp, Nu mai am timp. Eu cred că o să mor, cândva. Când va… cum va, ce va, mi se va întâmpla. #scrisă23martie2025
Video
me and Nikolaj Joster-Waldau, back in 2004. I was young, he still is today. 🙂
“Positive” – a short film written and directed by me.
me as an actor in the HBO series “Shadows”, season 1, episode 1, 2014,director: Igor Cobileanski
Bogdan Dumitrescu actor in “TheBreakdown” director: Gheorghe Preda writer: Aureliu Manea 2011
Jeg tenker på deg, du tenker på oss, Vi er her, baby, begge mot kaos. Vi lever i krig, orkaner og bomber Men alt ha vi bo is love uten grenser.
Jeg tenker på deg, du tenker på oss, Vi tenker for mye og det blir en kaos, La oss just stop, la oss just be, Du og jeg, kjære, bare vi.
Det er ord uten grenser jeg sender til deg, Jeg føler deg, baby, That’s all i can say. #skrevet2punctumNovember by Bogdan Dumitrescu
4.10.2024: “Lost in the Maze”, a poem looking for a music, (by Bogdan Dumitrescu)
Verse 1:
Lost in a maze, a foreign land,
Between two worlds, I’m torn apart.
A stranger here, a ghost in my own home,
Searching for a place to call my own.
Chorus:
Caught in the crossfire, between two shores,
A heart divided, forevermore.
Lost in the maze, a foreign land,
Searching for a place to stand.
Verse 2:
Haunted by memories, sweet and sour,
Of a place I once called home,
Now I wander, a solitary soul,
Seeking solace, making my goal.
Verse 3:
Tolerance for the unknown, a test,
A challenge faced, a heart put to the test.
Embracing differences, a foreign land,
Finding common ground, hand in hand.
Chorus:
Caught in the crossfire, between two shores,
A heart divided, forevermore.
Lost in the maze, a foreign land,
Searching for a place to stand.
Bridge:
I’ll find my way, through the darkest night,
With a flicker of hope, a guiding light.
I’ll rise above, I’ll overcome,
A new beginning, a future to come.
Chorus:
Caught in the crossfire, between two shores,
A heart divided, forevermore.
Lost in the maze, a foreign land,
Searching for a place to stand.
26. September 2024: Maybe theater will last!
I’ve been thinking about us actors for a while now. In a world where characters are being artificially created in all sorts of ways, games, platforms and digital contexts, maybe that’s exactly why the theater actor will survive. Direct, human-to-human communication alongside the printed book on paper will withstand the onslaught of artificial intelligence, fake-news and robotic technology. Flesh-and-blood performances may become even more sought-after, and the viewer’s need to witness an event involving other people will be ever greater. Cinema may get rid of flesh and bones, but theater, I think, never. Even though it’s likely in a few years we’ll be able to interact with holograms of deceased loved ones, holograms won’t be able to shed even one real tear. Or, who knows, maybe even theater will be replaced by technology, AI and robots. We will live and see. Maybe we’ll meet, in hologram form, 100 years from now and exchange views about the future we envision today in the year 2024. See you in 2124 on September 26? Around 12am, allright?
14. September, 2024:
About acting and childhood:
The best actors are children.The hypothesis is verified, clearly. I take the liberty of particularizing and writing that we are talking about children up to 4-5 years of age, not all of them. After this age, I think, children begin to become adults: they begin to ‘learn’ that their actions in the present can in some way affect their future, a future that is also an adult future, a future based on terms such as ‘success’, ‘confirmation’, ‘achievement’. I take the liberty of writing this as a parent of a double (3 and 14), but also as an acting teacher at 2 universities and actor in Romania for 20 years. But it’s not about me the topic, it’s not about children either, with the focus is on the #actor and about #acting. When I was doing my PhD, an acting teacher (Prof. DR. Adriana Popovici) was telling me, when I was telling her about how I would put EEG headsets on an actor to find out what’s going on in the actor’s mind, and here I quote: “That’s good, but it would be better if you gave some answers, not just questions, because we all know those.” The answers to most questions are, I think, simple and within everyone’s reach. “How to be a good actor?” , this complex question, has a simple answer, “Just watch children and learn from them!”.
Now s the important question: “How to make a child out of an adult actor again?” That’s what this article is about.
I think what makes the difference between a child and an actor is the lack of “analyzing the stage process”. The child doesn’t think too much about what other people’s impression of his actions, the actor does. The child doesn’t want to do the “best of it”, as Keith Johnstone used to say the actor, often does. In essence, that’s the difference between a professional and an amateur artist. Maybe in the case of the amateur artist and the child, this unconsciousness gives it a plus, compared to the professional artist, but: the former costs them nothing if they don’t do well, the professional actor, especially the freelance artist, costs him or her a month’s rent money, probably, plus another couple of uncertain months if he or she doesn’t take in important casting. And yet: we can train , or at least we can realize, what they seem to do well, the children, and we, the professional actors, can try to become children again, for the sake of the casting possibly taken. It costs us nothing. We just need to remember Viola Spolin’s famous saying: ‘Get out of your head!’. I know it’s hard, but it’s worth a try, this saying, at least where it’s not about casting, where it’s not about money. In training, we can try that, out there, in our own gym, the actors who train every day. Try, train, dream, just do it! 😉
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#aboutme:
My name is Bogdan Dumitrescu, I am an professional actor, I graduated PhD, Master in Theatre Pedagogy and Bachelor in Acting in Romania. There I have worked as actor, then as acting teacher since 2012 at two theatre universities, in Bucharest and in Pitesti.
24.07.2024 Moss, Norway:
I just found out that a former student I trained through Zoom took the entrance exam to the master’s program in film acting in Romania. It’s the only master’s program for film actors in my country. Cannes award-winning actors and directors teach and give master classes. This year’s teachers are Adrian Titieni and Emanuel Parvu, both Cannes award winners. Cristi Puiu, Cristian Mungiu, Radu Jude, Tudor Giurgiu and Corneliu Porumboiu have also given master classes there.
And because I’m very happy, I’m thinking about what I’ve done well in this month of Zoom meetings, because it’s probably useful to remind myself.
So, things I did well:
-We trusted and respected each other;
-We didn’t rush the process;
-I was only guided by Meisner’s principle: “To live truthfully under the circumstances”;
-I set clear, pragmatic and realistic goals, leaving enough time between meetings to make things work;
-I followed the next step technique daily;
-I followed the KISS principle: keep it simple, stupid;
-I tried to periodize my training so that the peak of her form coincides with the competition stage (with the master’s degree exam day);
-I always used Stanislavski’s “The magic if”: What if what is written in the text really happened to you?
-I was realistic in the feedback I gave at the beginning and end of each meeting;
-I followed and succeeded in creating a daily routine for the student;
-I challenged the student but always kept the balance between my demands and the possibilities of the moment;
-I was not at all interested in “how” to play theater, I was not interested in anything aesthetic;
-I trained the student to give their own answers, but above all to ask their own questions;
-I never provided solutions, only suggestions;
-I communicated;
-I alternated between technical training and physical, emotional or strictly rational training;
-I was constantly aware of what she was doing, what she couldn’t yet do, but also what he would never be able to do, and I took it all in my stride;
-I enjoyed every second of the meeting and challenged the student to enjoy it too;
-the last, but perhaps most important aspect of the equation: I prepared the student both for victory and for possible failure.
As an acting coach, I got this round right.
End of story: #mehappy
my cv:
Experience: film, tv, improvisational theater (20 years of improv), acting teacher. I like to play cajon.
My acting world, as seen through the eyes of my students In 2017, I worked with a group of 13 #acting students for one of my PhD experiments.
A month into the workshop, I asked them a few questions about my workshop. Since then, when I have pedagogical doubts, I re-read the students' answers.
One of my questions:
-What is the most important thing you learned during my hashtag#improv workshop?
Their answers:
1) First, I found the concept of NOT saying "no" to your partner extremely important and interesting. That "no" is NOT used in improv. Again, through various games we have learned to listen to our partner all the way through, to listen to what they have to say so that we can give our "feedback in real-time". "Irish Drinking Song" was the name of my favorite hashtag#improv hashtag#game and although the role is to give good rhymes, I think the most important thing in this game is to listen to your partners and adapt quickly.
2) I relearned how to have fun, overcome my fears and force my imagination to work all the time . I even learned to accept my mistakes as normal and useful.
3) The most important thing is not to be afraid, not to be stubborn and to enjoy what others do.
4) Focus on the partner, everything comes from the partner.
5) That any suggestion they get doesn't close the way, but continues to add something and open new opportunities.
6) There is nothing wrong, there is just inattention and fear.
7) Nothing is wrong, try to own your mistake, out of mistake comes truth.
8) Adapt quickly to any situation and don't be ashamed of your ideas, no matter how silly they seem. That it can be okay without preparing anything beforehand, if you have the courage to throw yourself, within the rules; that you are enough as you are, you are good enough;
9) relaxation, first and foremost, and real interaction - here and now.
10) At this point I began to understand what "relaxation" really means on stage. Also, focusing in the moment and letting go of mistakes. It trained my ability to easily change my ideas.
11) A moment of inattention and you missed the moment, always accept a suggestion and trust your intuition and your stage partners.
12) Be present, accept your partner's suggestion, trust your suggestion and follow through, don't be prideful and know how to move on when you are stuck.
13) There is no me, there is only us."
Bogdan Dumitrescu and Nicolaj Koster- Waldau in “My name is Modesty”, director: Scott Spiegel, year: 2004
Bogdan Dumitrescu and Serban Pavlu in HBO serie “Shadows”, year: 2014, director: Igor Cobileanski
Film:
Youth without youth, directed by Francis Ford Coppola,
Anatol character
HBO, UMBRE, directed by Igor Cobilanschi, ep 1, Antonio character
Cainele
Tudo
Fetele lu’ dom’ Profesor
Poker
Portretul luptãtorului la tinerete
Sinopsis docu-drama
Catherine the Great
Second-Hand
Milionari de weekend
My Name Is Modesty: A Modesty Blaise Adventure
Regina războinică
„The portrait of the fighter”, director Constantin Popescu
Radio:
Treplev in “Pescărușul”, by A.P.Cehov, Radio Romania
Mircea Eliade in “Mircea Eliade”, Radio Romania Cultural
“Caii la fereastră”, Radio Romania Cultural
„The Breakdown”, director Gheorghe Preda
TEATRU:
– “Falling Down”, by Oleg Bogaev, directed by Alexandru Maftei, Nottara Theater, Bucharest
-“After the rain”, by Sergi Belbel, directed by Alexandru Maftei, Apollo 111 Theater, Bucharest – „ComedyDotShow”- founder, director, actor – „Comedy Sport Show”= director, actor – „Agamemnon”, by Rodrigo Garcia, directed by Radu Nica, Metropolis Theater, Bucharest – „Mojo”, by Jezz Butterworth, directed by Radu Dragomirescu, Teatrul Foarte Mic Bucharest – „Cum o fi”, directed by Radu Dragomirescu, Teatrul Act Bucharest – „Avionul albastru si cutia de conserve”,regia Paul Chiribuţă,Teatrul Arcub – „Odissea 2001”, regia Catalina Buzoianu,Teatrul Bulandra, Bucuresti
Jerks in “I hate Helen”, regia Carmen Vidu, Teatrul Arcub, Bucuresti, 2005
Red in “Bitter Sauce”, regia Carmen Vidu, Teatrul Luni de la Green Hours, Bucuresti, 2005
“Improshow”, regia Vlad Massaci, La Scena, Bucuresti, 2005
Calatorul si asistenta regie in “traffic_lights”, regia Razvan Ion, Institutul Francez, Bucuresti, 2004
Melzehoff in “CEA MAI PROASTA PIESA DIN LUME”regia Monica Teodorescu, La Scena, Bucuresti, 2004
