Presented on the occasion of the Holocaust Remembrance Day 2025
About the Event
We are proud to co-produce and present the world premiere of the first dramatization of one of the most powerful stories of the Holocaust, Norman Manea’s thought-provoking and utterly timely literary masterpiece, The Hooligan's Return. Adapted for the stage with her usual dramatic flair by Saviana Stănescu and directed with consummate skill by Edward Einhorn, this theatrical workshop, still a work in progress, offers audiences the first ever dramatic take on the consequential Romanian-American author’s exploration of identity, exile, memory, and the scars left by history. The production weaves together Manea’s reflections, as relevant now as ever, on his experiences as a child deported to a Nazi labor camp, his fraught relationship with his homeland under Communist rule, and the broader challenges of reconciling past and present in a world shaped by trauma. The premiere is dedicated to the Holocaust Remembrance Day.
THE HOOLIGAN'S RETURN
Written by: Norman Manea
Adapted for stage by: Saviana Stănescu
Directed by: Edward Einhorn
Assistent director: Adriana Guiman
Stage manager: Berit Johnson
Artistic consultant: John Clinton Eisner
Cast: Vas Eli, Grant Neale, Alyssa Simon, Katarina Vizina, Max Wolkowitz, Maxwell Zener, Yelena Shmulenson
Duration: 1h 15min
Language: English
Free entry, RSVP required (seats will be allocated on a first come, first served basis).
Meet the Writer
NORMAN MANEA, prolific writer, public intellectual and mentor, is one the most celebrated Romanian authors of the past decades and an indispensable moral compass in a world going astray. His large body of work has been translated in all corners of the world to great acclaim. He is Francis Flournoy Professor Emeritus in European Studies and Culture and Distinguished Writer in Residence at Bard College, New York and the author of a long series of novels, volumes of short fiction, and essays. Originally written in Romanian and published in 30 languages, the following titles are also available in English: October Eight O’Clock (short fiction, 1992), On Clowns: The Dictator and the Artist (essays, 1992), Compulsory Happiness (novellas, 1993), The Black Envelope (novel, 1995), The Lair (novel, 2012), The Fifth Impossibility (essays, 2012), The Hooligan’s Return (novel, 2003; 2nd edition, 2013), Settling My Accounts Before I Go Away. An Interview with Saul Bellow (2013), Paradise Found: An Interview with Hannes Stein (2013), Captives (2015). Norman Manea was granted, among others, The Guggenheim Fellowship (1992), The McArthur Fellowship (1993), The National Jewish Book Award (1993), The New York Public Library Literary Lion Medal (1993), The Nonino International Prize for "Opera Omnia" (2002), Napoli Prize for Fiction (2004), Prix Médicis Étranger (2006), Nelly Sachs Prize (2011), The National Prize for Literature awarded by the Romanian Writers’ Union (2012), and the FIL Grand Prize for Literature in Romance Languages (2016). He is a member of Berlin Academy of Art (Germany, 2006), a honorary member of The Royal Society of Literature (United Kingdom, 2011), and was awarded the title Commandeur dans l'Ordre des Arts et des Lettres (France, 2009), the Romanian "Cultural Merit" Order in the rank of Commander (2006), and the National Order "Star of Romania" in the rank of Grand Officer (2016).
Meet the Creative Team
SAVIANA STĂNESCU is a cutting-edge Romanian-American playwright, poet, and ARTivist based in NY, author of Aliens with Extraordinary Skills, For a Barbarian Woman, Don’t / Dream, Bee Trapped Inside the Window, Zebra 2.0, What Happens Next, Ants, Lenin’s Shoe, Hurt, Useless, Toys, and other plays centering the immigrant experience. Winner of New York Innovative Theatre Award for Outstanding Play (Waxing West) and UNITER Award for Best Romanian Play of the Year (Inflatable Apocalypse), Saviana has published over 15 books of plays and poetry, written in English or Romanian. Other honors include Indie Theatre Hall of Fame, John Golden Award, Fulbright, KulturKontakt, Marulic Prize for Best European Radiodrama, Inaugural Audrey Residency with New Georges, Richard Schechner’s ECA writer-in-residence, NYSCA grants, etc. Saviana's plays have been produced/developed around the world at La MaMa Theatre, Women’s Project, 59E59, EST, New York Theatre Workshop, HERE, New Georges, Lark, Cherry Arts, Hangar Theatre, Long Wharf, Know Theatre, Civic Ensemble, HeartBeat Ensemble, Teatro La Capilla, Teatrul Odeon, Teatrul ACT, and London's Royal National Theatre. Dr. Stanescu holds an MA in Performance Studies and an MFA in Dramatic Writing from New York University, Tisch School of the Arts, and a PhD in Theatre from the National University of Theatre&Film in Bucharest. She currently works as a tenured Associate Professor of Playwriting at Ithaca College’s School of Music, Theatre, and Dance, where she serves as the Chair of the BA in Theatre Studies program. Saviana is an affiliated scholar/artist with Cornell University’s Center for International Studies.
EDWARD EINHORN is the Artistic Director of both Untitled Theater Company No. 61 and the Rehearsal for Truth International Theater Festival, honoring Václav Havel. He is a playwright, theater director, librettist, and children’s book novelist. He has worked at La MaMa, La MaMa, HERE Arts Center, The New Ohio, St. Ann's Warehouse, the Bruno Walter Auditorium at Lincoln Center, and the Bohemian National Hall in New York, as well as the Jermyn Street Theatre, Peckham Asylum Chapel, Wigmore Hall, and Milton Court at the Barbican in London. Next up: a remount of The Marriage of Alice B. Toklas by Gertrude Stein (NY Times Critics Pick) at the Edinburgh Festival and an adaptation of Ursula K. Le Guin’s The Left Hand of Darkness, which will play at the Chicago International Puppetry Festival and La MaMa.
VAS ELI / VASILE FLUTUR is a Romanian actor based in New York. He completed his undergraduate studies at the National University of Theatrical and Cinematographic Arts in Bucharest and received the "Ștefan Iordache" Award upon graduation. As an MFA at Brooklyn College, he received the Friars' Club Fellowship. He made his American television debut in The Blacklist alongside James Spader and Christopher Lambert. He is set to guest star with a role on ABC's For Life with Nicholas Pinnock. He made his Off-Broadway debut in Tamburlaine, directed by Sir Michael Boyd, at Theater for a New Audience, a show that received "Most Honorable Mention" in the New York Times "Best Shows of 2014."
GRANT NEALE is the Founding Artistic Director of Nomad Theatrical; proud actor-alum of Jean Cocteau Rep and Ridiculous Theatrical. NYC: Porgy And Bess (The Detective), Metropolitan Opera; Is Life Worth Living, The Mint; Edward Einhorn’s Marriage of Alice B. Toklas (Hemingway), HERE; Conquest of The Universe, La MaMa; Saviana Stanescu’s Polanski Polanski (Roman Polanski), PS122; Comedy of Errors (Dromios), NY Classical. Tours: Brother Truckers, London/Edinburgh; Christmas Carol, Germany; Saviana Stanescu’s Waxing West (Ceausescu), Romania/Sweden; The Fools Lear (Fool). Regional: Antigone (Creon), Baltimore Center Stage; Winter’s Tale (Leontes), Milwaukee Shakes; (John D’Agata) Lifespan of A Fact, Shaker Bridge Theatre, August: Osage County, Arkansas Rep. Next up Noises Off, Gulf Shore Playhouse.
ALYSSA SIMON most recently played ensemble roles in The Goldberg Variations, directed by Manfred Bormann at Theatre for The New City and Hadas Eilon in the Off-Broadway run of October 7th: In Their Own Words at Actors Temple Theatre, directed by Geoffrey Cantor. She is a member of Gemini CollisionWorks and Untitled Theatre Co. No. 61 Her next project is Our Time Is Up written/directed by Bill Zola for the Secret Theatre in February.
KATARINA VIZINA, native of Bratislava, Slovakia, holds an MA in Musical Theater from the Czech Republic and an MFA in Acting from Brooklyn College where she received the Fellowship for Outstanding Contribution to Theater. Katarina has been part of the traditional as well as the avant-garde New York theater scene since 2002. She has performed in plays, musicals, one woman shows, cabarets, sketch comedy, radio shows, movies, and countless voiceover spots. She sings and performs in English, Slovak, Czech, German and Russian (you can talk her into Yiddish and Hebrew). When not performing, Katarina is the general to her three handsome sons, personal stylist to her lovely little princess and a tsarina to their father. www.katarinavizina.com / IG@katarinavizina
MAX WOLKOWITZ is an award-winning actor based in Brooklyn. He previously worked with UTC61 on Pangs of the Messiah and Doctors Jane and Alexander. Recent favorites include The Sabbath Girl: The Musical (59E59) in which he originated the role of Seth; Waiting for Godot (Barrington Stage) for which he won a Berkie Award for Outstanding Featured Actor. He has worked at theaters across the country including Arena Stage, Alabama Shakespeare Festival, Kansas City Rep, Baltimore Center stage and more. TV: FBI (CBS). BA: Bennington. MFA: Brown/Trinity. Proud member of The Actors Center.
MAXWELL ZENER is a well known American actor based in New York. His NYC theater includes The Memo, Exagoge, Doctors Jane and Alexander, Linguish (UTC61); Caesar and Cleopatra, The Importance of Being Earnest, The Truth Quotient (Resonance Ensemble); Raft of the Medusa (Secret Theatre); Daylight Precision (Theater for the New City); Savage in Limbo (Rosalind Productions). Regional theater includes Signature Theater (VA), Imagination Stage, and the Williamstown Theater Festival. Film & TV include The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel, Boardwalk Empire, PowerLess, and Shooting Script. He has narrated over 130 audiobooks, including Edward Einhorn’s Paradox in Oz, and recently received a SOVAS award nomination for Twice as Weird: A Memoir About Twice Exceptionality.
YELENA SHMULENSON is very glad to be back at the RCI after last year’s Yiddish-theater themed “Presents from Romania”. She grew up in Ukraine and emigrated to the US in the 1990s. She’s perhaps best known as the icepick-wielding peasant in the Coen brothers’ A Serious Man. TV & FILM: Orange Is the New Black (recurring), Boardwalk Empire, Chicago Med, Madam Secretary, The Knick, Blue Bloods, Romeo &Juliet in Yiddish, Robert De Niro’s The Good Shepherd. STAGE: 2 seasons at the Ellis Island Theatre, The Dybbuk (Leah), The Golem of Havana (LaMama NYC/Miami New Drama), The Essence: A Yiddish Theater Dim Sum (NY/Stockholm/Bucharest), Tevye Served Raw (NYC/Bucharest/Dresden) etc. She is also a Russian/Yiddish coach/translator for numerous projects and an audiobook narrator.
BERIT JOHNSON has been working in Indie Theater in NYC since 1996 as a stage manager and prop designer. They are a member of UTC61, and co-director of Gemini CollisionWorks with their partner, Ian W. Hill. They are also the showrunner and head writer for GCW’s sci-fi audio sitcom, Life with Althaar, which is available wherever podcasts are streamed.
ADRIANA GUIMAN started taking theatre directing, and playwriting classes three years ago at the Acting Studio. With a background in film and media production she is passionate about projects where technology and art meet, and loves being involved in theatrical performances.
Livestream | “The Hooligan's Return” by Norman Manea | Friday, January 31, Romanian Cultural Institute
Photo Album | “The Hooligan's Return” by Norman Manea | Friday, January 31, Romanian Cultural Institute
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