Andrei Șerban (born June 21, 1943) is a Romanian-Americantheater director. A major name in twentieth-century theater, he is renowned for his innovative and iconoclastic interpretations and stagings. In 1992 he became Professor of Theater at the Columbia UniversitySchool of the Arts, a position he resigned from in 2019, citing oppressive pressure in the name of "political correctness" on a level which reminded him of communist Romania.
Biography
Early life
Born in Bucharest, he is the son of George and Elpis Șerban. His father came from an old family of Țara Chioarului in Maramureș, studied law at Leipzig, directed a bank and was close friends with Iuliu Maniu, who attended Serban's baptism. After the onset of the communist regime, George was fired and obliged to work as a photographer. His mother came from a family of Greek merchants settled in Tulcea, originally from Cephalonia. She worked as a teacher of Romanian language and literature.[1][2]
As a child, he was presenting puppet shows at home and staging mock battles with his friends in Bucharest's Grădina Icoanei.
From 1961 to 1968, he studied at the Institute of Theatre and Film Arts (IATC). As a student, he directed Julius Caesar, which he now calls his "most daring production ever". Set in the Japanese Kabuki style, with a flower bridge built over the audience, and with Caesar's death performed in slow motion created an enormous scandal. After that, it became very hard for him to find a job in Romania.
In 2006, he published his autobiography, written in Romanian.
In late 2019, Andrei Șerban resigned from his position at Columbia University, citing pressure on staff to accept teachers and students lacking the required academic standards in the name of political correctness. In an interview with a Romanian TV station, he compared the intransigent leftist atmosphere dominating the American academia to the oppressive one in communist Romania, where artists were told by party functionaries how to think and how to create.[3]
Andrei Șerban, Călătoriile mele. TEATRU / My Journeys. THEATRE, Romanian Cultural Institute, Bucharest, 2008. ISBN978-973-577-543-8
Andrei Șerban, Călătoriile mele. OPERA / My Journeys. OPERA, Romanian Cultural Institute, Bucharest, 2008. ISBN978-973-577-544-5
Andrei Șerban, Mihaela Marin CHEKHOV SHAKESPEARE BERGMAN văzuți de / seen by Andrei Șerban, Romanian Cultural Institute, Bucharest, 2012. ISBN978-973-776-367-9
^"Regizorul Andrei Şerban explică de ce a plecat de la Columbia University: "Nu pot să cred că el poate juca Julieta. Acest băiat care a devenit fată de trei ani"". cultura (in Romanian). November 6, 2019. În epoca Trump, dreapta e foarte radicală, stânga e foarte radicală. Universităţile în America sunt, de obicei, de stânga, iar la Columbia University este un fel de socialism care merge spre comunism, e o nouă formă de comunism", a mai afirmat el. (English: "In the Trump era, the right is very radical, the left is very radical. Universities in America are usually left-wing, and at Columbia University there is a kind of socialism that goes toward communism, it is a new form of communism.")