 Hello everyone, my name is Rosa Maria Costich-Desneros and I am working with the Independent Theatre Hungary and we are sitting down today with Alex FIFA, with a freelance art actor and playwrights and today we are discussing Bambina, Queen of Flowers. So yes, Alex, if you could tell me a little bit about who you are. That'd be great. Well, I'm a social and political actor here in Romania and Bucharest, Romania. I've started getting involved in this process of producing drama and theatre on this particular niche, let's say, of social and political. Back in 2013 and 2014, Bambina, Queen of Flowers is kind of one of my first attempts at organizing and producing the theatre and I'm also the co-partner of Art Hub Bucharest, which is the platform that we use for getting our grants and producing the Roma Independent Theatre here in Bucharest, 2021. Fantastic, fantastic. So this piece, Bambina, Queen of Flowers, if you have a little bit of an Italian ring to it, is that by accident or can you talk a little bit about the title? For the people who have seen the show, it is explained in the performance that the main character of the play, Mrs. Lina Giorgescu, actually was known in the whole of Romania, in the whole of Bucharest, in the Florist community in Bucharest and all over Romania and even internationally on her, let's say, name, surname that used to be, since she was a child and starting getting into this business, it was called, she was called Bambina. Bambina, which, yes, has a similar Italian sound and means a child. So Bambina, a really strong and powerful businesswoman, Roma businesswoman, one of the first and the most important figures, actually was called by everybody in the community and within the authorities and stuff and partners outside Europe as Bambina. And she was remembered and still is remembered by the Florist community as the so-called Queen of Flowers here in Romania. Yes, and I think it speaks to, you know, a lot of jobs or skills from the community, you know, we have our own businesses, we like to be autonomous, there's a lot of kind of creativity as well in the work that we're doing. So it really references that side of the community quite, quite beautifully. And, you know, it's, I remember growing up hearing a lot, you know, the Gypsy kids, they'll sell the flowers at the markets or and sometimes it was negative, but also sometimes it was positive. There is a little bit of kind of admiration for that connection with nature. I think it depends. I think it depends on how much interest do you have as a public, as a general public, maybe a person in the general public, that you have in circumstances that lie beneath these street opportunities, that the street gives us. You see florists and they come to the table and they sell the flowers and they are so beautiful and exotic maybe for the tourists maybe because they wear their traditional skirts and with the traditional flowers and they are all over Bucharest, yes. But just a little part of this gets to be known. Who are these beautiful women, women that stand and sell flowers? What is the story behind them? What work is this? Is it a tradition involved in this? And yes, the play, I think it has some educational, if you know mean, it doesn't, it's not didactic like blah, blah, blah, it has some history because there are some elements that the general public doesn't, isn't used of perceiving, you know, and so it's an opportunity to get to see the real people in this community, to understand them and their histories and their personal stories and there are a lot and it is a long tradition of florists here in Romania and they are very big and strong and beautiful community, even in these days. Absolutely. But aside from that, the play has a second outcome, so to say, because it addresses the realities of the days, of our days, because okay, it was a beautiful history and maybe a hurtful history that we still have to get along with because it involved also the exploitation in Roma and how they haven't, it was a means of surviving for them, this job of selling flowers. So yes, we put a little bit of history into it, but we also make a record to the realities of these days and the realities of these days are not as beautiful as you may think, you know, because the social part of it, the way that society evolves, maybe doesn't give such a good chance to this community, you know. Yes, yes. And I think it's quite powerful to see, you know, that you're using the work in this as a platform to educate, to offer insights into the reality, the current reality and also holding up a mirror for the community to see themselves on stage, you know. I think this is very important and it's lacking in a lot of communities, the self-representation part is not existent. Yes. And of course, we are talking people that, look, when we first made it, when we first launched the play, it was in a beautiful play in theater venue in Bucharest called the Jewish State Theater, because you see the Jewish community here in Bucharest has a beautiful theater with more than 100 years history and the Roma Theater of course doesn't have a venue for itself and we got to see the big and beautiful, how do you say, the room, the space. Yeah, the space with the stage and 400 people and we had to hold on the beginning to get more people in and it was like 400 persons in 300, it was before the COVID era and back then regulations were more relaxed but it was formidable for me to see so many of them, the florist ladies and their families and their friends and it was all a Roma field with a beautiful venue filled with Roma, filled with female florists and it was really, really, really, I don't know how to say, beautiful. Yes. So there is, what I mean is that there is an interest to see these kind of representations because it involved Roma people on stage and it involved a lot of beautiful music that was done on stage and with live music with seven musicians and three actors and it was really, really, really, very emotional and very powerful to the whole community. Even if for, maybe like for a lot of them, it was maybe the first time when they got to actually enter a theater venue, you know. Yes, yes. This makes people see themselves represented on stage and gives a lot and a lot of power to them. Yes. It's a story they can tell to their kids and get to see the show another time and the kids will get to see the show another time and this is really beautiful because it keeps traditions alive, it keeps a whole community involved and in touch and being empowered and represented. And is there something else about the show that you would like us to know or that feels like a memorable moment or that you think maybe we might not know about? So maybe some background story of some part of it? Well, it was, as I mentioned already, it was the night of the premiere. And after the night of the premiere, we had to stop the entry because the venue was full, full, full. There were way too many people and it was done late with half an hour and it was getting really, people really wanted it to start already. So the next day, 10 a.m. in the morning, we had another representation, a full live representation in the flower market itself at the George Kosh Book Square. Yeah. And it was, that place no longer exists because it's been demolished in 2020 during the pandemics. Yes. They used the pandemic context to shovel the place and to destroy it completely and now they are changed across the city in another location. It's not historical, but this historical place, the flower market, that got to see the whole performance done right there at the place. And it was a totally different energy, but the place really stood out very good and in public and very powerful because of the music. And it wasn't so festive. People were at work actually there. But it was also very, very, very emotional for me as an actor and for them with a lot of applause and people were filming. Yeah. This is one moment I totally recall, but now what's most important to mention is that this year, in about 10 days here in Bucharest is going to start the first Roma International Theatre Festival in Bucharest, which Art Hub is proudly organizing. And the Bambina Queen of Flowers is also included in the first edition of this festival because this edition I think will sum up some of the most important plays, Roma Theatre plays that have been done along the years here. And Bambina will also be, of course, it is kind of our queen. She still is our queen. Yeah, yeah, yeah. It's the flag, it's the flagship of the festival, so to say. Fantastic. Well, thank you so much for sitting down with us today and for sharing and for honoring also. I think that's a big part of our community as we honor the past, our elders, but also keep moving forward and looking at the current context. And we adapt. We're very resilient, so it is very sad that this square no longer exists. Yeah, it was a symbol for Bucharest. But unfortunately here in Bucharest, we have this thing with historical places that, ah, but let's not get there. Yes. Thank you so much for the invitation. Thank you. It's been a real pleasure talking to you. And thank you very much for the occasion of making a little bit of advertising for the festival in Bucharest also. Yes, no, thank you for everything. Thank you so much. And all the best to the festival. All the best. Thank you, thank you, thank you. Take care. Bye-bye.