Elise Wilk
I’ve been writing fiction since I was 8 and plays since I was a teenager, so stories have always been part of my life. I believe that the human need to tell and listen to stories will never disappear. That’s why I believe that a play must first and foremost tell a story. And because all the stories have already been told, as a playwright I am always in search for new structures and new ways of telling stories. The theater text is a house, and I am its architect. For me, the architecture of a text is very important and I try to build my plays like musical compositions in which each character has his own distinct voice.
Elise Wilk, born in Brașov and growing up bilingual (German and Romanian) is one of the most performed playwrights of the younger generation in Romania. She studied journalism in Cluj-Napoca, creative writing in Brașov and playwriting in Târgu Mureș. In 2020, she defended her PhD thesis at the University of Arts in Târgu Mureș, on the topic of Youth Theatre in Romania. Currently she is teaching Playwriting at the University of Arts in Târgu Mureș.
In 2008 she received the Romanian dramAcum award for her first play It happened on a Thursday. Since then, her plays have been staged both in Romania and abroad and have so far been translated into 13 languages.
In Romania, her plays won the Irish Embassy Award for emerging playwrights (The Green Cat, 2013), the Romanian Drama Prize (Paper Airplanes, 2015), Best monologue play (Crocodile, 2017).
She took part in international writing programs such as the Forum of the Young Authors at the Wiesbaden Theater Biennale (2014), Hot Ink at the Lark in New York (2015) and Fabulamundi – Playwriting Europe (since 2013). Her plays were also adapted for the radio. In 2017 and 2018, the play Explosive, a production of Radio Romania, won important prizes on three continents: Winner of the Asia-Pacific Broadcasting Union Award 2017, Grand Prix Marulic (2018) and Gold Medal at the New York Festivals (2018).
Other awards: Trendsetter of the Year 2014 (Forbes Magazine Romania), 100 people for the Romania of tomorrow (2018, Decât o Revistă), German Diaspora Personality of the Year (2019,International Media Aid), Premio Carlo Annoni Italy (2021), Aurora Prize for Playwriting (2022, Poland).
Plays: It happened on a Thursday, The life expectancy of washing machines, The green cat, Room 701, Paper planes, Explosive, iHamlet, Kinderzimmerzauberei, Crocodile, Cold. Four untrue stories from Gheorgheni, Desperate signals to Pluto, Feminine, Incredible, Beyond, Disappearing, Some strange days, Nothing happened, People you don´t love anymore, Union Place, Love on earth.
Website: elisewilk.ro
Author: Elise Wilk
Book: THE GREEN CAT AND OTHER DRAMAS
Translation from Romanian: Simona Popov
Cover design: Dina Radoman