Mihai Maniutiu (born 1954) is a European theatre director, writer and theatre/performance theoretician of Romanian origin.[1] He has directed over eighty productions in important theatres, many of which have been toured internationally, broadcast on European TV chanels, and won numerous awards in the categories for Best Director, Best Production, and Originality. Maniutiu is a Professor at the Faculty of Theatre and Television of the Babes-Bolyai University of Cluj-Napoca, and Artistic Director and General Manager of the National Theatre of Cluj. In addition to teaching directing, acting, and performance studies (MFA & Doctoral Programs) at the Faculty of Theatre and Television of the University of Cluj, and his position of General Director of the National Theatre in Cluj, Maniutiu has also been Artist-in-Residence at the Centre for Excellence in the Study of Image of the University of Bucharest (MFA Program in Performance) since Fall 2009.
Five theatre books have been dedicated to his theatre & dance work, and analyze the major features of his original style and performance philosophy:
1. The Trilogy of the Double: Three Romanian Productions by Mihai Maniutiu (Bucharest: Unitext, 1997), ed. Cipriana Petre. Trans. Cipriana Petre & Brenda Walker. Photographs: Sean Hudson. Collective volume conceived and co-ordinated by Cipriana Petre. Co-authors: Michael Billington, Georges Banu, Michael Coveney, Marina Constantinescu, Mircea Ghitulescu, Dan Haulica, Nicolae Manolescu, Dan C. Mihailescu, Eugen Negrici, Cipriana Petre, Marian Popescu, Miruna Runcan, Victor Scoradet, Antoaneta Tanasescu, Ion Vartic, Irving Wardle. 80 pages with color and black & white photos.
2. Cipriana Petre-Mateescu, Maniutiu: Theatre Images. Images de Theatre. Imagini de teatru. Cluj: Idea Design & Print, 2002. 136 pp. with black & white photos. Trilingual edition (English, French, Romanian).
3. Dan C. Mihailescu, Dancing on Ruins. Cluj: Idea Design & Print, 2006. 84 pages with black & white photos. Trilingual edition (English, French, Romanian).
4. Mircea Morariu, "Mihai Maniutiu-- ipostaze esentiale", Cluj Napoca, Casa Cartii de Stiinta, 2008. 191 pagini, Romanian edition.
5. Cristina Modreanu, "Mihai Maniutiu: The Ever-Changing Space". Trilingual edition (English, French, Romanian). Editura bybliotek, 2010. 228 pages with color and black & white photos.
Maniutiu holds a Ph.D. in Theatre Theory from the Theatre University (UNATC) in Bucharest (2006). In 1998, he co-founded, with fellow-artists Marcel Iures and Alexandru Dabija, Romania's first independent theatre, The Act Theatre in Bucharest, the Patrons of which are Judi Dench and Tom Cruise, among other international personalities. In 2009, he was a Visiting Professor of Drama at the University of California, Irvine, where he directed a production, based on Euripides, entitled "The Bacchae Trilogy."
As a writer, he has published eleven books of short stories, one book on Shakespeare, The Golden Round (Bucharest: Meridiane Press, 1989; second edition Bucharest: Camil Petrescu Foundation Press, 2003), and three books of theatre theory: On Mask and Illusion (Despre Masca si iluzie, Bucharest: Humanitas, 2007); Act and Mimetic Representation (Bucharest: Eminescu, 1989; Hungarian edition Aktus es utanzas, Cluj: Koinónia Publishing, 2006); and Rediscovering the Actor (Bucharest: Meridiane, 1985). His most recent fiction book is "Memoriile Hingherului" (Cluj: Bibliotek, 2010).