#petrofilter: The Reactor Filter! 🎭

This season, you can join us on our Instagram profile to see Reactor through the eyes of the wonderful people who bring this magical place to life! In March, we invite you to discover us through the lens of Petro Ionescu, a brilliant artist and a true pillar of our project coordination team. At Reactor, Petro has envisioned and written the concept and dramaturgy for amazing shows like "Provizoriu", "Nu cred că o să îmi treacă vreodată", "Refugii", and "via negativa", the dramaturgy for "În viitorul apropiat" and "Miracolul de la Cluj", and she is also a key part of the creative teams behind "Noi nu, niciodată" and "99,6%". We'll let her introduce herself in her own words, and we warmly invite you to follow her delightful posts on Insta using the hashtag #filtrupetro!

Five years ago, I saw that a brand new, exciting alternative space was opening its doors in Cluj!

Five years ago, from about 1,800 kilometers away, I watched short, lively videos where I recognized former college classmates who were out there looking for reactions.

Five years ago, I didn't quite know what was coming next or how things would fall into place for me and the artistic career I dreamed of building. (I call it "work" because I've realized that the old saying "If you love what you do, you'll never work a day in your life" is a total myth! You actually have to work hard to afford to do what you love, and you have to work just as hard to keep loving what you do!)

Back in 2014, when Reactor was just opening, I was absolutely fascinated by the concept of work and how it shapes us. So, in early 2015, my very first project with Reactor came to life from afar: "Provizoriu", a play exploring the delicate balance between work, unemployment, and social life.

And suddenly, in the summer of 2015, I found myself back in Cluj with just a backpack and no concrete plan at all!

By the autumn of 2015, I was fully embraced by Reactor, happily working on a new show.

By the spring of 2016, I was already enthusiastically working on another play!

And then came all those wonderful evenings and mornings spent chatting in the courtyard or the cozy kitchen (back before we even had an office), talking about projects, laughing, celebrating, and dreaming up big plans together. It felt so good, and we were so incredibly excited!

And so it went—shows, projects, reports, meetings, and endless creative energy for about four years now!

About a year ago, I realized there are very few days when I don't say the word "Reactor" at least once. Reactor has truly become the beautiful lens through which the last four years of my life have unfolded.

And here I am, writing about Reactor in March 2019—the very month Reactor celebrates its 5th anniversary!

For me, Reactor through my filter is really more about me through the filter of Reactor.

And I honestly still can't imagine doing anything else in the world!