By Adam Langer
“I don’t remember.”
“Sure, sure. It’s OK.”
“I can’t find the umbrella anywhere,” says DeWoskin. “We’ll have to improvise something.”
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Val Paraskiv was born in 1942 in Bucharest. His mother died when he was six months old, and his father died in World War II, so he was brought up by a great-uncle. As a Young Pioneer in the communist party he developed an affinity for drama. He graduated with a master’s in theater acting from the highly competitive Institute of Theatrical and Cinematographical Arts in 1963 and later returned for a master’s in theater directing. Every graduate of the institute was required to work for three years outside of Bucharest before being considered by one of the city’s major theaters, but Paraskiv immediately got a position at the Nottara–a first in the school’s history.
The first play he directed for the Nottara, The Prodigal Son’s Returning, by Russian playwright Alexander Vampilov, concerns two young men from Moscow who meet two young women in a restaurant and accompany them home. The women refuse to put them up for the night, and they’re left out in the cold, 20 miles from Moscow, where they’re treated like vagabonds and thieves. But one of the men winds up finding shelter in the home of a violinist by claiming to be the man’s long-lost son, and the play ends happily.
For seven years Paraskiv couldn’t find work in Romania. From time to time he’d act in films directed by friends, but he’d have to wear makeup that completely disguised him and couldn’t use his real name. “Very soon I noticed that I couldn’t be employed even as a simple worker. All the doors were closed to me. Everybody knew about this thing in the theatrical community, but nobody would solve the problem. I was one of the best, and I couldn’t find a place to be employed.”
