Ilinca Tamara Todoruț

Ilinca Tamara Todoruț is an Assistant Professor at the Faculty of Theatre and Film, Babeș-Bolyai University in Romania, where she teaches courses in critical writing, dramaturgy, digital theatre, intermedia performance, and contemporary theatre. She earned her master’s and doctorate degrees from Yale School of Drama and regularly collaborates with print and online theatre publications such as Scena.ro and The Theatre Times. She served as Artistic Director of the 2023 International Online Theatre Festival (IOTF) that showcased 39 shows from 23 countries. Her interest in international theatre developed through decades of living, studying, and working in diverse countries, from Norway to the U.S. to China.
Her research focuses on the evolving landscape of contemporary theatre and performance, emphasizing the intersections between theatrical practices, digital media, and sociopolitical issues. She explores how theatre adapts to and reflects our rapidly changing world, especially in the context of neoliberal havoc, climate crisis, and global socio-political shifts. Her research in digital and online theatre forms explores how virtual platforms and digital technologies are reshaping performance production and dissemination. This interest extends to investigating the potential of cyberperformance and digital dramaturgy in creating new modes of artistic expression and audience interaction. Her articles appeared in journals such as Theater, TDR: The Drama Review, Performance Research, Journal of Poverty, and_ Theatre History Studies_, and in edited collections like The Routledge Companion to Dramaturgy (2015) and Dramaturgy and History: Staging the Archive (Routledge 2024). A key area of her work involves examining theatre traditions and their modern interpretations. Her book Christoph Schlingensief’s Realist Theater (Routledge 2022) builds on this foundation, investigating how a crucial contemporary artist reframes and challenges traditional theatrical realism to engage with pressing social and political concerns. More recently, her work has begun to engage with eco-dramaturgy and the relationship between theatre and environmental issues. She is investigating how theatrical practices can contribute to ecological awareness and activism, and how environmental concerns are shaping new forms of performance.