The first theatre shows in Romanian, in Moldavia and Wallachia, were performed in The history of Romanian theatre is slightly longer than one century: the first Romanian itinerant theatre company was created by several Transylvanian students, from Blaj, at the middle of the 18 th century, the century of the first attempts to create dramatic texts in Romanian. Given the celebration of the centenary of the Great Union, we intend to dedicate an issue of the journal Studia Dramatica to Romanian theatre, which we seek to revisit not only festively, but also critically.

The ' Great Union ' at the end of the First World War, as known in Romanian historiography, crowned the Romanians' movements of national and cultural emancipation from the ward of the Habsburg Monarchy (followed by the Austro-Hungarian Empire), of the Ottoman and Russian Empires, movements initiated in the second half of the 18 th century and intensified in the 19 th. The year 2018 is the centenary of the union of Transylvania, Banat, as well as of Bessarabia and North Bukovina with the Kingdom of Romania.

It is intended as a foreword and a chronological framework to this special issue of Studia Dramatica. The paper presents the history of Romanian theatre, beginning with the creation of the first Romanian itinerant theatre company, at the middle of the 18 th century, to the present.

Filosofii paralele by Marta Petreu