The prize celebrates one of the most outstanding female directors and trainers of artists in the world of Romanian theatre: CĂTĂLINA BUZOIANU (1938–2019). As a director, she created over 100 productions in Romania and abroad, and was the recipient of numerous awards. In 1975, she joined the staff of the Department of Theatre Direction of the Institute of Theatre and Film Arts (today the National University of Theatre and Film Arts—UNATC) in Bucharest, where, in the course of a teaching career of almost thirty years, she trained many actors and directors. In 1990 she became dean of the Theatre Section Bucharest..

Cătălina Buzoianu’s name resonates in the history of the Theatre of Youth for two memorable productions: Peer Gynt (1972) and Tinerețe fără bătrânețe (Youth without age, 1975). In her period of activity at the Theatre of Youth, she established bonds of professional collaboration and friendship with such actors as Mitică Popescu, Horațiu Mălăele, and Gelu Nițu, with whom she was to work in many later projects.

“When I put on the productions in Piatra Neamț, I was employed in Iaşi, where it was solemn, sometimes too solemn. I would get in the bus and run away to Piatra Neamț, even when I didn’t have rehearsals […] In Piatra Neamț, the audience was like nowhere else, it made up one whole with the theatre, we were together, those on stage and those in front of the stage. The audience was as young as the theatre, and so were the actors on stage. In Piatra Neamț I felt at home. Piatra remains an exceptional place for me.” (Cătălina Buzoianu, extract from the interview she gave for the Anniversary Production—TT 50, created by Gianina Cărbunariu in 2017)