To mark World Theatre Day, the International Theatre Institute – Centre Germany (ITI) announces this year’s winner of the ITI Prize 2026: director Nicoleta Esinencu.
The prize will be awarded on 26 June following the performance of the director’s play Memory Distortion. M I X T A P E with the teatru-spălătorie collective as part of THEATER DER WELT 2026 in Chemnitz. The winner was selected from a shortlist put forward to ITI members for voting.
Nicoleta Esinencu is a director, writer and performer from the Republic of Moldova. With the performance collective teatru-spălătorie, she has been making a significant contribution to cultural exchange with Eastern Europe for more than 15 years.
Seventeen years ago, the director first made a name for herself in Germany with FUCK YOU, Eu.ro.Pa!, a furious monologue that sparked political controversy in her native Moldova. Her plays are characterised by their stark language. Many in Moldova take offence at her tone. And by the themes she brings to the stage: the ceaseless labour migration, the socially taboo subject of homosexuality and the associated experiences of discrimination, corruption, the self-serving mentality of newly wealthy oligarchs and former communist officials, and the articulation of the difficult relationship between the Republic of Moldova and the EU. Nicoleta Esinencu combines the documentary with the poetic, translating meticulously researched facts into a dense, rhythmic language.
In 2019, the director was a guest of the DAAD’s Berlin Artists-in-Residence Programme, among others. In 2022, she and teatru-spălătorie received the international Tabori Prize. She has collaborated with HAU Hebbel am Ufer for more than ten years.
