Translating Romanian Plays Reveals Family History and Identity

Playwright and translator Amanda L. Andrei recounts how translating Romanian plays, particularly Oana Hodade's 'Scenes from the Life of the Family Stuck,' has deepened her understanding of her Romanian heritage and her relationship with her father. Andrei, based in Los Angeles, discovered Hodade's play in 2022 through an online Romanian library. The play, inspired by found film negatives from a Cluj flea market, explores the fictional Stuck family. Andrei translated it with her father, who fled communist Romania in the 1980s. The translation process became a collaborative act of discovery, bridging language gaps and generational divides. Andrei met Hodade in Paris in 2024 during rehearsals for a French staged reading at Théâtre Ouvert. The experience highlighted the fluidity of translation and diaspora identity, as Andrei also staged an English reading in Los Angeles with a theater company. The essay reflects on how translation serves as a means of reconnecting with cultural roots and family history.