The story of the Roma girl who discovers at a very young age the differences of race and environment. She manages to make her way through life and transform her complexes into determination and motivation through the power of a therapeutic exercise.

Alina Serban’s autobiographical performance hovers on the borderline between life and theater, between experience and confession, effecting an authenticity to the point of becoming a fragment of reality. The show impresses audiences of all ages by inviting empathy. The Best Child in the World speaks about the power of achieving the impossible and the effort to make peace with the past together with one's own identity, one's own life, one's mother, one's father.

The Best Child in the World is the first play by a Roma female director that entered the permanent repertoire of The National Theatre of Bucharest.

The Best Child in the World (2022), Romania. Created and performed by: Alina Serban. Artistic consultant: Andrei Majeri. Assistant director, dramaturgy consultant: Vera Suratel. Costumes: Cristina Milea. Set design: Miruna Balasa. Choreography: Razvan Rotaru. Director of photography: Boroka Biro, Catalin Rugina. Video design: Mircea Bogateanu. Music: Lucas Dario Molina. Sound for video: Stefan Azaharioaei. Lighting: Roxana Docan.
Running time: 70 min.

The performance is followed by a talkback.

This event is part of the 2023 Rehearsal for Truth Theater Festival: Anew. For more information, visit rehearsalfortruth.org.

Free and open to the public. Suggested donation $10. Seats are limited, on first-come, first-served basis. Online registration through Eventbrite is required.

The 2023 Rehearsal for Truth Theater Festival: Anew, organized by the Vaclav Havel Library Foundation and the Bohemian Benevolent and Literary Association in partnership with the Polish Cultural Institute New York, GOH Productions, Trap Door Theatre, Centre of Jewish Culture STETL, Jan Mocek, Martin E. Segal Theatre Center, Palissimo Company, and Romanian Cultural Institute.

The program is made possible by the New York State Council on the Arts with the support of the Office of the Governor and the New York State Legislature. The festival is supported, in part, by public funds from the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs in partnership with the City Council, Arts and Theatre Institute in Prague, and Ministry of Culture of the Czech Republic.