Theater professor Christopher Markle hopes to bring an important part of Romanian history to the public. The play he is working on will tell an Eastern European story not often told.

The play, “Julia (Juliet): A Dialogue About Love,” written in both Hungarian and Romanian, is named after Shakespeare’s Juliet. Julia also happens to be the name of the mother of the playwright, Romanian playwright András Visky.

Visky is the son of a minister of the Hungarian Reformed Church. His father was imprisoned when the Communists took over Romania. His six brothers and sisters and their mother spent seven years in a concentration camp.

“For seven years they didn’t see their father; for seven years they lived in a hut

with no roof,” Markle said. “Basically, the children stole all the food they had to eat.”

The play is an effort to start discussion about this era. Memories from the Cold War are still deeply entrenched in Romanian culture, but most people there do not talk about it, Markle said.

“Julia” has a simple plot. As Markle describes it, “It’s a kind of dialogue between [Visky’s mother Julia] and God.”

Markle spent part of the last summer with Visky working on the English version of the play at the university in Cluj-Napoca, Romania, after receiving a travel grant through the Theatre Communications Group and International Theatre Institute.

The grant allowed efforts to begin the English production of the play, which Markle plans to premiere in America next summer.

Markle would like to take the NIU summer theater group SummerNITE to Romania next year, coupled with their annual trip to Moscow.

“It provides a nice natural next step to what we hope to do in the future of SummerNITE,” he said. “The biggest cost [remaining] is to defray the cost of getting from Moscow to Cluj.”

SummerNITE would act as producer for the English version of the play upon their return to America.

Shannon Smith, graduate assistant for Markle, said this would be an “exciting opportunity,” and SummerNITE students would benefit greatly from the chance to make connections in Europe. He said he hopes SummerNITE can acquire the extra funding.

Markle thinks there is a good chance.

“There’s an interest in funding groups for that part of Eastern Europe, in particular the former Soviet Union,” Markle said.

He plans to meet with Visky in January to discuss the various options for funding.

For more information about SummerNITE, visit www.niu.edu/theatre/summernite.