MIGRATION DIARY. NEW YORK CITY EDITION is a visually stunning, socially- conscious multimedia show, exploring the transformative, inspirational power of migration shaping the lives of four female artists in contemporary New York. Languages overlap, memories surface, and contradictions remain unresolved. Directed by multi-awarded Romanian director Carmen Lidia Vidu with an all-female cast (Sam Xu, Ana Maria Bandean, Lia Fietz, Ellen Ko.
Built from real conversations, personal archives, and lived experience, the performance turns biography into a shared space where identities are negotiated in real time. New York is not a backdrop but a living presence, a city continuously rewritten by those who pass through it. What emerges is an intimate encounter with migration—not as concept, but as daily reality. Produced by La MaMa in collaboration with the Romanian Cultural Institute in New York.
Credits CARMEN LIDIA VIDU – Concept, Research, Script & Artistic Director
SABINA COSTINEL – Multimedia Artist
CONSTANTIN IMON – Media Designer
SAM XU – Performer
ANA MARIA BANDEAN – Performer
LIA FIETZ – Performer
ELLEN KO – Performer
BIO Carmen Lidia Vidu is a Romanian theatre and documentary film director working at the intersection of performance, film, and multimedia installation. Her practice is grounded in documentary research, using interviews, archives, and personal testimonies to explore memory, identity, and the relationship between individual lives and broader social contexts. She creates hybrid formats that combine theatre, video, and large-scale videomapping, developing projects presented nationally and internationally across Europe, the United States, and beyond. Her work is internationally awarded and recognized for its distinctive visual language and documentary rigor. Alongside her independent projects, she collaborates with major cultural institutions, creating multimedia environments for opera and symphonic productions.