Mihai Codreanu
Attracted to the stage from early on, he led and reformed the main theatre in his city for several years after World War I, and during the 1930s presided over the arts school in Iași.
His father Mihail Costache Codreanu, a native of Târgu Ocna, was a judge and a Latin teacher at the National College who died of tuberculosis in September 1877.
[1] His mother Natalia was born in 1843 to Dimitrie Mânzariu, who later changed the family name to Mârzescu; she worked as an inspector at a maternity hospital.
[3] In the summer of 1899, after graduation but before receiving his diploma, he attended a theatrical performance by State Dragomir, and began whistling to express his disapproval.
An outraged Dragomir demanded punishment; the school's leadership met to discuss its options, and resumed its investigation in autumn.
[1][3] While there, he saw a performance of Cyrano de Bergerac and decided to write a translation after receiving written permission from Edmond Rostand.
[6] In spite of an adolescence spent dreaming of an actor's career, Codreanu's only role on stage came in 1912, when he appeared in his translation of La Martyre.
[3] He wore dark glasses and often leaned on friends' shoulders when he walked; the disease progressed gradually, so that colors and light slowly disappeared and he was almost entirely blind in old age.
The work was hugely successful, garnering praise from Tudor Arghezi, Eugen Lovinescu and Gala Galaction, as well as from his friends Garabet Ibrăileanu and Octav Botez,[8] although Izabela Sadoveanu-Evan was dismissive.
While Iași, where Mârzescu was serving as mayor, would soon become the temporary capital of Romania during World War I, Codreanu's poetry was untouched by the dramatic events taking place around him.
[5] Additionally, Codreanu reformed the way the theatre operated: instead of having plays rotate after four or five shows, he kept only the best parts of the repertoire and divided the troupe in two (one for comedy and drama, the other for tragedy).
[5] In 1927, Sadoveanu persuaded him and Păstorel Teodoreanu to join the Cantemir Lodge of the Romanian Freemasonry; the three were also linked through membership in the Viața Românească circle.
[8] From 1934, until his death, Codreanu lived in a house called Vila Sonet, built on land donated to him the year before by the Iași authorities in recognition of his achievements.
)[5] Since 1970, the house has been a museum almost entirely preserved as it was during his lifetime, including his personal library, office, dining room and bedroom.
Codreanu walked around with a cane; the one kept in the museum was reportedly used during his Masonic initiation, and conceals a 70-cm blade of Toledo steel that he used to defend himself from drunkards and the jealous husbands of the women who thronged around him.
