‘KuklArt’ Magazine
Issue 10/2016
Dear reader,
These are 104 pages about love. To the puppet theatre, of course…
You have already noticed that this issue is a jubilee. And we have two anniversaries. One big and one small.
The big anniversary is that of the Sofia Puppet Theatre. The pioneer among our professional puppet theaters turned 70 years old. We have always followed the work of this theater with special attention, because as a rule it has set and sets the level of theatrical thinking in general in the Bulgarian puppet theatre. So best wishes for future success of the colleagues from Sofia Puppet Theatre!
What we define with Mihail Baikov (with our characteristic modesty) as a small anniversary is the current tenth issue of KuklArt. I’m saving you, dear reader, stories from the genre ‘we started at the end of 2007 in a small smoky kitchen’ not because it’s not true, but because the kitchen is still the same. As well as our desire to continue, because the culture of a theatre cannot develop without memory and without criticism…
Here is an anecdote. In 2015 I came on a trip to Amsterdam and there they took us to a famous place where diamonds have been grinding for some time. After the fascinating story we are brought to see a few large diamonds, then some smaller ones, and so on. Diamonds are not my weakness, but I still listen to the group’s questions. They are naturally related to the price of what is seen. Since the answers contain unthinkable sums, someone finally asks with a dry throat: ‘Aren’t there even smaller, cheaper ones?’. The answer was, ‘There is. But this is no longer with us. This is Swarovski.’
Why am I telling this funny, but also instructive story, in which the pride of craftsmanship, quality and world renown is elegantly intertwined with the somewhat arrogant attitude towards the untrue, towards the substitute, towards the surrogate? Because I want to assure you that we have always tried to distinguish one from the other, and at least here, on the territory of our professional edition, to measure things with the Hamburg measure (which we wrote about in the first issue).
The eternally restless and self-demanding thinking of two great ladies of the Bulgarian theater Nikolina Georgieva and Julia Ognyanova, with whom we parted during this cruel year for puppets and Bulgarian culture in 2016, also obliges us to this. When Maya Novoselska wrote about Julia Ognyanova ‘Part of our soul is gone!’, I thought about both Nikolina and Julia.
Because that’s what it’s really about…
Nikola Vandov
Editor-in-chief
Articles Contents
Contents
Dear Readers… – Nikola Vandov
Theory, History, Experience, Polemics
A Hat without a Plume Does Not Look Good. A Non-Anniversary Conversation on Occasion of the Anniversary of the State Puppet Theater – Nikola Vandov and Mihail Baykov Talk to Kiryakos Argiropulos, Director of Sofia Puppet Theater
The Ideas of Postmodernism and the Puppets – Prof. Dr Henryk Jurkowski
A Speech upon the Inauguration of the Exposition ‘Anatomy of the Puppet’ – Prof. Vasil Rokomanov
A Month and a Half, Spent in Abidance, Memories and Everlasting Inspiration! – Gergana Traykova
‘A Lab’ and What Did I Find In It – Svetla Beneva
Against Myself – Katerina Georgieva
The Theater and the Marionette of Edward Gordon Craig in the Letters to Danilo Lebrecht – Monica Cristini
Profiles
The Absolute Ivan Tsonev – Nikola Vandov and Mihail Baykov Talk to Arch. Ivan Tsonev
Festivals and Forums
ХVІІ International Festival of Children’s Performances ‘The Magic Curtain’, Targovishte, Bulgaria
Festival’s Passport
The Art – A Better Reality – Ave Ivanova
Not Just a Next Edition – Nikola Vandov
ІІІ International Puppet Open-Air Festival ‘Puppetry Days’, Burgas, Bulgaria
Festival’s Passport
The Puppetry Days – a Party Outdoors – Mihail Baykov
ХХІІ International Puppet Theatre Festival ‘Three Are Too Many, Two – Not Enough’ & TheatAir, Plovdiv, Bulgaria
Festival’s Passport
Puppets, Love and Mutuality within the Limits of the Country – Gergana Traykova
About the Duck, the Death, the Tulips and All the Rest – Katerina Georgieva
Three Are Too Many, Two – Not Enough – Mihail Baykov
IX International Festival for Street and Puppet Theatre ‘Puppet Fair’, Sofia, Bulgaria
Festival’s Passport
The Holiday of the Puppets – Olya Stoyanova
The Puppet Fair and the Anniversary of the Hosts – Mihail Baykov
To Be an Adult in a Fair – Emiliya Ilieva
The Plastic Heroes of the Day – Svetlomira Stoyanova
Circo Paniko or the Machine, which Takes You Back in Time – Simona Stoyanova
Why Should We Hurry? – Svetlomira Stoyanova
Two Workshops – Simona Stoyanova
The Exposition ‘Artists and Puppets of the State Puppet Theater’ – Siyana Nedyalkova
Conversations from Sofia – Plamen Harmandjiev Talks to Guests of the ‘Puppet Fair’
Reviews
Queen of Spades, Come Here… – Katerina Georgieva
‘Juan Darien – the Tiger Boy’ and the Freedom To Be – Simona Stoyanova
A Touch – Bogdana Kosturkova
‘I, Sisyphus’ – a Flight, a Stroke, a Fall and an Uprising – Siyana Nedyalkova
Artists and Puppets of the State Puppet Theater for 70 Years – Mihail Baykov
The State Puppet Theater in 70 Years – Mihail Baykov
Information
History Performance 2015-2016
An Expected Upheaval or What Road Will UNIMA Take after the XXII Congress – Ivan Raykov
The ‘Ikar’ Awards for Puppet Theater 2016
The ‘Sivina’ Award 2016
In memoriam
Henryk Jurkowski
Nikolina Georgieva
Yulia Ognyanova
Alexander Tkachov
Tzvetan Tzvetkov-Mollovski