Dear friend,

I am addressing you like this because you are holding our magazine, and in what other words should one call those who love puppet theater, except for the most beautiful one – a friend.

I have written so many texts over the years and I never imagined that this would be the most difficult one. I stand at the helm of KuklArt magazine for the first time since the editor in-chief since its creation until now was the tireless and talented Nikola Vandov – committed to the cause of having our own magazine. Kolyo, as we all affectionately call him, is the Man who wisely defended the right of opinion of young authors in every issue; who was excited about every puppet premiere and did not overlook the success of every actor, director and set designer on our stages – a real warrior of the puppet theater. Thank you for everything you have taught me, Kolyo, and I know that we will continue our exciting interviews together in the future. When my first article was published more than 10 years ago, in the distant fourth issue of KuklArt magazine, I had no idea that 10 issues later I would write the introductory text to the first entirely foreign language edition of our magazine. It was conceived as such to present puppet theater at the UNIMA World Congress in Indonesia, so we have gathered in it only a small part of the most important events in the puppet world of Bulgaria. We tried to synthesise the essential from the history of the Bulgarian puppet theater in a panoramic article about its development; to lift the curtain of puppet theatre education, which began in the distant 1962 and continues today at the Theater Academy in Sofia; to present all our puppet festivals – developing steadily since 1972, when the first of them, Golden Dolphin, was held; to introduce you to some of the most interesting and talented directors and set designers who work on puppet stages at home and abroad and, last but not least, to introduce you to the school of critical writing of talented theater critics through reviews of some of the most exciting performances that take place on Bulgarian stages. We are certainly missing a lot. We can’t brag about everything, and we shouldn’t. Much of our success, such as the fact that we were a founding member of UNIMA International in 1929, or that Bulgaria was the third country in the world to establish higher education for puppet theater in 1962, or that it is a leading force in water puppet theater, is well known to all of you. Today, however, we are proud of something else. We are proud of the fact that we have maintained our theatrical network, that we continue to work tirelessly and that each of our theaters has 30, 40 or even 50 titles in its repertoire, which are preserved and played constantly; that our artists are highly valued at festivals at home and abroad. We are also proud of this magazine, which continues its rush forward. Thanks to all of you.

I would like to thank the Bulgarian center of UNIMA and my colleagues, both for the realization of this issue and for the overall support and belief that this magazine should continue. To my teacher, Prof. Nikolina Georgieva, who enjoyed every new issue when it came out and encouraged me to write about puppet theater. To Guergana, Natalia, Gabriela, Mihail, Svetlomira, without whom this edition was unthinkable. To Kapka and Kalina, who drew the most beautiful cover for the issue. To Maya, this most faithful collaborator of KuklArt magazine, for the design of its first issue, and to all authors and translators, without whom none of this would have been possible. Thank you friends.

Mihail Baykov