‘KuklArt’ Magazine
Issue 2/2008

Dear reader,
You already have in your hands issue 2 of KuklArt – your magazine for puppetry. It is understandable that we want the issue to be better than the previous one, more diverse and meaningful, more useful to our readers. We also see the weaknesses of the magazine: it lacks polemics, the Hamburg measure has not yet become a conviction of most writers. Shouldn’t we (and the writers of KuklArt), like our football nationals, shy away from your exactingness: ‘We can do so much…’
But let’s not rush because there is also encouraging news. We had threatened to expand the circle of authors writing for puppet theatre to attract young people. And in the second issue you will meet new names for KuklArt: Aglika Ivancheva, Bogdana Kosturkova, Boryana Zhivkova, Venelin Shurelov, Gina Pavlova, Eli Bakalova, Lilyana Bardievska, Nadezhda Atanasova, Patricia Nikolova, Petar Todorov, Svetlana Baychinska, Sonya Boteva, Teodora Georgieva, Teodora Paskova, Hristina Arsenova. We also publish Maria Stankova’s play ‘Don Quixote’, based on which Veselka Kuncheva staged ‘The Great Quixote’ in SPT – an exceptional performance.
Viktor Shklovsky’s essay ‘The Hamburg Measure’, which we published in the previous issue, ends with the words ‘Khlebnikov was a champion’. Therefore, let us give the floor to Velimir Khlebnikov, who wrote in ‘Our Foundation’ from May 1919:
‘The meaning of words in natural, everyday language is understandable to us.
Just as the boy during play can imagine that the chair he is sitting on is a real, thoroughbred horse, and the chair during play will replace his horse, so during oral or written speech the little word sun in the conditional world in human conversation it replaces the beautiful, majestic star… In the same way, playing with dolls, a small child can sincerely shed tears when his rag ball dies or is mortally ill; to make a wedding in two tattered piles – completely indistinguishable from each other. During the game, these rags are alive, real people, with hearts and passions. Hence the understanding of language as a game of dolls; in it, the dolls for all the things around us are sewn from the rags of sound.
People who speak one language are participants in this game. For people who speak another language, such sound dolls are just a collection of sound rags. So the word is a sound doll, the dictionary – a collection of toys.’
Let’s continue on the road to Hamburg – armed only with sound dolls and hearts filled with love and longing for others, ordinary and perhaps more real.
Nikola Vandov
Editor-in-chief
Articles Contents
Contents
Dear Readers… – Nikola Vandov
Theory, History, Experience, Polemics
Manipulation and Art – Teodora Paskova
Getting to Know Oneself – Elena Vladova
Between Birth and Death – I – Nadezhda Atanasova
Happy Birthday, Valya! – Sonya Boteva
Neville Tranter – A Celebration of Artistic Mastery – Petar Todorov
The Puppeteer of Mantova – Teodora Georgieva
The Story of a Seed Sown Unconsciously – Gina Pavlova
About Puppet Theatre – Radoslav Lazich
In memoriam
Scenography
Ivan Tsonev at 80! – Vasil Rokomanov
Man ex Machina – I – Venelin Shurelov
Color application
Monsters in the Gallery – A Presentation of Students from the Set Design for Puppet Theater Program at NATFIZ. A Comics Series – Marieta Golomehova and Nikolay Karov
Festivals
Perth, Australia – Hristina Arsenova
The City of Puppets (Bielsko-Biala, Poland) – Liliana Bardijewska
XVII International Puppet-Theatre Festival ‘Tree Are Too Many, Two – Not Enough’ – Plovdiv, Bulgaria
Festival’s Passport
People and Puppets – Bogdana Kosturkova
Conversations In Plovdiv – Boryana Georgieva speaks with festival participants Petar Todorov, Desislava Mincheva, Elza Laleva, Zdrava Kamenova, Hristina Arsenova, Zlati Zlatev, Ruslan Kudashov, Fernan Cardama and Viktor Boytchev
V International Puppet Festival ‘Puppet Fair’, Sofia, Bulgaria
Festival’s Passport
Little Tragedies and a Big Fair – Eli Bakalova
Impressiona from the Fair – Patricia Nikolova
Objectively Incorporeal, Yet So Alive – Svetlana Baychinska
XIV International Puppet Festival ‘The Golden Dolphin’
Festival’s Passport
The XIII Colden Dolphin Festival in Varna, October 1–6, 2005 – Stanislav Doubrava
Students of Scenography in Varna – Vasil Rokomanov
Puppet-Therapy Workshop – Aglika M. Ivancheva and Svetlana L. Hristova
A Fairy Tale In A Small Little Hand – Eliya Grigorova
Festivals – Nikola Vandov
The Success of the Children’s Theater Festival in Banja Luka
Reviews
Something Is Happening in ‘Puppets’ – Mitko Novkov
Puppet Fairytales for Adults Based on Shakespeare – Bogdana Kosturkova
The Varna Puppet Theater’s Beauty and the Beast – Boryana Zhivkova
Two Performances by the Students’ Puppet Theater – Petar Zmiycharov
The Tale of a Seagull and a Band of Tomcats – Patricia Nikolova
On Belo’s New Book – Slavcho Malenov
Play
Don Quixote (a puppet play for adults) – Maria Stankova