‘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

ArticlesContents

Theory, History, Experience, Polemics

Getting to Know Oneself

— Elena Vladova

Theory, History, Experience, Polemics

Between Birth and Death – I

— Nadezhda Atanasova

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