The Festival of New Dramaturgy Sofia, the Goethe-Institut Bulgaria and 36 Monkeys present: 

 

>> ProText 10 

 

 

 

 

 

The 10th edition of the platform ProText of ‘36 Monkeys’ Organization will be a part of the Festival for New Dramatics of Goethe Institute Bulgaria, which will be held for the first time this year.

Between the 12th and the 16th of May in ‘Vazrazhdane’ Theatre and the hall of Goethe Institute a series of readings and performances will be presented. The Festival is conducted within the International project New Stage Southeast, dedicated to new dramatics from Southeast Europe. The programme includes texts by two of the currently most famous names on the new german stage - Maria Milisavleivich and Zasha Mariana Zaltsman.

 

About ProText 10 

The festival for new dramatics will be the host for the 10th edition of ProText that this year will present new bulgarian plays chosen from the international web for contemporary dramatics EURODRAM. The format created with the intention to popularize contemporary foreign and bulgarian dramatics is held in the form of a series of performance-readings. The selected in 2020 authors from Bulgaria are Martina Novakova, Miroslav Hristov and Presian Kuzov.

 

All of the events are with free admission and obligatory beforehand registration which starts on 05.05.2021 at the Goethe Institute’s website.

 

 

:: 13.05. | 19:00 | "Vazrazhdane" Theatre

 

PUSTONIA

 

Text: Miroslav Hristov

Directed by: Ovanes Torosyan

Music: Milen Apostolov

With: Asen Dankov, Alexander Kanev, Vasil Vitanov, Milena Ermenkova, Anthony Penev, Mihail Mihaylov, Ovanes Torosyan

 

performance reading, part of ProText 10

a production by Theater Ivan Radoev (Pleven)

 

 

~online streaming with English subtitles~

 

The story in "Pustonia" takes place in the distant future, when the glaciers have melted and people are fighting for salvation and a piece of land. In order to survive in the world of Sharks, they sell their pain on the Global Market and receive sand in return. Rebels, also known as "hermits", are building a path to salvation leading to a desert of paradise, or the so-called Pustonia, while the Artist works in his studio on a bizarre project. 

 

Miroslaw Hristov (born 1982, Sofia, Bulgaria) graduated in Philosophy and majored in ‘Arts and  Contemporaneity’ in SU. He writes dramatics and poetry. He is the author of several plays. In November 2012 the premier of his play ‘The Alleater’ was held (directed by Ani Vaseva) after which it was performed successively in The Fridge, Sfumato and DNK. The play is performed in many places throughout the country as well as at the Off Europe festival in Leipzig. He has been distinguished two times at the festival New Bulgarian Drama in Shumen (The Last Star/2012, Cicadas/2017) and two times in the selection of the ‘ProText’/web for dramatics Eurodram (The Alleate/2014, Cicadas/2018) platform. During 2019 his dramatics text ‘Pustonia’ was distinguished in the ‘Ivan Radoev’ competition for new bulgarian dramatics held in Pleven. During 2019 the premier of Cicadas (directed by Alexandra Petrova) was held in Plovdiv (Tobacco Warehouses). In 2020 Cicadas received a nomination for dramatic text from the theatrical awards ‘Icar’.

 

 

:: 14.05.| 19:00 ч. | "Vazrazhdane" Theatre

 

THE ARISTOCRATS

 

Text: Zasha Mariana Zaltsman

Translation: Gergana Dimitrova

Directed by: Gergana Dimitrova

Art: Elena Shopova

Music: Emilian Gacov-Elby

Starring: Maria Panayotova, Boyan Arsov

 

 

Performance-reading by ProText 10, production ‘36 Monkeys’

 

In a devastated city, where bodies litter the street a young woman, Zasha, seeks shelter in an abandoned penthouse. A young man, Shura, is clearing his way through a military zone in order to find Zasha. And now he shows up and is battered - with a fish as his sole possession - while Zasha is expecting him with champagne cooling in the refrigerator. The two of them are representatives of two warring countries but Zasha has long been accepted into Shura’s family. Somewhere there in the devastated by the war city Shura has killed someone with whom he has a mutual past of violence. A fight for civilization begins.

With ‘The Aristocrats’ Zaltzman deals a blow to the thin shiny coverage of civilization, unfolded as a dehumanized society.

 

Zasha Mariana Zaltsman is a freelance author and lives between Berlin and Istanbul. She was born in 1985 in Volgograd and was brought up in Moscow. In 1995 she emigrated to Germany where she studied Literature, Dramatics and Media science in the University of Hildesheim before she received a place in the course ‘Writing for the Stage’ in the Berlin University of Arts in 2008. After this follow some stages such as assisting director and dramatist in Shaushpilthaus, Hanover and Theathrehause in Yena. Her poems, essays and short plays are published in various editions. She is co-founder of the cultural and social magazine ‘freitext’. Her first play ‘White Bread Music’ won the Wortstaetten Prize prize in 2009 and IKARUS in 2012, with which she also participates in various festivals. In 2012 she received the Klaist award for young dramatists for the ‘Birthmarks Window Blue’ play. In 2013 ‘Mother Tongue Mameloschn’ was nominated for Best Play of the Year and received the award of the audience from the Theatrical Days in Mulheim. From 2014/2015 she is a resident in ‘Maxim Gorky’ Theatre in Berlin where she is director of studio Q. 

 

 

 

:: 15.05. | 19:00 ч. | "Vazrazhdane" Theatre

 

GLOVE

 

Text: Presiyan Kuzov

Directed by: Presiyan Kuzov

With: Nikolay Varbanov

 

performance reading, part of ProText 10

 

 

 

~online streaming with English subtitles~

 

The play explores the endurance, resistance and sacrifice of the Man, put in an emergency situation and the potential way out of it. In focus is the so-called little man. In this case, he is a man who found himself alone in the woods, over the country cemetery, locked in a circle between trees, cold weather and questions. Pressed between present and eternity, between faith and disbelief, between spirit and matter, between life and death, he seeks the truth. The truth that would bring meaning to his further existence. The main contradiction is in the attempt to overcome physical suffering on the one hand, and mental suffering on the other.

Which way is the right one – forward or backwards? Does it make sense for me to be here? Me or the others? These are part of the questions that inhabit the character's conscious and unconscious but are also true for the Human in general. And the Hamlet dilemma between the salvation of the spirit and the salvation of the body seems to keep the main character alive. His only companion is the flower in a pot that he carries throughout. And where did the glove go? It’s what the character wonders too…

 

Presian Kuzov (born 1994 in Ruse, Bulgaria) lives in Sofia, Bulgaria. He completed his secondary education in the Professional Highschool for Economy and Management ‘Elias Kanety’ in Ruse (2013) in the speciality ‘Business Administration’. University education in ‘Acting for Drama Theatre’ in the Theatrical college ‘Liuben Grois’ in the class of prof. Nadezhda Seikova class of 2017. Completes a second university course in ‘Directing for Drama Theatre’ in NATVIZ ‘Krustio Sarafov’ in the class of prof. Margarita Mladenova, class of 2022. Author of dramatic  works and short stories.

 

:: 16.05 | 19:00 ч. | Goethe-Institut Bulgaria

 

PANOPTIKUM

 

Text: Martina Novakova

Directed by Martina Novakova

With: Ivaylo Draganov, Dayana Dimitrova, Vasiliya Drebova and Martina Novakova

 

performance reading, part of ProText 10

 

~online streaming with English subtitles~

 

 

“Panoptikum” is a journey inside the house of a young woman named L. and an encounter with the large list of unusual objects which preserve her memories. Each of the selected objects in this house museum tells her story in a different way: in the voice of other characters who may be evoked to retell their point of view; through the gaze of an omniscient eye; from an old telephone bought from the flea market in Madrid; the sound of a half-forgotten melody or the interviews with people whose job is to empty houses. The reader must choose where to position themselves in the space, as well as in the action.

Martina Navakova has a bachelor's degree in Spanish philology from Sofia University “St. Kliment Ohridski’ and a master’s degree in ‘Theatrical creativity’ with an honorable degree from the Carlos III University in Madrid, with headteacher Juan Majorga. She considers theatre as an experience and loves to combine and borrow from different theatrical forms such as the theatre of objects, site specific, verbatim and the theatre of the senses. She has experience as a director and as an actress. In recent years she has participated in a series of projects, seminars and trainings with dramatisists as Jose Sanchis Sinisterra and Entso Korman. Author of the plays: ‘(Dis)placement: a story about migrations’, La Nau, Valencia (2019); ‘Rebuilding in a already nonexistent place’ in co-authorship with Migel Valentin, Madrid (2019); ‘Panopticum or the Memory of Objects’ Auditorio de Legales, Madrid (2018); ‘Low Cost’, Center for culture and debate The Red House, Sofia (2017). She also translates plays from spanish to bulgarian among which are ‘Raykyavik’ by Juan Majoraga and ‘The Dark Stone’ by Alberto Konehero.

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Organized by New Stages South-East and Goethe Institute Bulgaria.

Partners in the first edition of the Festival for New Dramatics are: ‘36 Monkeys’ Organization, Sofia Radar, Drama Pakt Sofia and  ACT Association for Independent Theatre.

Official partners and hosts of the festival are ‘Vazrazhdane’ Theatre and  the Capital’s Library.

Media partner of the project is Jasmin.bg.

ProText 10 is achieved with the financial support of National fund ‘Culture’.