Graduates of the theatre studio "Igra" achieve success in Bulgaria and around the world

published on 6/5/24 4:24 PM

Photo: BTA

On 7, 8 and 9 June, in the concert hall of the Sredets House of Culture in Sofia, the young actors from the theatre studio "Igra" will present the premiere of the performance When the Roses Dance by Valery Petrov. In the second half of the month, from 17 to 22 June, there will be a second premiere of A Musical for Five Pennies by composer Yuri Stupel, based on The Three-Penny Opera by Bertolt Brecht.

The two performances are dedicated to the 50th anniversary of the Municipal Cultural Institute Sredets House of Culture, where in 1996 the Theatre Studio "Igra" began its activity.

"We have won many awards, but the most important thing for us is that we have managed to educate dozens of theatre artists who are successfully performing professionally and are currently defining the cultural trends of Bulgaria in all its theatrical institutions," says the head of the theatre school Petar Varbanov.

"It all started at the beginning of democracy. First, in 1991 we created the private "Free Theatre". We had a director and two actors on the board - Peter Budevski, Veselin Kalanovski and myself. We started writing our story play by play, premiere after premiere. At the same time, everything that had been building up on the cultural front in Bulgaria began to crumble, and we decided that somehow we had to become a bridge to pass on the experience and values that we deeply hoped we carried. So in 1996, at the Sredets House of Culture, we created the theatre studio "Igra", as the first director was Petar Budevski. In a short time the studio attracted a large number of young people and we had to increase the number of groups. At that time I had a lot of roles as an actor, I was acting almost every night and it was difficult to combine the two things. The studio was getting stronger, more and more of our graduates were successfully applying to the National Academy of Theater and Film, and also to England, the Czech Republic, the USA, wherever there was an opportunity for theatre education."

At the beginning of the new century Peter Varbanov opened a new page in his professional life - "I stopped my active work as an actor and took up the studio. I do not regret this choice".

"Today, Igra Theatre Studio prepares almost 40% of the young people who study at the National Academy of Theatre and Film Art. Among our graduates there are already many established names who are performing in the Bulgarian theater and cinema, not a few have achieved successful careers abroad. After graduating from the film academy, four of our graduates managed to form a theatre company based in New York and invited me to create together one of the performances - The Lost Germans by Dejan Dukovski. The play was a great success. I had a lot of help from the Bulgarian community, the Macedonian community and the Consular Section of the Bulgarian Embassy. A lot of critics came to the premiere, gave a very high evaluation of the play, nominated it for an award..."

There is still much to be said about the successes of the former members of the Igra Theatre Studio, although "former" is not the right word. "Most of them stay connected to us, attend our shows, some help out when they need to", Petar Varbanov tells us:

"The goal of all of us who work with young people is to broaden their worldview, to preserve the most valuable part of theatre, of acting. It's getting harder, but I'm not giving up, and I'm not going to give up, because I see the huge result of our work. The plays we put on are getting more serious, our graduates are finding it hard to settle for more elementary dramaturgy. I am convinced that one learns to swim in deep water. My great satisfaction is the results these young people are achieving. Many of them are breaking into the theatres very quickly. I tell them from the very beginning that if they are going to be serious about it, they have to be in the visible ranks of the arts, and they strive for that."