During graduation ball season and as the school year draws to an end, in June we take a look at what young people’s interests and concerns are on the cusp of a new chapter in their lives after finishing school. Teenagers usually have lots of dreams and plans for the future after the efforts they have made and the knowledge they have acquired in school. Both parents and students tend to talk about talent, interests and a future profession long before the matriculation exams in the 12^th grade. According to aggregate data by one of the agencies which mediate between universities and secondary school graduates, Bulgarian school-goers tend to opt for degrees in economics and management, or programming and computer design. Next come psychology, engineering, media and communications, pedagogy, medicine etc. Managers in education say young people are much more driven nowadays, and many students start going on language vacations abroad as early as the 9^th or 10^th grade. This is a way to test the foreign education system, to gain knowledge and experience and, last but not least, to find their bearings in the vast world of educational programmes on offer.

It is no surprise that the modern young, who grew up with computer applications and who cannot imagine life without the new technologies, are tempted to continue their education in just such spheres. And even though operating with the new technologies opens up many professional doors, young people in this country have not lost interest or the urge to engage in art or perform on the stage.

That is what our meetings with the students who rehearse at a theatre studio called IUVENES every Saturday showed. Most of them come from secondary schools with a focus on economics, banking and business. They say they want theatre to continue to play a prominent role in their lives, and there is a concrete reason for that: “Here we work with our emotions, the children coming to the studio have a similar way of thinking, of looking at the world, and here they create a community for themselves. We are one family, one community,” says Veneta Atanassova, who is a professional actress and who has been at the head of the student drama studio IUVENES since 2007.

“The first thing I say to the newcomers to the company is that this is not a school, there are no marks here, and everyone comes here to find something to fill their soul with. But the most important valuation is, I think, that of the audience and of the children themselves. The fact itself that even those who have finished school want to keep coming shows this theatre is needed in the life of our youngsters.”

Axenia Pancheva is a straight-A student at the National Secondary School in Finance and Business in Sofia, but she invests the same kind of effort and dedication in her work at the drama studio. You cannot study or work all the time, you need to be engaged in at least one form of art, she says:

“My grandmother was passionate about theatre, and she passed that passion onto me, my whole family devotes a lot of time to art. A person does not need to be part of some kind of societal convention, or be part of the herd, people must build their own taste and style. I try to be different from other people my age, and doing theatre helps me with that. When we play different roles that helps me communicate with different people in different ways. Theatre helps you live a more exciting life, a life that is more real.”

The company Veneta Atanassova is head of is currently preparing to stage a show based on motifs from Homer’s Iliad. The students have to play Greek gods and mythological athletes. Dennis, 17, from secondary school for foreign languages No. 31 in Sofia plays two of the main characters:

“On the whole I enjoy doing theatre, it is an environment in which you can show who you are. And I really like playing roles and imagining I am Achilles or Agamemnon. It is a way to find your place in life. I would like to continue with theatre after finishing school, but because of the difficulties of applying to university, and the competition afterwards I don’t think it is a profession I am going to choose. Still, theatre gives us so much, and lots of general knowledge too.”

Martin is also 17, and used to attend one of the Bulgarian weekend schools in Spain, but in 2022, during the pandemic, his family decided to return to Bulgaria. “I like the people at the drama studio,” says Martin:

“Coming here is such a pleasure, and also I can be myself here, I can be who I am, express emotions. That is why I want to continue with theatre in future. I want to become a good actor, that it a childhood dream of time, and when I came back to Bulgaria, it took me a long time to find a place to continue with theatre. I also love doing folk dances. Folk dancing was something we were taught at the Bulgarian school in Spain, but not at the Bulgarian schools here, as I, unfortunately, found our when we came back. I miss that.”

Translated and posted by Milena Daynova
Photos:BGNES, Drama studio IUVENES