site.btaSofia Theatre Organizes Bulgarian Play Competition

Only unknown authors are on the top 5 list of finalists in the seventh competition for writing a Bulgarian play organized by Sofia Theatre, its director Irinei Konstantinov told BTA.

"Bulgaria should invest - and Sofia Theatre does - in contemporary Bulgarian culture. Contemporary Bulgarians are indebted to their contemporary artists," said BTA Director General Kiril Valchev. BTA is a partner of Sofia Theatre.

"I wanted to find a good text that would strike the audience and the critics. I noticed that the same theme was recurring in these texts - the lifelessness and bleak prospects of today's Bulgarians," said theatre critic and member of the jury Dimitar Staykov.

"This is the seventh playwriting competition. We missed a two-year period because of the COVID situation. I don't know any of the authors. I know what came out of their heart, out of their soul, and what so impressed all of us in the jury," Konstantinov commented.

"It is always a joy when, in the end, some texts have a chance to be printed first in the books that Sofia Theatre publishes after each competition. And this is already a kind of stamp of quality with which the authors can seek realization in other theatres", said Prof. Plamen Markov, another member of the jury.

"The fact that none of us know these authors means that maybe they are at a stage in their journey where they need help from people who are involved in this matter," Prof. Markov said.

Texts for the competition must not have been published, staged or submitted in other competitions. Each author can participate with one work. The prize is BGN 3,000.