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A team of Hungarian chefs buoyed by a partisan crowd in Budapest took first place in one of Europe’s most prestigious cooking competitions, the Bocuse d’Or Europe.
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Fans of the Trabant, the iconic East German car, now have a place in the Czech Republic to show their love.
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The category of identity is the fundamental framework of the paper that contains a brief overview of the theoretical constructs of personal identity and interprets mechanisms by which it is formed. The main part of the paper includes an analysis of the identity of characters that appear in the film High Heels (1991) of the contemporary Spanish director Pedro Almodóvar. The character identities present a very clear view of what contemporary literary theory describes as an antiessential approach towards creating a person’s identity. In his films, Almodóvar used numerous mechanisms for such an approach to these issues, and in the chosen film paradigm the intertextual and intermedial approaches have proven to be key moments that emphasize that the formation of a person’s identity rests on the necessary interactions with the other.
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The transformation of a Soviet-era airbase into an ethnographic museum has been controversial, but just won international recognition for its innovative and environmentally friendly design.
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Repertoire choices are a time machine of a kind, making actual texts from the past and in the process, making current images, stylistics, and language registers. This paper seeks to answer as to which of the historical layers were revived by Bulgarian theatres’ repertoires after 1989. The anthropological interest in the remote past and in the primitive authentic culture gave birth to memorable Bulgarian stagings. It was a strong trend, and typical too, of the auteur director’s theatre, especially of the 1990s. The interest in the Bulgarian classics and playwrights such as Vazov, Strashimirov, Todorov, Yavorov, Yovkov persisted. Some of the productions based on plays by these playwrights discovered more universal intuitions, contained in their plays, bringing them out of the readings closed within the regional/national contexts. Of the period of Socialist Realism survived the plays that have been composed outside the ideological clichés: these by Radichkov, the children’s plays by Valeri Petrov, some of the dramatic works by K. Iliev, B. Papazov, St. Stratiev, St. Tsanev. The basic line discernible in the repertoire choices of plays from the shelves in the virtual library of Bulgarian dramatic works was that of opting for texts highlighting Bulgarian identity. All the plays, The Outcasts after Ivan Vazov, Yovkov’s Albema, Radichkov’s Lazarus Up a Tree and Nirvana by K. Iliev, though so different from one another, were interpreted in the same vein. They were used to reconstruct the lost story of Bulgarian community.
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All stories are told, now it’s important, how do we tell it – that’s what contemporary writers believe, experimenting with form and style of writing. In 1986 written play “Me, Feuerbach” by T. Dorst and U. Ehler-Dorst tells a biographic story of one actor, but writers have chosen an interesting non-linear storytelling, using various tools for expressing the narrative. That’s why the aim of paper ‘Narrative Travelling Through Time at Play‘me, Feuerbach’’ is to examine and create theoretical approaches towards analysing the time of drama. According to G. Genette, three layers of time collide in every storytelling: story (the events that are recounted), narration itself (either written or oral discourse through which the events are presented), narrative action, or narratives (the creation of the discourse being narrated wherein the storytelling is presented). Narratologists analysing prose state that not in every narration can one record the act of tell-ability (it is most often implied); therefore, in conducting the time analysis, based on G. Genette’s narratology, it is proposed to investigate the relationship between two layers – story (the events that are narrated) and narration (allocation of events in a text). Suspending certain information that is closely entwined with the reader’s / the audience’s attitude towards a character, actor Feuerbach manipulates not so much the character (he is also of the narrators), but the perceiver – certain items of information are concealed from and revealed to him which help to maintain and enhance the intrigue. One refers to the shifting of time in a play's narrative so as to the character’s state of mind. That’s why a deeper methodological glimpse will be used to analyse the play “Me, Feuerbach” through the glasses of narratology, applying theory of analepsis, prolepsisand elipsis.
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This article is an in-depth study of an understudied aspect of the artistic out- put of eminent Bulgarian painter Ivan Penkov (1897–1957), i.e. his work as a designer of theatrical scenery and costumes at the National Theatre and Theatre Studia in the 1920s in Sofia. my work on this aspect of his oeuvre and career included research conducted in museums and art galleries across Bulgaria such as the National Art Gallery, Sofia Art Gallery, Kazanluk Art Gallery and Stara Zagora Art Gallery as well as a number of private collections and archives, mostly the painter’s archive kept by his heirs and that of the National Theatre. In this context, the archive of Christan Tsankov, kept at the Central State Archives, is of paramount significance providing a number of documents, sketches of sets, reviews and photos of performances designed by Ivan Penkov. The work of Ivan Penkov at these two Sofia theatres is treated in this article as closely related to the innovative processes within the 1920s Bulgarian theatre, influenced by advanced European theatres and mostly, by the innovative ideas of Reinhard and Meyerhold. Graduating from the Royal Academy of Arts in Munich, Ivan Penkov was very well acquainted with the existing art trends in drama. Thus what is witnessed in the 1920s scenographic work of Ivan Penkov is on the one hand interweaving of Symbolist concepts with the concepts of Sezession and on the other hand, expression of constructive scenographic solutions and artistic laconism, while in the late 1920s, the decorative stylised trends subsided gradually in his work as a whole and in his scenographic solutions in particular. In the 1930s, Constructivism got the upper hand and prevailed as an art movement in the scenographic work of Ivan Penkov.
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The article outlines and comments on the dramaturgical style and theatrical aesthetics of one of the most topical, radical and prolific playwrights and directors in Germany. It highlights the grounds and the manner of problematizing and the critical use of the form of drama in his theatrical texts. The latter is defined as a keynote anti-dramatic theatre, ceaselessly questioning drama conventions and functioning beyond the principles of the objective-mimetic theatricality. The article dwells on the definition of the aesthetics of the dramaturgy and the stagings by René Pollesch (almost exclusively of his own works) such as ‘pop’ or ‘discursive theatre’. An important particularity of his theatrical texts lies in that they are subject to a specific scenic concept, reaching their final version in close cooperation with the actors, with a view to whom they have often been composed. At times their own names are used or fictionalised roles are assigned to them. They are unalterably acting as ‘speaking heads, extreme talking machines’, who, lingering over philosophical theses, theoretical articulations, are hysterically attempting to reflect on the conditions of their existence; the mechanism of building a subject in the context they are thematising, the theatrical situation they are producing. The assumption that René Pollesch’s theatre is a kind of a gesture of desperation at the complexity of the contemporary world and at the ignorance of coping with the problems faced by each individual, is treated in such a context. Using the dramaturgical analysis of René Pollesch’s Cappuccetto Rosso, the article explores the underlying idea of drama and of strategies of transforming the form of drama.
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The study seeks to analyse the criteria applied by theatre reviewers regarding set design in the period from the end of World War Two until 1968. It was a time when a number of specialised articles was published searching to both rehabilitate the innovative movements that have established themselves in the pre-war period and to familiarize readers with the specifics of stage design. The author refers to a number of thematically grouped works of the day; reviews on certain productions, where the reviewers give their opinions about the set design; reviews commenting on productions through the stenographic solutions alone; overviews of exhibitions and/or fairs of set design; works, both Bulgarian and foreign, on scenic techniques and their historical development and of course, keynote articles evaluating the development of Bulgarian set design. The study deals also with some of the most intriguing productions of the National Theatre such as The Young Guard (1947), Toward the Abyss (1958), The Living Corpse (1962), etc. It was about these scenic solutions that reviewers saw themselves forced to abandon their traditional succinct notes on stage design and focus their analyses on the visual aspects of the productions.
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A little known image of the town of Galaţi appears on a topographic plan, dating from April 4-th 1835, enriching the poor representational documentation regarding this old Moldavian port on the Danube. The image dates from a period when the authorities attempted to develop, modernize and embellish the town which, starting with 1836, would acquire the status of Porto-franco Town. The author of this yet unpublished painting representing the town of Galaţi succeeded in depicting the activities from the port, where it can be noticed a paddle steamer traveling from Vienna, through Galaţi, until Constantinople and return. On the high terrace of the Danube, there are some buildings and three churches, and in background two villages from the neighborhood of the town and Brateş lake are depicted.
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The main problems discussed in the paper pertain to the following questions: How many actors’ generations there are in the Bulgarian National theatre during its whole history of about 100 years? Which are the factors that influence the change of one actors’ generation with another? What are the specific features of each generation that makes it different from the other? There is an accent put on the fact that both the number and the specific features of the different generations in the National theatre are connected with the factors, which have influenced the change of one generation with another. It is interesting that usually this change is made by the administration where part of the old actors are retired or fired and on their place new actors are appointed. The paper argues that although these acts often are associated with the name of a certain administrative or artistic director they are not based on complete subjectivity but are a result of objective circumstances. Moreover as a rule the leading motive of the directors pertains to their desire the theatre system, which with the years has become outworn and outdated, to be reformed and renewed. An attempt is made to find out the specific features of each generation. Here the main criteria were the following: 1. Age (date of birth). 2. Education, acting school. 3. Working period in the National theatre. 4. Repertoire and circle of roles. 5. Directing. Acting approaches and methods. A hypothesis is made that it is possible to outline several professional actors’ generations in the National theatre. Rather conventionally six generations are pointed out. There is one zero generation of amateur actors, who gave performances before the foundation of the National theatre as institution. That makes the generations of Bulgarian theatre seven, where six of them are especially connected with the name of the National theatre. The logic of such division follows the whole historical develop- ment of our theatre, its professionalization, institutionalization and modernization from the beginning until the end of 20th century.
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The article examines the National Theatre “Ivan Vazov” as an existence of the norm that develops through its deviations. The approach of the article is to start by analyzing the city plans position of the theatre and the symbolism of the adjacent buildings. From the very beginning of its existence, the National Theatre was supposed to introduce both the European traditional norms in drama and to leave a door to its stage ajar for modern aesthetics and even some elements of the avant-garde. Norm and deviation remain equally respected and active forces during the 20s and 30s and thus the very opposition between them is gradually reconciled. After 1944, the theatre falls into a deep aesthetic anomie and, though not articulated, loses its statute of an aesthetic legislator. Nevertheless, during the recent decade it again rejected the space that carries the major part of aesthetic innovation in Bulgarian theatre. Apparently this is the future of the theatre – to present the possibly best performance for the possibly largest audiences in their possibly greatest variety. All that in a time when norm no longer exists and thus deviations cannot be evaluated.
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The proposed text is an attempt to examine the company of the National Theatre as behaviour in the initial years of its formation. Its behaviour reflected or even developed certain attitudes and experience of values in the context of social development and in seeking a Bulgarian cultural identity. Such behaviour refers to the comprehension of culture as a collective phenomenon, as a system of shared meanings, symbols, ethical and moral principles, and is in a state of a continual dialectical development, interpreted and realized through everyday human experience. Socially, Bulgaria belongs to family, lineal culture and thus informing the National Theatre company, lineal attitudes are strongly represented in it. In order to be able to exist at the end of the 19th and the beginning of the 20th centuries, the company follows behaviour that is characteristic of the Bulgarian traditional society. In it, the family is a structural element; marriage is taken for a personal fulfilment and a change of the individual social status. The seclusion of the company as a family is a process that can be clearly defined in the activity of the theatre “Osnova”. A similar process is visible in the theatre “Salza I Smiah” as well, only developing the relationships and the structure of management, aiming to enhance the effectiveness of the family activity and the ways of communication with the state, which is thought of as the father-guardian figure. But the basic, initial value that upholds and binds the family in its behaviour is survival. Theatre as art is the profound goal of the forefathers of Bulgarian theatre, but the theatre that results from their activities is not yet the true art. The perseverance for achieving the idea of the theatre, the sustainable efforts of the company to fulfil it in practice in the years of its formation, grant the company the part of a primitive unit in the chain of history of the National Theatre. Moving into a new building, the company as a family achieves the idea of home. Later, in the face of N. O. Massalitinov, the company realizes its spiritual father – a concept sought for such a long time. During Massalitinov’s time, and with him, the family experiences a peak of achieving theatre as an art. This period of the company’s life reinserts and turns some behavioral features into a tradition that marks the company as a conservative closed society tightly bound to its linear nature.
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What is the contemporary meaning of an effort to reconstruct the history of the Bulgarian National Theatre? – This is the question that serves as a starting point of the text. The answer proposed is that in the context of contemporary situation of culture, the meaning is contained in the attempt to once archive the National Theatre as an exponent for the museums of national (regional) and world (global) cultures where it can be contemplated and examined, and, on the other hand, to be rendered as a material for recycling, that is, as something to be perpetually re-worked, and experienced again and again. The strategy chosen for reconstructing the image of the National Theatre set in the process of its century-long existence is that the theatre is realized through the light of its connection with key ideologies in the course of its development up to the end of the 80s of the 20th century. Three major ideologies have been traced as such, being consecutively dominant in the period from the beginning of the 20th century up to the end of the I World War, the period of the 20s and 30s of the 20th century and the period of the socialist epoch. The ideology of the first period is that of establishing the state (that recently gained its independence); for the second period it is the ideology of the loss of national ideals after the failure in the wars and the need for overall renewal of the state after them; for the third period – this is the ideology of constructing the socialist state. A considerable part of the text is dedicated to the analysis of the particular determinative influences of each of the above-mentioned ideologies on the institutional and aesthetic status of the National Theatre, then summarizing and defining its reconstructed historical image. The National Theatre bears two major characteristics – 1. Under the given historical circumstances, the National Theatre is established and subsequently continues to be re-established as/in the place of the whole Bulgarian theatre and; - 2.It is the focal point under whose model is formed the rest of the theatre periphery in Bulgaria, or under whose model the periphery is negatively rejecting it. In conclusion the author claims that after defining the basic status of the National Theatre, it is now comparatively easier to read and spell out the complex developments in it during the 90s of the 20th century (after the political changes in Eastern Europe) and to look for an answer to the inevitably posed question in any such historical – political recapitulations, namely: What would be one of the most adequate and useful forms of its existence in the present day? Sensing clearly that both of the problems need a separate, detailed and thorough examination, the text gives only two short comments on them. According to the first comment, the National Theatre reflection and the permanently established attitudes towards it to be considered the center in which to a certain extent is initialized or made the organization or reorganization of the theatre in Bulgaria as a whole, explains the mixing of traditional, avant-garde, popular and other types of performances on its stage during the 90s, this being an attempt to introduce to the country the variety of theatre ideas, practices and receptive strategies typical of the theatre network of the developed democratic countries. The second comment refers to the question what the National Theatre should be today, on the basis of its heritage and in the context of the contemporary cultural situation. And the answer is: As far as the Bulgarian National theatre is part of the network of European (and world) national theatres, it should be recognized by “the humanity observing all theatre productions of its own play” (Liothar) as exactly national. This would mean that the National Theatre should pre- serve and display the archive of its own and the global theatrical heritage (plays, staging and acting styles, basic value predispositions) and continually to archive the theatric existence, that is the achievements and the interesting findings of the up-to-date stage practice in the country.
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