Plamen Panev

With these word Plamen Panev - Bulgarian theatrical director - presents our new rubric entitled "Bulgarians in Modern Russia". How many interesting and prosperous in different areas people from Bulgaria are now living and working in Moscow, Saint Petersburg and in other regions?! We suggest that we make their portrait together!

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During the past several months the Bulgarian theatrical and film director Plamen Panev is working at the "School for Modern Drama" Moscow Theatre upon the personal invitation of Yosif Leonidovich Raihelgauz - Chief artistic director of the theatre. There he staged the performance of "Woman" (working title) by Natalia Savitzkaya. Irina Alfiorova, Vladimir Shulga and Angelika Volchkova are taking part in the performance. The premiere is scheduled for 27 December. 

This is far not the first creative experience of Plamen Panev in Russia.

In the distant 1988 he had been "specialized" in Moscow in the frames of the program for exchange of students between NATFA (Bulgarian National Academy for Theatre and Film Arts) and GIK (Russian State Academy of Culture). He then could not even imagine that one day he would be invited to stage a performance at one of the leading Moscow theatres.

In the following year of 1989 Plamen managed to form a crew and found resources for carrying out the "The Lake of Baikal 1989" expedition. The expedition was accompanied by two shooting teams with artistic directors and directors Ilian Simeonov and Plamen Panev respectively.

Several years later Panev was invited in Tyumen. The performance of "Regional Hospital" by the successful Bulgarian author Hristo Boichev held in the State Drama Theatre in Tymen was realized upon the invitation of Vladimir Korivitzkiy - Director of the theatre. During a business visit to Bulgaria he had seen a performance staged by Plamen Panev in Sofia and then he had contacted him. "I should say that I received great attention. This is a part of the Russian theatrical culture, but it was also due to the chemistry which occurred during the working process between me and the theatre team", tells us Plamen Panev.

It's the same creative way he now appeared in Moscow! Yosif Leonidovich Raihelgauz - Chief artistic director of the "School for Modern Drama" Theatre and his team were very impressed by one of his performances. At first Plamen was invited for a casting at the theatre and then 6 months later he was appointed to stage the play "Woman" by N. Savitzkaya - a modern drama with a very interesting and sharp plot.

After the premiere Plamen Panev will of course return to Bulgaria, to "D. Dimov" Drama Theatre in Kurdjali. He is Director of the Theatre in Kurdjali and once he said the following about the theatre : "This is a theatre with a long and very strong history and nowadays it is the biggest theatrical troupe outside Sofia with the best results achieved in the period of theatrical reforms. Several months ago the Minister of Culture personally gave us the keys of a new bus in order to be more flexible and mobile. I am saying this fact because I consider it very important. In the new conditions following the reforms it is unthinkable a theatrical troupe not to travel in search of his audience!

Mobility makes a Bulgarian theatre a really European one. It allows us to participate in European international festivals and to win awards and to be invited to hold performances at different places. For example, in Moscow!"