Kamen Donev Lecture No. 1 on Folk Creativity
ВЕРДИ АРТ The only artist to have filled Hall 1 of the National Palace of Culture more than 30 times, and to have performed 6 shows in front of 12,000 people at Arena Armeec.
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Favorite lines from his performances are passed from mouth to mouth all across Bulgaria and beyond — like folk creativity. With his unique sense of humor, he manages to touch on both the things we can take pride in as Bulgarians and the problems affecting all layers of our society.
Undoubtedly, his greatest achievement to date is the solo performance “The Views of a Teacher on Folk Creativity.” Since its premiere on October 16, 2007, the production is approaching its 555th performance. The greatest recognition for the show is its 330,000 spectators — an achievement no other Bulgarian production in the history of theater can boast.
“Folk creativity is creativity created by the people. That’s all. It is born mainly in the villages, i.e. outside the city. But even what is born in the city can still be called folk creativity, because people in the city usually come from the villages. This can be seen best on weekends, when they go to the villages, while people from the villages visit the city on Saturday and Sunday to sell what they grow in the villages themselves and to buy from the city what is, in turn, missing in the villages. The so-called folk creator learns, remembers, performs, but must also interpret, fantasize, and enrich further — mainly with love and from the heart — and pass the enriched result on to their descendants. What matters, however, is that in folk creativity no one wants to spoil what has been made; on the contrary — they want to make it better. Just like beans.
The topic we will deal with is: the rediscovery of folk creativity and its broad application in everyday life for improving people’s health, productivity, communication, and rest.
Folk songs and dances can help with life’s hardships, stress, loneliness, boredom, musculoskeletal problems, fatigue, negative emotions, and communication. They can also be applied across the entire range of the workweek, the two days off, and the time set aside in one’s personal life.
The performance is not suitable for persons under 14 years of age!
Awards for the performance
- Comedy Hit of the Season 2008 — audience award for Kamen Donev’s original performance “The Views of a Teacher on Folk Creativity”
- International Festival “Druzhyov Theatre Days,” Shumen 2008 — award for male role
- International Theatre Festival BGMOT 2008, Gabrovo — award for male role
- National Festival of Small Theatre Forms, Vratsa 2008 — third prize for male role and award for the most musical and singing actor
- “Balkan Theatre Euro-Portraits,” Blagoevgrad 2008 — award for male role and audience award
- International Theatre Festival “Zolotoy Vityaz,” Moscow — bronze “Vityaz”
- “Favorite 13” Award, Dimitrovgrad, 2009
- “Ice Mask” Award from the Ruse Theatre “Sava Ognyanov” for production of 2009
Team
- Set design — Ralitsa Ruseva
- Costumes — Pasha Neshkova
- Music — Kamen Donev, Kiril Dobrev
- Choreography — Ivaylo Ivanov
- Arrangements — Dani Milev
- Folklore consultants — Prof. Dr. Dimitrina Kaufman, Academician Nikolay Kaufman, Tsveti Radeva
Accompaniment specialists
- Dani Milev — guitars, vocals
- Teodosii Spassov — kaval, trumpet
- Ivo Papazov-Ibryama — clarinet
- Stoyan Yankoulov — percussion
- Antoni Donchev — original composition based on the libretto “Relatives”
- Mihail Shishkov Jr. — bass, keyboards, pedal steel guitar
- Mihail Yosifov — trumpet
- Dimitar Todorov — gaida
- Ilya Iliev — accordion
- Violeta Petkova — gadulka
- Lyubomir Zhelev — kaval
- Kostadin Genchev — kaval
- Kostadin Atanasov — clarinet
- Eva Quartet formation — vocals
- Photographer Stefan Nenkov — 3inSpirit
- Abstraktsion — Chavdar Yuzhelev