
Persian poets offer two keys to overcoming today’s conflicts – truth and wisdom, says theatre director Elena Panayotova in an interview with the Persian Bridge of Friendship on the occasion of the performance “Shahnameh: The Story of Zal”, a guest at the 40th Fajr International Theatre Festival
Vladimir Mitev
Elena Panayotova is a theatre director who has played a key role in the emergence of new forms of theatre practice in the last twenty years in our country. She holds a Master’s degree in Principles of Theatre Studies, specializing in European culture and history at the University of Amsterdam and theatre anthropology at the Odin Theatre in Denmark. For many years she taught acting at the Academy of Arts in Utrecht, the Netherlands, and for five years at the Theatre Department of the New Bulgarian University. She is the president of the Den Gri Foundation, through which she organizes numerous international creative and educational events. The projects she leads in the field of art and education involve artists and children from four continents. She has produced more than 30 theatre performances that have been part of various European and national festivals. In 2019, she received the Plovdiv Prize for Cultural Achievement in 2019 for the performance “Prince of the Earth and Prince of the Sea” at the Plovdiv State Puppet Theatre. In 2021, she received a nomination from the Sofia Municipality for Outstanding Achievement in the Arts for directing the performance “Shahnameh: The Story of Zal” at the Azaryan Theatre in the National Palace of Culture.
“The Persian Bridge of Friendship” discussed with Elena Panaiotova the Iranian reactions to the performance of her play in Tehran, the Bulgarian-Iranian relations on a human level, the importance of Shahnameh and the knowledge of the ancient and medieval world in the present, the specifics of Iranian theatre today and the future of the Bulgarian performance based on the Book of Kings.
Continue reading “Bulgarian theatre performance based on “Shahnameh” sparked interest and cordial reactions in Tehran”