Interview with Svetozar Georgiev, Bulgarian Playwright

What is your first childhood memory of theatre?

I have no clear memories of the theatre as a child. Unlike opera. Still, remember Turandot...Theatre came much later.

When did you know you wanted to pursue this path? 

It was 2006 I went to see Sarah Kane’s 4.48 Psychosis with two of the Bulgarian artists that I admire most – Ivo Dimchev and Snejina Petrova. I was 31 at the time. When I came out of the theatre, I start smoking again after 8 years and write plays. I’m lucky that I have so distinctive mark in my memory. Even remember the time – 20:38. Next year I adapted the screenplay from Night on Earth by Jim Jarmusch and …this is how it started.

If you weren’t in this profession, what would you be doing?

Well, I’m not really in this profession because I work different thing for a living. I’m writing because I have no choice.. well I’m not obsessed or something but it is hard for me not to think of it. Much like cigarettes. Yes. Even when you stop, you know… and the gambling, it’s the same. Otherwise, I suppose that I would be working at the Bulgarian Academy of Science, theoretical physics. It’s interesting and the salary is small. But science requires the same amount of devotion like the theater so I guess it will be too hard for me if I wanted both.

Who is the person who has most influenced your work?

Well, I’m afraid that there are lots of people and groups of people who partially influenced my work. Like Bulgarian poet Vutimski, Ivan Popov (who is a physicist but also an author), some Persian and Turkish poets, Russian poets – Anna Akhmatova, Marina Cvetaeva, author Isak Bebel, Venedikt Erofeev… House of Pain, Cypress Hill, Miles Davis. Or Goedel and Popper. I can’t tell for sure. Sometimes I think … well, I have too much space for other people in my head.

What advice would you give someone just starting out in the business?

I really don’t know… “Beware of the beast?” may be…

In three words, describe the theatre scene in your city.

Not angry enough. It’s too still and shy.

If money were no object, what is your dream project?

For the moment… I want to make musical about the life and death of Joan of Arc. But separated on small stages during one week and culmination on big stage with lots of dance and kung fu. And yes the separated parts well be heavily text-based. Well, sort of… if money and common sense are not a problem.

What is your greatest challenge as an artist?

To be honest and to reveal myself and to reveal myself pretending that it’s not me just to avoid too many emotions. And to know how to stop.

How do your parents describe what you do to their friends?

“He is in the IT business” They really don’t know that I write plays or poetry – I use nome de plume.

If you were to write your own epitaph, what would you say? 

“He was ok… i think. Sometimes spent too much time thinking while the red light was blinking on the crossroad, but he was ok.”

Svetozar Georgiev is a Bulgarian playwright. He graduated from Sofia University with a degree in Nuclear Engineering. His plays include The Cosmonaut, Dead Dagmar or the Little Matchstick Girl, Nocturne–from dust to brilliance and The Turing Machine.