Sofia Puppet Theater

Founded in 1946 by Mara Penkova, who used her meager financial resources to finance the troupe in the post-war years, Bulgaria's first puppet theater quickly gained attention. of the public. Just two years later, the troupe was subsidized by the state and became the first officially recognized professional state theater in Bulgaria. Since its establishment, the puppet theater has staged more than 300 plays for itself.

The theater's first international appearance took place in Bucharest in 1958, and just two years later the troupe received the award for "Originality and Imagination" at the annual International Puppetry Festival. second time in Bucharest thanks to the adaptation of the play “Peter and the Wolf” by Sergey Prokofiev, directed by Atanas Ilkov and Ekaterina Georgieva.

The 1960s were the golden era of theatre, whose wildly successful performances spread the theater's fame for its huge puppet productions and were extremely popular all over the world, from Cuba to America and Canada, and from Western Europe as far as Japan. For example, the theater's "King Marko" (1967) and "Pinocchio" (1968) were featured in Edinburgh's prestigious theater festival; “The Watchmaker” (1965) is also noted for its dramatic visuals. Not only limited to children's repertoire, the puppet theater also performs classics from the common canon of theatre, such as "The Misanthrope" (1968), "The Decameron" (1972) ), "The Tempest" (1987) and "Macbeth" (1996). The theater's adaptation of the hit classic "Ragazza" sold out a few weeks before its release. The theater has also successfully staged the legendary shadow puppet plays “Festival of Animals” and “Pictures at an Exhibition” (1997). Finally, the theater is famous for its echoes of "The Princess and the Pea", which has enjoyed more than thirty years of unimaginable success.

On May 23, 2001, the theater was officially renamed the Sofia Puppet Theater and became one of the cultural institutes of the City of Sofia. Currently, the theater has two main stages (one at 14 Gurko Street and the other at 19 Yanko Sakazov Street), as well as a studio system for producing puppets and scenes as well as a recording studio for the post-production. production of plays.

Every year, the theater has more than 20 new performances compiled, performed on stage more than 650 times and prepares up to 6 new performances each season with more than 65,000 spectators. The theater's artistic production has explored every genre and style from miniature puppetry through musical stories, pantomimes, shadow theatre, comedy, satire to epic heroic performances to can diversify their works and meet more needs of the audience.

Website : www.sofiapuppet.com

Phone : +359 2 987 3815