Literary Evening & Discussion

Hristo Boytchev: Translated & Performed Plays in the UK
Special Guest: Hristo Boychev

Hristo Boytchev (www.hristoboytchev.com) is one of the most widely produced European playwrights. His plays have been staged in 40 countries, from South Africa to the Arctic Circle, and from Sidney to Sakhalin. His most frequently staged plays are The Colonel Bird, The Titanic Orchestra, District Hospital, and Underground, among others.

CV:
Born in 1950 in Northern Bulgaria. Graduated in machine engineering and worked as the manager of a factory. Wrote his first play in 1981. After the fall of communism (1989), East European theatre fell into financial collapse and Boytchev started a career as a television journalist.

Word Winner:
In 1997 he chanced on British Council’s announcement for an International Playwright Competition and his play The Colonel Bird was recognized by Harold Pinter as Word Winner.

Journalistic carrier:
He became widely famous for his satirical image of a leader of an imaginary political party. In 1996 he official ran for president of Bulgarian. His election campaign was a tremendous satirical show on primetime national television. The main plank of his platform was the stray dog problem – for which he patented a dog condom.

International recognition:
Hristo Boytchev’s work will be studied at New York University and Augsburg University (USA). He is a representative of what is known as the “new wave” and has been looked upon as a successor to the line of Beckett and Ionesco in modern European dramaturgy. He was awarded the prestigious Italian award “Enrico Maria Salerno -1999” and has had been presented at the most prestigious European festivals: Festival D’Avignon, Golden Mask in Moscow, Bonner Biennale, Germany; MESS – Sarajevo, etc. He is a patron of the Wiesbaden Biennale Festival and MESS Sarajevo.

Recently finished new projects:
Two plays – “Zorba The Greek” and “The Great Gatsby” and a monodrama “Phenomenon”.