Young actor from Montana’s puppet theatre Harry Belov has turned into an engine of a quite an interesting project – the creation of a Roma theatrical studio Suno for now starting Roma actors, aged 13 – 17. Harry proposed the idea to the Roma educational fund in Budapest, together with the New Future society and the approval and funding came shortly after. The future actors had to meet the following criteria – correct Bulgarian pronunciation, clear diction and good marks at school. Children from the two Roma neighborhoods of the town of Montana, Northwest Bulgaria, appeared at the casting. Nine of them had the chance to get the 9 parts of the play. The goal is children to get fascinated by art and to touch another world that might change them for the better.

“We decided to stage the Vrazhalets play by St. L. Kostov, written more than 80 years ago, but sounding quite up-to-date,” Harry says and adds. “I don’t know whether this is a good sign for our development as a nation. The idea of our project is not only to create art, it is educational as well.”

The greedy will to get wealthy throws the people from a small village into the hands of a skilled crook – that is the plot of the comedy play. The archaic language has been preserved for authenticity purposes, which is another challenge to the kids. The name of the Suno studio means a Dream in the Roma language. This is a dream come true to the young theatre expert. He headed to the stage 13 years ago with a similar project.

“No one has said theatre should be easy,” director Belov thinks. “It has to be beautiful – a fairy tale and magic. It has to help people escape from their grey everyday life in these hard times, finding themselves in a motley and pied world at least for a while.”

The theatre company had its pre-premiere in the town of Lom. That was not a coincidence, as the engine of the Roma studio wanted the kids to kick off from where one of the first Bulgarian theatre shows had taken place back in 1856 – the Mnogostradalna Genoveva (Long-suffering Genoveva) drama. Next came performances in the town of Montana and the Children’s Palace in Sofia. The young actors had their deserved applause, support and the watery eyes of the audience as a compliment. “I do hope that our work will continue and that funding will be founded for the play’s distribution, in order not to waste the enthusiasm and the labor of those kids,” Belov says.

“Let’s not forget about culture and education, when it comes to Roma people. This is very important,” Harry says. “Roma are known for being good musicians, actors, artists and writers across the globe. At the same time few Bulgarian institutions try to support their culture. That is how the talent of Roma can be shown, as I see them as a mysterious people with little known culture. The main message of our play is an appeal to return to real values, in order to avoid lies and thefts,” the young director says in conclusion.

English version: Zhivko Stanchev