ProText 14 ◌ Performance-readings of new plays in translation ◌ 25 June - 03 July
In 2025, ProText returns with its 14th edition, bringing new energy and focus to contemporary European dramaturgy - translated, thought and shared live for the first time. The events will bring together actors, directors, translators, authors and audiences in lively, inspiring dialogue around new plays that will seek their stage realization.
This edition presents three dramaturgical texts, sensitive to the themes of the present, by established contemporary authors. This year's selections within the EURODRAM international dramaturgy network are "Our Son" (Patrik Lasić), "Carbon" (Pierre Lorenzo Pisano) and "Alaska" (Elise Wilk).
As an invitation to participate in the theatrical birth of a play, the ProText platform seeks direct contact between text, stage and audience. The encounter of the plays with the audience in the form of a performance-reading, after 5 days of rehearsals by the theatre team, allows the text to sound authentic, in development - as a laboratory and as a conversation in real time. Because, don't you know that a play only reaches the end of its creation in the mind of the spectator?
The program starts on June 25 at 7:00 p.m. at the RCCA “Topocentrala” (Hall 2) with the Romanian play "Alaska'' by Elise Wilk, translated by Laura Nenkovska, directed by Denislav Yanev. On June 27 at 7:30 pm on the stage “Apostol Karamitsev” at the National Theatre “Ivan Vazov” will be presented the play “Our Son” by Patrick Lazić in translation by Ivan Panayotov, directed by Denitsa Darinova. The cycle will end on July 3 at 7:30 pm at the Municipal Theatre “Lyubomir Kabakchiev'' in Kazanlak with the Italian play ”Carbon" by Pier Lorenzo Pisano, translated by Chiara Rossi and directed by Burhan Kerim.
ProText 14 is part of the project “JURODRAM 2025: contemporary European dramaturgy” of the JURODRAM BG Foundation. The partners of the initiative are the Organization for Contemporary Alternative Art and Culture - 36 Monkeys, the international network EURODRAM, Goethe-Institut Bulgaria, the National Theatre “Ivan Vazov”, the RCCA ‘Topocentrala’, the Municipal Theatre “Lyubomir Kabakchiev” in Kazanlak an Kazanlak Municipality.
The project was implemented with the financial support of the National Culture Fund. With the support of Sofia Municipality
◌ Programme of performance readings - ProText 14:
25.06 | 7PM Toplocentrala Hall 2 "Black Hall’’
Author: Elise Wilk
Translated by Lora Nenkovska
Directed by Denislav Yanev
"Alaska" offers an intimate look at the lives of three generations of women (grandmother, mother and daughter) and a journey through time led by the magical creature Alaska. As they struggle with
the legacy of the communist regime, economic uncertainty and their personal aspirations, the heroines' lives and life choices begin to intertwine. The play explores the invisible cracks in
family, personal paths and inherited patterns of behaviour. Is emancipation of the individual possible, defying the traumas and expectations of the past?
Elise Wilk was born in Transylvania and is one of the most acclaimed playwrights of her generation in Romania. Her latest play "Aurora'' won the Best Eastern European Play Award in Poland in 2022. She currently teaches playwriting at the University of Arts in Targu Mures.
Laura Nenkowska is a lecturer of Romanian language and literature at the Sofia University "St. Kliment Ohridski" where she teaches Balkan Studies and Romanian Philology. Among the more than 25 books she has translated are the names of authors such as Mircea Eliade, Dan Lungu, Philip Florian and Ioan Grosjean.
27.06 | 7:30 PM, National Theatre "Ivan Vazov", stage: "A.Karamitev"
Author: Patrik Lasić
Translated by Ivan Panayotov
Directed by Denitza Darinova
The plot of "Our son" humorously follows the tense conversation between a father, mother and their now grown son, who returns home with one long-delayed expectation: acceptance. He's gay, and the parents - torn between shame, guilt and their own fears - can't find the language to see and love him for who he is. Instead of support, he finds himself in an emotional battleground where every sentence is an unanswered question:
Whose fault is it? Where did we go wrong? Can he change?
Patrik Lazić is a Serbo-Croatian theatre director and author, who was awarded a special prize for establishing innovative approaches at the 58th Joakim Vuic Festival. In 2019 he graduated from the Belgrade Drama Theatre with the play Fine dead girls based on the text by Mate Matišić. With his play ,,Our Son'', he won the prize for best dramatic text at ,,Art Trema Fest'' in Ruma and the young jury award at the Fast Forward festival in Dresden.
Ivan Panayotov is a Bulgarian theatre and film actor who graduated from NATFA "Krastyo Sarafov" in the class of prof. Ivaylo Hristov. He has participated in television productions and independent theatre projects, including ,,Three'' 2022/2023 (Thermal Power Plant, Student House), ,,Cry for Love'' and the theatre and poetry performance ,,The Clown's Pre-death March'' in Blagoevgrad, in which he translated the work of Miroslav Antić. Between 2013 and 2024 he translated other texts from Serbian.
03.07 | 7:30 PM, city of Kazanlak, Municipal Theatre "L.Kabakchiev"
Author: Pier Lorenzo Pisano
Translated by Chiara Rossi
Directed by Burhan Kerim
The main character of "Carbon" is a man who claims to have met an alien being - something completely different from any life form on Earth because it is not carbon-based. This encounter becomes the occasion for an intense interrogation led by a woman whose job it is to establish the veracity of his story.
As the dialogue between them unfolds, the play gradually reveals his personal memories and traumas. The play invites us to reflect on our understanding of reality and our place in the universe, raising the question of our encounter with the 'other', and the effects it unleashes in man - when confronted with the alien or incomprehensible, with that which is greater and more complex than his existence.
Pier Lorenzo Pisano is an Italian film, theatre director and novelist. "Cosí in terra" is his debut short film, selected in competition at the 71st Cannes Film Festival. It has won prestigious Italian awards for dramaturgy, including the Riccione, Solinas, Tondelli and Hystrio. His plays have been translated into 14 languages and have been produced around the world. He is currently an associate artist at the Teatro Piccolo, Milan.
Chiara Rossi is a teacher and translator from Italian and Bulgarian. Born in Naples, she received her education in Bulgarian language and literature at the local University ,,L'Orientale''. She also has a theatre background.
Link to the organization's website and all ProText events: https://www.36monkeys.org/protext/
Eurodram `25 selection for plays:
https://eurodram-bulgarian.weebly.com/2025.html
»» Official hosts and partners of ProText 14 are:
Eurodram BG Foundation, OSAIK "36 monkeys", Eurodram, Goethe-Institut Bulgaria, National Theatre "Ivan Vazov", CFCA "Toplocentrala", Municipal Theatre ''Lyubomir Kabakchiev'', town of Kazanlak, Kazanlak Municipality, Sofia Municipality Culture Programme and the Ministry of Culture.
Дейността на организацията през 2023 г. се осъществява с финансовата подкрепа на Национален фонд „Култура“, програма „Едногодишен грант“ и „Програма за възстановяване и развитие на частни културни организации“.