I am now in Smolyan, Bulgaria- a beautiful town in the Rodopi Mountains of Bulgaria- taking classes and workshops for the theatre arts.

Let me start by answering the most common question- why Bulgaria?

We come here because of the history of theatre. This is "the mythological birthplace of Orpheus and Eurydice and the original terrain of the cult of Dionysus, i.e., the origin of Western theater, music, and performance. By assembling at an important geographical root of storytelling and their art form, participants internationalize their imaginations, broaden the scope of their creative vocabularies, and collectively discover how sets of diverse styles, conventions, and philosophies may be merged into uniquely cohesive theatrical events." (from the RITC website- www.theatrecollective.org)

This year, the collective is basing all of its work on the myth of Ragnarok. Ragnarok, in the shortest definition, is similar to the Christian idea of the Rapture, and comes from Norse mythology. If you're interested in finding out more about it, check it out on wikipedia.

We began taking classes at 9am on Tuesday, July 15. For 3 1/2 hours in the morning, we train in the physical techniques of Commedia dell'Arte. There is a lunch break until 2, and then for three more hours we participate in a theatre-creating workshop, in which we learn to make short pieces on the spot. After two weeks, we will stop this workshop and replace the 2-5 slot with training in Kathakali, an Indian dance/storytelling tradition. From 5-8 I am a participant in a workshopping of Ibsen's "A Doll's House" with a brilliant Bulgarian director, Peter Karapetkov. On the weekends our days are filled with either lectures, workshops, or excursions...

As you might imagine, I have quite a busy schedule. However, I will do my best to keep this blog updated and interesting with stories and whatnot. Pictures will appear later, but right now I have no way of uploading them from my camera. I do have a cool picture from the internet, though...

Before we arrived at our destination of Smolyan, we made a two-day stop in the beautiful town of Plovdiv. The most exciting thing there is this ancient Roman ampitheater that STILL exists, and even more exciting, is STILL used regularly for concerts and productions! Currently a production of "A Midsummer Night's Dream" is in the rehearsal process there... amazing, yes?! I think so. The awesome thing is that we were able to actually visit this theater and walk around in it. Here are some pictures of it, and just some of the city itself that I took last year...