International Women Stage Directors

Bulgaria

Bulgaria Vessela S. Warner Bulgarian women made assertive steps in theatre directing after 1944, when the communist state granted free professional training in the performing arts, built and subsidized some thirty-five theatres, and provided equal-gender employment opportunities . Comprising a small number in the heavily politicized occupation of directing during the totalitarian period, women often persevered through professional and moral compromises. Since the collapse of Eastern European communism in 1990, Bulgarian women stage directors have fearlessly faced the challenges of an open-market economy and free competition. Although in the beginning of the twenty-first century they still represented a minority in the business, their achievements have gained high national and international recognition. Women’s Rights: Historical Context The women’s rights movement in Bulgaria was intertwined with and impeded by the country’s thwarted early modern history. In the time of the European Renaissance and Enlightenment, Bulgaria existed as a colonized country with a patriarchal society within the feudal Ottoman Empire (1393–1878). After its national liberation, it remained generally conservative to modern gender perceptions. The void of liberal traditions and distinct capitalist structures during the first half of the twentieth century was quickly filled by the masculine drive of various lower-class, nationalist, and leftist forces which eventually established a Soviet-like proletarian dictatorship at the end of World War II. Women’s emancipation in Bulgaria was integrated in the objectives of the socialist revolution the Bulgarian Communist Party carried out in coalition with other antifascist organizations in 1944. For the first time in Bulgarian history, policies of class and gender equality were included in the new socialist constitution, and their legislative power granted suffrage and employment rights to women. Principally progressive and irrevocable, these policies also secured women’s support of the communist government as well as their much-needed participation in a primitive economy that heavily relied on physical labor and mass numbers. On the premise that women’s emancipation was achieved with the victory of the socialist revolution, the new government dissolved all previous feminist organizations. The formalistic and politically complacent Bulgarian Women’s Committee was mostly concerned with women’s international solidarity (Nikolchina). The Bulgarian totalitarian government disallowed the existence of grassroots organizations and public forums that addressed any internal political issues. Between 1944 and 1989, Bulgarian women silently suffered the injustices of a sociopolitical system that disregarded basic human freedoms and nourished political and gender favoritism. State-granted education and emancipation through employment proved to be an illusionary victory for Bulgarian women, who were compelled to support their families financially while overcoming the burdens of primitive living conditions. Furthering their education was often compromised by the need to care for young children and aging parents. In the 1960s, Bulgaria’s national deficit increased and the market sustained a shortage of basic commodities. Downplaying a much larger sociopolitical crisis, the Communist Party recognized the disintegration of the Bulgarian family and addressed women’s difficulties in balancing advancement at work and mounting duties at home. The measures taken—considered by many to be a return to gender division and traditional family hierarchy—were generally futile due to ideology-governed policies. The place of women in the new political and cultural environment of totalitarian communism was precarious: they were generally protected and encouraged to compete in every social arena, yet they were exposed to acts of gender bias and sexism on a daily basis.1 In the postcommunist years, the totalitarian practices mutated into economic chaos, inadequate legislature, and pervasive criminal violence, which altogether exacerbated women’s lives. The lingering transition from state ownership to privatization of industry pushed some women to “risky but prosperous entrepreneurial activity” in the private sector, mainly in retail and service, while “others, after years of guaranteed jobs, [were] facing unemployment” (Kostova 215). After 1990 many nongovernmental organizations embraced the women’s rights cause, but they engaged mostly in cultural and educational projects. The passing of the antidiscrimination bill in 2003 was a major political victory, but the problems that specifically identified women as a dynamic yet vulnerable social group were not sufficiently addressed. 44 Vessela S. Warner Early Women Directors The women pioneers in stage directing were not specifically trained in directing but relied on their acting education and experience to lead their casts. From this small group, Zlatina Nedeva (1878–1941) could likely take the credit for being the first Bulgarian woman director. Nedeva studied theatre...