За името "Народен театър"
Of the Name National Theatre

Summary/Abstract: The article aims at throwing some light on the birth of the figure of the National Theatre in Bulgarian cultural stratum. Even in the first governmental reports justifying the decisions of the state for aiding theatre activity in Bulgaria, even in the first critical articles in the first dailies, one can explicitly find the insertion that this is a “popular” theatre. Bulgarian state authorities borrow exactly this image of the theatre to enter it in its state projects and exactly this is the reason why it is legally stipulated, subsidized and institutionalized. For the period 1903 – 1907 professor Ivan Shishmanov in his capacity of a Minister of People’s Enlightenment directly initializes, ideologically justifies and fulfils his project for a national theatre as a state (national) institution of culture. A bit later, in the face of Pencho Slaveykov in his capacity of a Director of the N​ational Theatre (1908 – 1909) this positivist project launched by Shishmanov of the state-builder and benefactor–guardian of the theatre is implicitly put under critical reconsideration through valuable juxtaposition of the concepts “popular” and “national”. Slaveykov’s project for a state autonomous “national theatre”, combining the individualism of Nische with the spirit of Enlightenment is the only alternative to the established theatre pattern in the country for the period after the Liberation up to the I World War of this hybrid figure, namely a state national theatre that is realized as popular. His project remains equally misunderstood both by the romantic-sentimentalist cleavage of actors aiming to achieve a state-protected status and the paternalist state (government) striving to implement the idea of modernized “construction” in Bulgaria. In conclusion, the article tries to follow the development of the so established model in Bulgaria through different historic periods.

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