site.btaToplocentrala Art Centre Celebrates Five Years with International Premieres, New Music Program, and Immersive Experiences

The Toplocentrala art centre marks its fifth anniversary with a series of international premieres, a new music program, and immersive worlds, the cultural center announced.

In February, Notes from Underground by Dostoevsky will come to life through a stage duet featuring actor Yordan Rasin and director Stoyan Radev. The event will be followed by the traditional week-long international workshop on the Gurdjieff Movements (Sacred Dabces). On February 24 and 25, audiences will have the opportunity to see a new, original interpretation of Heiner Mueller’s post-dramatic masterpiece Medea, presented by Agata Tomsic in the acclaimed production by ErosAntEros (Italy).

In March, Toplocentrala will host world-renowned director Oskaras Korsunovas and Lithuanian actress Egle Jakaite, who will present the intimate and confessional play The Saint. At the end of March and the beginning of April, Irene Ursioli (Italy–Belgium) will spend more than a week in Sofia, presenting the solo performance I Am a Mistake, written and directed by Jan Fabre, alongside a five-day acting course, The Teaching Group. On April 29, Bulgarian actress and director Tana Maneva, working in Sweden, will present the play All My Actions Will Avoid the Things I Have to Do. The season will conclude with the performance Bless the Sound That Saved a Witch Like Me by French choreographer Benjamin Can.

Toplocentrala also announced the launch of a new music program curated by Nikola Nikolov (TDK).

January Program Highlights

The season kicked off on January 16 with the workshop-performance DI/Strauss Technique by Ivo Dimchev - an event filled with movement, voice, and audience interaction. Using melodies by the “Waltz King” Johann Strauss as a foundation, Dimchev created ten playful/therapeutic songs and choreographies exploring desire and the psycho-physical health of everyday citizens.

On January 17, the Kinetic Painting workshop with Emilia Bazlyankova invited participants to explore creativity and sensory experience, focusing on bodily awareness and freeing participants from the constant stream of thoughts. That same evening, the immersive audio experience Sphere by Martin Stavrev and the collective Sphere offered a space constructed through sound.

On January 21, the verbatim theater group Vox Populi premiered Night Butterflies, a project highlighting the stories of sex workers in Sofia. Kristabel Buller returned with Walking into Dancing: Organic Movement for Health, Balance, and Posture, a training course examining walking as the foundation of movement and the natural transition into light, free dance, held on January 18, 20, 22, and 23.

On January 27, Brazilian documentary theater Companhia Nova de Teatro from São Paulo performed Scream in the Dark, examining Brazil’s military dictatorship (1964–1985) through personal accounts and a strong stage language. Drawing from testimonies and letters of political prisoners archived in Brazil’s National Archive, the multimedia play explored the experiences of women who were arrested and tortured during the military regime. On January 28 and 29, the music of Antonio Forcione and Cenk Erdogan was featured.