Prof. Margarita Mladenova in front of FACTS: The budget formula works for big theaters, but is overwhelming for small on

I know what our existence is like in the “Sfumato“ theater. and it has nothing to do with all these things that are being talked about now. And that's because I have more confidence in the creative part. Wherever there is a theater, the emphasis is on doing, on meaning, on meeting the audience, not on how to get the subsidy, how to make the budget work. This is what he announced to Lili Marinkova in the "FACTS" studio. and the show “Conversation“ theater prof. Margarita Mladenova - founder, together with Ivan Dobchev, of the "Sfumato" theater workshop.

“Lately, I have been hearing thoughts that the reform has started beautifully, but lately, you see, somehow they have started to sweep things away, to take advantage of things. This tendency, in this wonderful system and reform of ours, to have scapegoats for 5-6 directors, who are probably also guilty, whether through oversight, whether they have broken things somewhere, but this to me is once again sweeping the truth under the carpet&ldquo ;, she also shared.

“The truth is that since this budgeting methodology was introduced, this formula contains everything that has been simmering, developing and clearly tempting directors to look for detours. The theater funding system exploded. We cannot close our eyes to the defects of this methodology and say that they do not exist. The main defect consists in the simple fact that the subsidy is formed on every lev of income. With this purely market code, which was embedded in the methodology, it became so that the director had to take care of every penny and chair. It's just that the formula depends on the amount of revenue – that's the problem. There must be other criteria to form the entire methodology. This is the time bomb now ticking. I'm not excusing or blaming, but this budget formula works for the big theaters, but it's absolutely prohibitive for a bunch of small theaters. Every lev of income for the big theaters forms a budget in Sofia, but the same lev multiplied by 3-4 in a small town that is depopulated, where there is no audience... What is it? And there must be a theater, because the schools are decreasing, no one goes to the church, the community centers are left. Theater as a living art is necessary for children, for people in a given city. Well, what should I do with these small theaters, how should they survive…“, Prof. Mladenova also said.

See more from the conversation in the VIDEO.