Assoc. Prof. Joanna Spassova-Dikova receives Icarus 2016

Assoc. Prof. Joanna Spassova-Dikova, Department of Drama, Institute of Art Studies received the Icarus 2016 award of the Union of Bulgarian Actors (UBA) in Critical Text category for her book Melpomene behind the Iron Curtain. National Theatre: Canons and Resistances, Sofia, Camea, 2015.
The Union of Bulgarian Actors held this year’s Icarus award ceremony at the National Theatre on 27 March, World Theatre Day. The book is focused on the period following World War Two. The work seeks to study the art of acting from a modern vantage point, giving in broad strokes the main processes, problems and trends under communism in the late 1940s and the 1950s, when certain drama canons were established and an ideologised version of the so-called Stanislavsky’s system was imposed.
Special attention is devoted to the performance during that period of some of the actors at the National Theatre of the first, second and third generations, as well as the major director’s approaches to the work with actors. The book also deals with a range of political, social and cultural factors that have influenced the work of the actors at the National Theatre.