Stars
Hristo Cheshmedjiev
The art is a mental and spiritual catharsis for man
In his opinion up to the moment he has never been presented objectively, since there is no single person who knows him really well and thoroughly. He is born in Varna on 29-th of February, which means that he is celebrating his birthday once on every 4 years. He has graduated from a mathematic gymnasium and afterwards he studies in NATFIZ in the master class of Professor Stefan Danailov. Right after getting his higher education diploma, he starts work in the National theatre Ivan Vazov. He himself thinks that he works a lot – 20 spectacles a month. He is also doing projects on adding audible sound to movies, he is participating in cinema productions and also he is teaching young people, most of whom are not even occupied in the field of theatre, but use this type of game as an advantage in their work.
Does age matter in the theatre?
No, it doesn’t. Roles are been determined according to how you look and what skills you have on stage.
Didn’t the enthusiasm of young people to become actors go down a little bit in recent years?
Thank god, no, I do not have to sell people whom I teach, as most of them take up theatre just for their own pleasure, and not professionally. However, I tell them all the time at the moment in order to be successful as an actor you need to be very flexible and to be able to do various things. In this field very often you have to improvise – this is unavoidable.
Is there a chance that you learn to improvise?
In a way, yes. You could observe the partner and the audience as well, in order to be flexible in some respect. You could learn to deal with awkward situations on the stage.
Who is the best guru of the improvisation that you know?
People who tell that they improvise all the time, are exaggerating a little bit in my opinion. The improvisation may come to you just once for a whole season. When you are seeking for it, you’ll make a mistake. In a major number of the cases, it can be successful, but it may turn out to be unsuccessful as well. However, if today you have experienced something nice, you have a flight towards the stars and you are in a perfect state to show this light in your play, it is absolutely possible that the end result will be success and quality.
Does the public notice the bad improvisation?
The Bulgarian public is very intelligent and it can laugh and say: “how good it was, this is the person that is able to entertain us, let’s support him”. But after people go out of the hall, they will figure out what a stupidity they have just watched. We should never underestimate her.
Are there lots of spectators?
Definitely the public become more and more numerous. The National theatre is very successful in this respect. It very often happens that the places for 3 halls are all booked in 3 halls.
Is there a competition between the theatres?
If it comes to the public, maybe there is such, but this is something very good, this is the way it should be.
What about the competition spirit between the actors?
It is too exaggerated to say so. However, maybe somebody would like to play on a certain stage. When I think in this respect from my point of view, I don’t know if I would play in a different theatre.
Have you played abroad?
I and Sasho Morfov used to travel a lot and we have participated in spectacles in front of international audience.
How did she accept you?
Very well, indeed. Currently, the theatre, unlike the cinema, is going through a renaissance. Wherever we go abroad, people say that the Bulgarian theatrical school is very good.
Is it due to our theatrical schools quality or because we, the Bulgarians, are very talented people?
Maybe our system is structured that way. We need to play 6 or 7 roles at the same time. This is unbelievable to most people abroad, but for us it is completely normal and doable. I specifically turn into many diverse characters every evening.
Have there been cases, when you have mistaken one role with other?
At the end of the season we are usually pretty tired. That is why our vacation is 2 months – in order to liberate our conscious. Sometimes it happens on stage to forget one line, but you quickly change the original words with something of your own, which is close by meaning to the author’s text and you are ok. After that you will remember the original text as well. Then you can start using the help of the improvisation.
Is this dynamic rhythm exhausting you?
You need to maintain some healthy balance and to be able to decline some offers, no matter for how much money are they. We earn money at the expense of lots of efforts, in order to live better. And after all, sometimes we just need to decline, because it happens to miss other more important arrangement. Theoretically I am aware of this fact, but in reality I do not stick to this practice.
Would you work abroad?
Here are taken the shots of lots of foreign productions in which we also take place too, although with a secondary roles. However, to be honest I prefer to participate in a quality Bulgarian cinema, despite the fact that the foreign one is far more revenue retrieving.
I would love to start making simple stories – one boy loves one girl, between them there are some boundaries, but they manage to stay together and keep their love alive. The plot is elementary, but however too realistic.
Nowadays people value other things – they are busy to look for money, to write scripts in such a way that they will act according to somebody’s interests. In they make something with low quality. If the story is a simple and heart touching, it will not belong to today or yesterday, it will be forever, because it is a part of the real life.
So you are watching to old movies?
More and more. And I convince myself that the problem is not only in the lack of money, but in the lack of ideas too. I believe in the 10 steps of silence. They mean that your mind and spirit are still in what you have just seen on the stage, what you have felt. This is the best estimate for one spectacle or a movie.
And how do you think, can the voice be changed and modified?
Of course. When I came to Sofia, I used to speak with a strong Varna dialect and pronunciation. In the beginning it was hard to me, since on the microphone the defects are usually increased. With lots of exercises, many efforts, this problem can be solved. The voice can also be modified – by training of the low and high tones, you can find out the right toning.
What is the mission of you, the creators?
Our mission is mainly in this catharsis which everybody needs to feel after he or she goes out of the hall – to answer to some of his questions, to find his real self…
Where did you travel this year?
My mother decided to buy a house close to Veliko Turnovo. To me this was a crazy investment, because I used to think that she would never go there and spend time. However, I was not right. She spends the whole summer in this house, grows some vegetables and always asks me to go visit her. I planned to spend 10 days there, but I couldn’t make it for more than 4. The fact that I am so used to the busy, hectic way of life, with the dynamics of the big city, provoked me to go away earlier. In September I plan to make lots of records and I will be busy again. Work is work, we can not underestimate it.
September 2008
