Centered around the plays “Free Fall” by Ekaterina Georgieva and “Pičman” by Dora Šustić, the workshop aims to provide space for open discussions on the challenges and delights in translating for theatre and from less-represented languages such as Bulgarian and Croatian; for meetings between playwrights, translators and other theatre professionals; for sharing experiences and perspectives. The workshop takes place from 5th to 8th December 2025 in Ivan Vazov National Theatre in Sofia, Bulgaria.
PARTICIPANTS
Ana Vasung, translator of “Free Fall” by Ekaterina Georgieva from Bulgarian to Croatian
Atanas Igov, translator of “Free Fall” by Ekaterina Georgieva from Bulgarian to English
Dimana Miteva, translator of “Pičman” by Dora Šustić from Croatian to Bulgarian
Dora Šustić, playwright, author of “Pičman”
Ekaterina Georgieva, playwright, author of “Free Fall”
Vladislav Beronja, translator of “Pičman” by Dora Šustić from Croatian to English
Fascilitators and speakers:
Dino Pešut (Croatia)
Javor Gardev (Bulgaria)
Maria Zmiicharova (Bulgaria)
Mira Todorova, PhD, (Bulgaria)
Pavlina (Ina) Doublekova (Bulgaria)
Rusanka Lyapova (Bulgaria)
Svetlana Pancheva, PhD, (Bulgaria)
Zlatna Kostova (Bulgaria)
Yana Genova (Bulgaria)
MORE ABOUT PLAYWRIGHTS AND TRANSLATORS
PLAYWRIGHT
Dora Šustić
Dora Šustić, playwright, author of “Pičman”, (b. 1991 in Rijeka, Croatia), holds BA in political sciences from the University in Ljubljana and MA in screenwriting from FAMU Prague. She publishes short stories, poems, articles and essays in Croatian, Slovenian and English, and works as a screenwriter and script editor in film and TV projects. Her debut novel “Psi” (Fraktura 2023), translated into Italian and Slovenian, was awarded the “Drago Gervais” literary prize, and her drama “Pičman” received the Ministry of Culture’s “Marin Držić” award for the best dramatic achievement in 2025.
PLAYWRIGHT
Ekaterina Georgieva
Ekaterina Georgieva, playwright, author of “Free Fall”, (b. in 1989 in Bourgas, Bulgaria) graduated with a major in Acting for Drama from the National Academy for Theatre and Film Arts in 2013 in the class of prof. Ivaylo Hristov. In 2014 she joined as an actress in the troupe of Stoyan Bachvarov Drama Theatre in Varna and since 2017 she is an actress in Aleko Konstantinov Satirical Theatre in Sofia. Her first play is “The lucky one” (2019), followed by “Free fall”(2022/2024) – part of the official Eurodram selection 2022, and “Pine cones” (2023).
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For the latter, she was awarded the national Icarus Award for Dramaturgy and was nominated for the Askeer Award for Contemporary Bulgarian Dramaturgy. In 2025 was awarded a certificate from the Ministry of Culture for achieving high creative results and contribution to Bulgarian culture. She was part of the writing team for the TV series With River at Heart.
TRANSLATOR
Ana Vasung
Ana Vasung, translator of “Free Fall” by Ekaterina Georgieva from Bulgarian to Croatian, (b. 1982 in Zagreb, Croatia) graduated in South Slavic languages and literatures and in Art History from the Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences, University of Zagreb. Since 2008, she has been employed at the same faculty as an assistant at the Department of South Slavic Languages and Literatures. Since 2019, she has held the title of Assistant Professor. She teaches in the undergraduate program of Bulgarian language and culture at the Chair of Bulgarian Language and Literature, as well as in the graduate program in courses related to translation and phraseology of South Slavic languages.
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She actively translates from Bulgarian and is a member of the Croatian Literary Translators’ Association.
She has translated the following works from Bulgarian by Emil Andreev, Nikolaj Stojanov, Milen Ruskov, Kalin Terzijski, Jordan Radičkov, Marin Bodakov. For the translation of Na posljednjem katu neba: Antologija suvremene bugarske poezije, together with Ksenija Banović and Paola Ćaćić, she received the Pero Award of the Bulgarian Book Center.
TRANSLATOR
Atanas Igov
Atanas Igov, translator of “Free Fall” by Ekaterina Georgieva from Bulgarian to English, (b. 1979 in Sofia, Bulgaria) graduated in Philosophy from the University of Sofia in 2002. Since 2003 he has been working as a freelance translator (English-to-Bulgarian and vice versa) for private translation service providers, Bulgarian and EU institutions, academia, and NGOs in the field of Philosophy, Humanities, Theatre, Art Theory and Criticism, Fiction, Law, Public Administration, Finance and Business, Popular Science, etc. His published transitions include 17 books, and more than 60 texts published in periodicals, collection of papers, websites, etc. among others. He is also the author of one book of philosophical essays (2002).
TRANSLATOR
Dimana Miteva
Dimana Miteva, translator of “Pičman” by Dora Šustić from Croatian to Bulgarian, (b. 1987 in Ruse, Bulgaria) studied Slavic Philology at Sofia University, majoring in Serbian, Croatian and Slovenian language and literature. She is a literary translator from Croatian, Serbian and Slovenian language and has published translations of novels, short stories and poetry. She has an interest in women’s prose and emerging authors.
TRANSLATOR
Vladislav Beronja
Vladislav Beronja, translator of “Pičman” by Dora Šustić from Croatian to English, (b. 1984 in Bihać, Bosnia and Herzegovina) is a literary translator, writer, independent scholar and artist based in Zagreb. He holds a PhD in Slavic Languages and Literatures from the University of Michigan Ann Arbor and has taught in the Department of Slavic and Eurasian Studies at the University of Texas in Austin. He is a translator of two novels, Slavenka Drakulić’s Theory of Sorrow (2024) and Dino Pešut’s Daddy Issues (2023), and his literary translations have appeared in Two Lines Press Journal, The Offing, Brooklyn Rail’s InTranslation, harlequin creature, and Turkoslavia.
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He is a co-editor of the collection Post-Yugoslav Constellations: Memory, Archive and Trauma in Bosnian, Croatian and Serbian Literature and Culture (DeGruyter, 2016); he has published articles in ARTMargins, The Journal of Graphic Novels and Comics, Slavic and East European Journal, Fluminensia, and The Journal of Croatian Studies, among others.
FACILITATORS AND SPEAKERS
Dino Pešut (Croatia) is author of the award-winning plays The pressures of my generation, Pret-posljednja panda ili statika (Pen-ultimate Panda or Static), L.U.Z.E.R.I., Veliki hotel Bezdan (Big Hotel Bezdan), Stela, poplava (Stela, Flood), Olimpia stadion (trilogy) and others. He is also the author of the novels „Stretched knees “ (Poderana koljena, Fraktura, 2018) and “Daddy Issues” (Tatin sin, Fraktura, 2020). His works have been translated into German, French, Bulgarian and other languages. He also has worked as a dramaturge in various theatres across Croatia and Europe and currently is a dramaturg at the Croatian National Theatre in Zagreb.
Javor Gardev (Bulgaria) is a multidisciplinary artist and scholar with extensive expertise in theater, film, and philosophy. He has staged over fifty theatrical performances and has directed several international co-productions. Javor Gardev has won numerous Bulgarian and international theatre and film awards. He currently serves as a director at the National Theatre of Bulgaria. More information at https://javorgardev.com/wordpress/
Maria Zmiicharova (Bulgaria) is an award-winning translator of prose, poetry and drama from English, Swedish, Danish and Norwegian as well as a trainer on literary translation.
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Mira Todorova, PhD, (Bulgaria) is the Head Dramaturg of the Ivan Vazov National Theatre, with extensive experience as a theatre- and contemporary dance critic, researcher and lecturer. Before joining the National Theatre, Mira Todorova was running DNK, Sofia’s space for contemporary dance and performance.
Pavlina (Ina) Doublekova (Bulgaria) is Head of Drama and Theory Department at Ivan Vazov National Theatre, with previous experience as a freelance cultural journalist and performing arts critic, active in the independent cultural sector in Bulgaria and Europe.
Rusanka Lyapova (Bulgaria) divides her love for words between translation and teaching. She has worked as a lecturer at the National Military University, Veliko Tarnovo, at Plovdiv and Sofia Universities, and is currently teaching at the Military Academy in Sofia. She has translated over 50 books from South Slavic languages (Serbian, Croatian, Bosnian, Macedonian), mostly by contemporary authors – mainly prose, and less often poetry and drama. She has received several translation awards from the Bulgarian Translators’ Union.
Svetlana Pancheva, PhD, (Bulgaria) is a translator of plays and theater literature from English, French and Russian since 1996. She has translated into Bulgarian language more than 60 plays by playwrights such as Maurice Maeterinck, Michel de Ghelderode, Nathalie Sarraute, Moliere, Samuel Beckett, Bernard-Marie Koltes, etc. and a great number of texts by Geoges Bataille, Tzvetan Todorov, Paul Claudel, Jacques Audiberti, Maurice Maeterlinck, Samuel Becket, François Guizot etc. She has extensive experience as a lecturer in History and Theory of Theatre in various academic institutions, as well as as editor and cultural journalist for different media outlets. Since 2003, Svetlana Pancheva has been an in-house dramaturg at Ivan Vazov National Theatre, working on productions on all its stages.
Zlatna Kostova (Bulgaria) is a prominent Bulgarian translator of prose, poetry, theatre and film. She has translated into Bulgarian more than 1000 films, including the BBC series Alo! Alo! and Yes, Minister. Zlatna is an active translator for theatre – she has staged translations of plays by Neil Simon, Terry Johnson, Martin MacDonagh, Charles Bush, Woody Allen, Joanna Murray-Smith and others.
Yana Genova (Bulgaria) is a cultural consultant and researcher, founder of the not-for-profit for international literary exchange, the Next Page Foundation that runs the Sofia Literature and Translation House and the annual Studio for Literary Translation.