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Kyrgiakos Methodius Argyropoulos is a director and producer of puppet theater plays. He staged more than 60 theater plays in Sofia, Varna, Burgas, Sliven and Yambol and over 20 performances abroad. His performances are presented in the Grotesque theater in Krakow, on the stages of the National Theater in Athens, the National Theatre of Northern Greece, Teatro Tesaliko in Larissa, Neo Teatro, Sofuli Theatre and in the American College of Thessaloniki.

The director works in the field of TV theatre too. In 1981 he made the play The Little Sunflower for the Polish National Television and in 1992 – Four Tales of a Dragon for the Bulgarian National Television. Winner of numerous awards and honours. He is the husband of the Bulgarian actress Plamena Getova. He talks with www.grreporter.info about his work as manager of the Puppet Theatre, his dreams related to the art of doing theater for children and about his three homelands...

GRREPORTER: What does it mean to be the manager of a puppet theater? Tension, responsibility, satisfaction?

Kyrgiakos Argyropoulos: This is a long conversation. On the one hand, you are satisfied with doing what you’ve dreamed to do, that you're still in the field of creativity and art. On the other hand, what you want to do is beyond the time limits you would like to be. Things change and theater must change. The working conditions must be changed. Tremendous efforts are necessary to persuade institutions and organizations that something has to happen. That we have entered into another stage of our civilization. Because we are part of the attitude to the young generation and should talk with them in a different way. The dialogue should be modern and appropriate to our strivings. We can not talk about beauty, fairy tales from the stage of a shabby and inartistic theater and every shiny candy shop to be more attractive than it. Because this affects the human senses.

GRREPORTER: What makes the Bulgarian puppet theater different?

Kyrgiakos Argyropoulos: Bulgaria has a school, because the Theatre Academy trains such students. Puppet theater acting, directing, set design, all these make the young people who graduate the academy professionals. The level is high, but as we look around the world, we see that where there are clear rules for the existence and support of theater groups, people compensate the lack of professionalism with ideas and searches. And with experiments in the development of a separate genre, in communication with the audience, with imagery of the show. This puts the Bulgarian school in a slightly arrogant and overstated position. But I see that this wall cracks. I personally seek to give young people more opportunities to experiment and search for new forms. And I must tell you that it is difficult to achieve. Another thing that affects very much the situation of the theater in Bulgaria is that professionals are being created but the theaters themselves are shrinking. And here again we return to the issue of the exodus of young and talented people looking for their development abroad. After they graduate the Theatre Academy they can not sell themselves on the market, which is shrank because there are not enough theater groups or the theatre groups in the country do not meet the high requirements of the Sofia theaters. So, they are forced to seek work abroad. There are many capable young people who work in Spain, the Netherlands, the Czech Republic and Poland. I found three Bulgarian actors in Polish theaters... Other people quit their profession and begin to work something else. I found many actors who work as PRs and take managerial posts in the field of communications or telecommunications. I am very surprised that they are taking this way and do not go in the theater. But obviously, they get  good education that helps them to sell their skills in the modern world.

GRREPORTER: What is the puppet theater audience in Bulgaria?
 
Kyrgiakos Argyropoulos: It may sound strange, but the child audience is very grateful, it is not easy to lie to it. But it is the same everywhere. Wherever I've been with our or foreign performances I see children are the same. Of course, it appears very much in countries where there are clear rules that children are somehow slightly different than ours. Not emotionally, but they are taught to respect the rules. There are norms there and you can feel it. You see the children are paid much attention to this. I do not mean intellectuality and the development of children. What I mean is that they teach them to become citizens of a society in which there are rules. And to observe them. While our children are free to live in their emotions. The children in those countries know that they may show their emotions at one place, and elsewhere they are not allowed to do it.

GRREPORTER: What is your dream as a director of the puppet theater in Sofia?

Kyrgiakos Argyropoulos: One longs for one thing. It is either unattainable, or gets uninteresting in other moments. You tell yourself: “This dream is not more beautiful than that.” My dream is to make a different theater in the good sense while I am in this theater and to convince the municipality that Sofia needs a new puppet theater. Despite the crisis. Because it anyway will go away. This I have already achieved in 70% -80%. We have to work to build a truly beautiful, comfortable, attractive new puppet theater to become training and working centre for children. A place that will be a centre for creating art for children. But the children themselves to be able to learn about the theater, how this is done, and do a theatre themselves.

GRREPORTER: How do you feel like a Greek who was born in Poland and lives in Bulgaria? Citizen of Europe, the world?

Kyrgiakos Argyropoulos: Yes, you are right (he laughs). You see, I’ve always hoped that there will be no borders one day. It was madness to live in a civilized country that is part of Europe and borders to exist. I was convinced that they will disappear one day. And it happened. Not checking you on the border is the best thing that could happen in a person’s life.  

GRREPORTER: Three homelands, three native languages, three cultures ... Don’t you loose yourself at times? Linguists say that we are as different people as many language we speak…

Kyrgiakos Argyropoulos: I’m not confused with my three homelands. I’m not mixed up. This is wealth indeed. It's nice to be able to say - yes, this is my country too!

GRREPORTER: What do you remember for your life in Poland most?

Kyrgiakos Argyropoulos: Well, I have lived there in my best years, when I was a child. This is the period of life when one does not deal with politics, does not build the future ... One lives in the most genuine, most emotional, most pure way. In this sense, my memories are wonderful. Then there were the very hard post-war years. Actually, I remember many things very well as image, sound and smell, if you want. For example, I knew the Russians for their smell wherever I was. It was very strange. I lived in Legnica and the Soviet troops, their CO's headquarters were located very close. We, the children, communicated with all these soldiers as children and spent the day with them. And a smell remained in my mind. Sometimes I walked past Russians and I said: Ah, these are Russians! I went back to check and it turned out that they were Russians indeed. There is a strange and peculiar odour I feel. Maybe tobacco ...
 
GRREPORTER: You are a man of three homelands. You have chosen to live in Bulgaria, however ... What made you choose it?

Kyrgiakos Argyropoulos: Yes, I have three homelands. Surely, my childhood has left a large footprint in my mind. The second part, the more conscious one, when you go into the years of youth, when you start to realize things, look for them and understand them was in Bulgaria. I did try to stay to live in Greece, but I was already married here in Bulgaria. My wife had a job that did not allow the existence of a language barrier so I agreed to live in Sofia. My job as a director allows me to be free to travel and return without being a hindrance. For my wife, however, traveling was an obstacle. Later, my two daughters were born. They went to school, built their own environment, although the years were very difficult. I have always hoped that things will change and that Bulgaria will grow in these years. I strongly hoped, although it did not happen.

GRREPORTER: Didn’t it happen...?

Kyrgiakos Argyropoulos: Well, 20 years is quite a long transition period. A wild democracy occurred. There was no control, rules disappeared and new rules have not appeared. Things in Poland have evolved in a different way... Perhaps the spirit of the Pole is associated with very strong patriotism. In Bulgaria anyone can swear at the homeland, while the Pole would not do such a thing. The Pole may get involved into a violent conflict with you if you insult his homeland. You could offend the homeland of the Bulgarians and they would not respond ... The power is in nationalism which does not go beyond chauvinism. The Poles have a constructive spirit that has allowed them to keep themselves in the system of communism, to assert themselves. They were always suspicious, ironical and and ill-disposed to the whole system. They did not ever reconcile. While Bulgarians seem to absorb things. Realities were adopted very quickly.

GRREPORTER: What is your comment about how things have evolved in Greece?

Kyrgiakos Argyropoulos: I would say that the Greeks, because of their temper, are emotional patriots. Now things are complicated because of distrust. There is breakthrough in mutual trust, in the confidence in the political class. The ordinary Greek felt deceived. Greeks overcame wars ... I mean both WWII and the civil war and ended up closing the book. However, the book was read. While in Bulgaria this did not happen ... Poland came to somewhere in reading the book. They read it to the end in Greece, closed it and all are convinced that what happened in the period 1946-1949-1950 was a deadly civil war. They all agreed. Both parties pleaded guilty. In Bulgaria, this is not happening yet. Neither ex-communists, nor socialists did apologize so far to their own people for the years of terror and obscurantism.

GRREPORTER: What do you think of the young Greek generation? Many of them emigrate today.

Kyrgiakos Argyropoulos: After the First World War there was economic migration of people in Greece. Among them was my grandfather. He went all the way to Australia. My other grandfather left for America. They left for entirely economic reasons – to earn money and their families to survive. Because hunger and poverty were much greater in Greece. Greece began to grow when it became one of the countries of the European Union. The infrastructure was improved with European money. A lot of money was flown and a lot of money disappeared. These are things that happen in Bulgaria, unfortunately ... Brains and talents have always been leaving. Greek diaspora is around the whole world. Everyone is searching the most convenient place to live or the place where they will have more economic stability. This is a normal process. There will be brain and talent drain. These are people who appreciate their talent, know that they are people in demand. The world is open for them. Unfortunately, a process is going in Greece which further affects the lack of faith in the young that things are going as they should. They do not trust politicians. So, they look for countries that are more economically and politically stable. Countries where they might feel good.  

GRREPORTER: Young people are looking for countries where rules are respected. It's quite sad to Greece ...

Kyrgiakos Argyropoulos: Yes. Keep in mind that many Greeks who traveled abroad, mainly to Germany, Holland, Denmark and Canada, were not professionals. Families working in the field of services went there. There was not a total departure of intellectuals, of the colour of the nation. Probably they are forced to leave now, because education has entered very deeply into society, it has developed. Now there are more graduates, professionals in a field. Going to specialize in a more developed country, they remain there because they have more opportunities.

GRREPORTER: The younger generation of Greeks has a different, a more modern way of thinking. But they believe they can not implement it in their country. And Greece needs these people.

Kyrgiakos Argyropoulos: Yes, I have personally felt that a new generation was born and has made its own way in Greece. This is the generation born after 1990s. I felt that a new wave is coming, a generation that is to replace the old one. You can feel it even in the culture, if you will. I work a lot in theater. And I felt there some young people are entering this field, people who have different thinking, who have different and more modern perception of the world.

GRREPORTER: What are your favorite places in Greece?

Kyrgiakos Argyropoulos: Greece, like Bulgaria, is a very beautiful country. I like the places where civilization enters only in the tourist season. These are the small islands, inaccessible for cars. There is the beauty and people are different. Their way of life makes them more humane, purer and more real. Otherwise, technocracy changed quite all of us. To meet nature and these people there is just incredible. Here, for the first time in many years I went to the Black Sea and was in shock when I saw how savagely they’ve built it. But this is not civilization. This is a robbery ...