Students at the Burgas branches of the National Academy of Art (NAA) and the "Krastyo Sarafov" National Academy for Theatre and Film Arts (NATFA) are starting joint classes called "Encounters of the Third Kind". Emil Markov, an illustrator and NAA lecturer, told Bulgarian National Radio (BNR) that four lectures are planned over four months.
Each side will learn first-hand how the other works. The artists will see how a stage production is prepared, and the actors will see how a book is made from a play.
Second-year acting students at NATFA and third-year students of book, illustration and print graphics at the NAA are taking part. Markov and Prof. Dr Penko Gospodinov, who teaches the NATFA students, are working with them. The meetings are part of this semester's studies.
The two academies came up with the name. "This first meeting is of the third kind, because two groups that do not know each other are meeting," Markov said.
The first meeting has already taken place, and both sides set out their tasks. The NAA students will design and illustrate a dramatic work: a book based on a play such as "Macbeth", a series of posters and a programme for the show. They will also act as the production's advertising agency.
Markov says this will show the artists how a work is prepared, how characters are studied and how texts are interpreted. In a word, they will look at their own work through the eyes of the theatre. He said not every course works on a dramatic piece, and sometimes a novel or short story is chosen, "but I was especially interested in having the students take on this kind of task."
The theme of the semester is Shakespeare. Gospodinov and Markov believe the two sides share a common outlook and should help each other. Some fields overlap. Stage design, for example, was first created at the art academy and later at the theatre academy, because it is part of the theatre process.
Two of the lectures will be at NATFA, where the NAA students will be guests. For the other two, the actors will go to the NAA. The next meeting is in November.