Today is 193 years since the birth of Dobri Voynikov, the teacher from Shumen who in 1865 put together the first Bulgarian theatre troupe in Braila. He also wrote the first Bulgarian historical plays, and his comedy "Misunderstood Civilisation" is still staged today.

Voynikov was born in Shumen on 10 November 1833. In 1858 he graduated from the French Galatasaray lycée in Constantinople and went home to teach in his native town. There he introduced Bulgarian history and singing from notes as school subjects. He also led young people in the church struggle for their own schools and their own church.

In 1864 he was forced to leave Shumen and went to Romania. He settled in the Danube port of Braila, home to many Bulgarian merchants and craftsmen, and became head of the Bulgarian school. A year later he assembled the troupe. Its members were amateurs, and there were almost no plays in Bulgarian, so Voynikov wrote them himself.

His play "Princess Rayna" came out in 1866, and "The Baptism of the Preslav Court" in 1868. Both are about the old Bulgarian kingdom. In 1866 Voynikov also joined the Secret Central Bulgarian Committee, a group of exiles looking for a way to free Bulgaria.

From 1870 he acted in Bucharest, Giurgiu and Shumen. A year later he wrote "Misunderstood Civilisation", which mocks people who rush to become European, change their clothes and stuff French words into their speech, whether they fit or not. In 1874 he took Russian citizenship and returned to Shumen.

Dobri Voynikov died of typhus in Tarnovo on 27 March 1878, while running an orphanage. He was 44.