Statement of the director of the “Racho Stoyanov” Drama Theater regarding the condition of the building, owned by the “Aprilov-Palauzov” Municipal Corporation, which houses the theater

In 2018, I won the competition for director of DT “Racho Stoyanov” – Gabrovo. Part of my concept included establishing a dialogue with the management of the “Aprilov – Palauzov” National Theater in search of a common solution to the problem related to the building in which the theater is a tenant, namely the urgent need for major repairs.

In 2019, my team and I organized a visit to Gabrovo by the Minister of Culture at the time and a meeting with the management of the community center. We have been assured that we will receive funding for partial repairs.

Then there was a divergence in our positions with the leadership of the community center. One of their main objections was that when a partial renovation is started, there will be prescriptions from the Regional Office “Fire Safety and Protection of the Population”, which will not be able to be fulfilled and this will lead to the closing of the building.

Several times over the years, talks on the subject have been held with the Municipality of Gabrovo, the Regional Administration – Gabrovo, the Ministry of Culture. The main problem that hinders finding financing is the ownership of the building, which is neither municipal nor state. Pursuant to the law, it is conducted privately (property of the Aprilov – Palauzov Municipal Corporation).

Despite the impossibility of securing funding for a major renovation over the years, the theater as a tenant carried out cosmetic renovations – refreshing the doors of the salon, lobbies and toilets, repainting the area around the ticket office, partial renovation of the advance stage, installation of a new stage carpet, conversion of the understage space in the Underground chamber scene (by the NFK project). In July 2023, a renovation of the stage floor is planned – replacement of compromised boards, looping and painting.

In 2022, the then regional governor initiated a series of talks that led to a concrete action plan:

– reporting to the National Institute of National Statistics for a crumbling cultural monument;

– inspection by the NISKN and preparation of a report on the condition of the building;

– issuance of a design visa by the Municipality of Gabrovo and its entry into the NINKN for approval;

The next steps should be to find funding for the preparation of the CCS and an architectural project by an architect dealing with cultural monuments, submitting the project for targeted funding to the Council of Ministers.

That same year, 2022, heavy rain caused an old leak from the interior gutters to activate. Then we alerted the management of the community center and the gutters were cleaned.

At the beginning of 2023, I received the agreed construction visa from the National Institute of Social Sciences and Humanities and handed it over to the management of the community center.

At the end of May this year, extraordinary amounts of rain fell over the city. This resulted in new serious leaks in 4 places above the stage. The water of three of them flows directly onto lighting and sound equipment. Attempts were made by the theater staff to take measures – to open the hatch above the stage and clean the funnels of the laced. The hatch has been compromised and cannot be opened. The attempt to open was in the presence of a representative of the community center.

In the meantime, we alerted the Gabrovo Regional Administration and Gabrovo Municipality about the problem. With the help of the two institutions, a report was submitted to the Interdepartmental Commission for Recovery and Assistance to the Ministry of Justice. An opinion was requested from NIMH, which certifies the presence of an excessive amount of precipitation during the month of May.

The following week I contacted the photographer Radoslav Parvanov and he did a survey of the roof of the building with a drone absolutely free of charge. The footage showed the extremely poor condition of the roof – blocked drains, whole parts of plaster and roof structures had fallen. The photographic material was provided to the management of the community center.

On June 26, two days before the premiere of The Glitch Specialist, there were heavy rains again, which caused the activation of the aforementioned four leaks. I was forced to inform the management of the community center that in the event of material damage to equipment owned by the theater, it will be required to be reimbursed by the lessor. And in the event that the problem is not resolved, I will be forced to cease operations on the stage, which will cause financial losses to the theater and no rent will be paid for the period of non-operation.

On the 27th of June a meeting was held with management where I was informed that a specialist would be called in to clean the gutters by opening a hatch to the hatch.

In the meantime, I held talks with representatives of the Ministry of Culture and the Union of Artists, who responded and committed to finding ways to ensure urgent repairs.

June 28, 2023 Petko Koichev,

Manager of DT “Racho Stoyanov” – Gabrovo