About Vojdan Chernodrinski

Biography

Vojdan Pop Georgiev-Chernodrinski (Born on January 15th, 1875, in the village Selci, Debar’s
Zupa, and died on January 1951, in Sofia, Republic of Bulgaria) – is a Macedonian author,
actor, manager, and progenitor of the Macedonian theatre.

In 1886, he and his family ran away from their village of Selci to Ohrid, and afterwards again to
Thessaloniki, Greece in 1889 and, finally, to Sofia, Bulgaria in 1890. In Sofia, he becomes a
member of theatre group “Tears and Laughter”, while also becoming a member of the
Macedonian Literacy Group, organized by Macedonian immigrants in Bulgaria.
He then enrolls in Sofia’s first Male Gymnasium, which he frequents irregularly. In 1894, he
established the theatre group “Macedonian Conspiracy”, where he and the group’s members
prepared the first performances of “Wood Workers” and “In the Tavern” (1895).

In 1899, he moved to Switzerland to study law, but never finished his studies. There, he forms Macedonian student societies and gathers financial aid intended for the Macedonian liberation movement. He came back to Sofia in 1900 and proceeded to write the most famous national Macedonian drama, titled “Macedonian Blood Wedding” (first premiered on November 20th, 1900). In 1901, he formed his own traveling theatre called “Worry and Consolation”. With this group, he goes through a number of tours through Bulgaria and Serbia. For a short while, he works as a professional actor for the National Theatre of Sofia, and he additionally serves time in the military, fighting in the First Balkan War.


Vojdan Chernodrinski is representative of the Macedonian Beat Dramaturgy. He’s a quintessential Theatre Author: quick, impulsive, tenacious, and persistent. Although he was self- taught in the art of dramaturgy, he was keen to recognize that a dramatic work was intended to be performed on stage, and it’s with that same philosophy that he composed all of his works.


List of Works Composed by Vojdan Chernodrinski: “Wood Workers” (1895); “In the Tavern”(1895); “Macedonian Emigration” (1897); “Macedonian Blood Wedding” (1900); “It Is By Our Own Head That We Suffer” (1902); “Robot and Agatha” (1902); “Evil for Evil” (1903); “Meeting” (1903); “Handymen” (1903); “The Spirit of Freedom” (1909); “On the River” (1921); “On New Year’s” (1921); “King Pyrrhus” (1921); “The Storms Beside Vardar” (1925); “Flower Dutchess” (1929), and “Slav Dragota” (1930).