Author in Focus

Vojdan Chernodrinski Macedonian Theater Festival introduces the Author in Focusprogram this year.

Author in Focus is a program dedicated to a significant author in the field of drama and theater art. This year, the Author in Focus is Kole Chashule. The Author in Focus program began with the Educational Workshops on November 1, 2022, with the work of the students from four Prilep schools (two primary and two secondary) and their teachers, together with two female actors from the Prilep theater, under the mentorship of the Macedonian theater director and educator Milosh B. Andonovski. As part of the podcast program, an episode about Kole Chashule was made. Then, the program developed regarding Chashule with a guest appearance of Crnila Remix play directed by Jordan Simonov and produced by the Youth Cultural Center in Skopje. During the festival’s opening, the unveiling of a Kole Chashule memorial is to take place, followed by a video portrait. The program also includes the launching of the Chashule monograph.

Kole Chashule (1921–2009) is a famous Macedonian playwright, writer, essayist, social actor, and revolutionary. He is significant for the Macedonian drama and theater because his play A Twig in the Wind(Вејка на ветрот) marks the modern Macedonian drama and theater. The play premiered in Vojdan Chernodrinski National Theater in Prilep and was directed by Mirko Stefanovski on April 28, 1957. Almost all of his plays were premiered and performed on the stage of the Prilep Theater and awarded at many Macedonian and international theater festivals within the country and abroad. He is the author of 24 plays, 12 novels, 5 books of short stories, 6 books of essays, a monograph, and a hundred texts in various genres. Kole Chashule is one of the most significant Prilep and Macedonian artists, writers, and cultural actors, whose poetics and aesthetics live up to such a designation.

Kole Chashule was born in Prilep on March 2, 1921, as the fourth child in the family of Ilija and Steva Kepevi, and was adopted by his uncle Ilija Čašule and his wife Steva in 1925, which gave him the official surname Chashule. 

He graduated high school in Bitola in 1938. He studied medicine at the University of Belgrade from 1938 to 1941. He participated in the October 11 uprising, the anti-fascist uprising of the Macedonian people. After the liberation, in 1945–46, he was the chief editor of Radio Skopje, the first manager of the Macedonian National Theater in 1948–49, the director of Vardar Film in 1951–52, a long-time collaborator, theater critic, and editor of several relevant literary magazines, including Современост (Sovremenost) in 1950–51 and Разгледи (Razgledi) in 1957–63. He held many posts in former Yugoslavia’s diplomacy (consul general in Canada in 1952–55; ambassador in Bolivia in 1963–65; ambassador in Peru in 1970–75, and ambassador in Brazil in 1978–81. He is the author of an extensive and genre-diverse oeuvre containing over 50 titles. He is the author of the plays: Една вечер(AnEvening) (1948); Последните гаврани (The Last Ravens) (1949); Задруга (The Collective) (1950); Вејка на ветрот (Twig in the Wind) (1957); Бразда (Furrow) (1958);Црнила (Darkness) (1960); Игра или социјалистичка Ева (A Game or Socialist Eve) (1961); Градскиот саат (The City Clock) (1965); Вител (Whirlpool) (1966); Партитура за еден Мирон (Sheet Music for a Myron) (1966); Земјаци (Fellow Countrymen) (1967); Дивертисман за еден Стрез (Divertissement for aStrez) (1967–90); Тројца и вистината (Three and the Truth) (1967–70); Како што милувате: оставка на еден карипски министер за внатрешни работи или достага на самиот врв од највисоката власт (As You Like It: Resignation of a Caribbean Interior Minister or Reaching the Top of the Highest Power) (1975); Житолуб (Zhitolub) (1977); Роднокрајци (Compatriots) (1978); Суд(Court) (1978); Тибрусио и Синфороса (Tiburcio and Sinforosa) (1988–89); Вејка два (A Flutter 2) (1989); Сон прв (Dream 1) (1991); Сон втор и по него друг (Dream2 and Another Following) (1992); Modus Morendi (1992); Lacrimula (1993); and Маркучот во четири гласа (Markuch in Four Voices) (1995). Chashule is also a travel writer, screenwriter, columnist, critic, essayist, and publicist. His plays and prose works are translated into English, Spanish, Japanese, Czech, Russian, Slovak, Hungarian, Romanian, Polish, Albanian, Serbian, Croatian, and Slovenian.

Among the many awards he received are: the Steria’s Award for the best dramatic text for Црнила (Darkness) (1961); the October 11 Award for the best book of the year for Драми (Plays) (1967); Stale Popov Award for the novel Вомјази (Vomjazi) (1970); Sterijino Pozorje Lifetime Achievement Award (1970); Marin Držić Award for Dramatic Opus (1982); AVNOJ Lifetime Achievement Award (1989); Vojdan Chernodrinski Lifetime Achievement Award (1997), etc.

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Kole Chashule is the Author in Focus of this year’s 57. Vojdan Chernodrinski MTF – Prilep because he is highly significant for both the Macedonian theater and the Prilep festival. All the festival’s activities venerate the image and work of Kole Chashule, one of the Prilep pioneers and an artist who celebrates Prilep in his works. Prilep takes permanent part of his books. No doubt that Prilep is one of the main characters in his poetics.The festival’s artistic director aims to create a tradition of this program, and for the festival to have its Author in Focus program every year.