Humanity has unquestionably one really effective weapon—laughter. Against the assault of laughter nothing can stand.
Mark Twain
As soap is to the body, so laughter is to the soul.
A Jewish proverb
THE THEME
As the famous American comic actor and writer Sid Caesar said “If you have no tragedy, you have no comedy. Crying and laughing are the same emotion. If you laugh too hard, you cry. And vice versa.” In the practical workshops of the program of “To Die Laughing” the participants will explore the meeting point of the comic and the tragic.
|
Starting point of the practical work will be the visit of Buzludzha monument (often voted “the most surreal and weirdest abandoned place on the Earth”) and the lecture and the exhibition curated by the Serbian philosopher and art historian Marko Stamenkovic in Gabrovo’s House of Humor and Satire. The exhibition is called “To Die Out Laughing” and it is a word play on the expressions “to burst out laughing” and “to die laughing”. It draws from a selection of visual materials from contemporary art across the globe and it addresses historically and culturally diverse interactions of seemingly unrelated phenomena with the aim to contest what is considered legitimate forms of knowledge. This visits and lecture will give material to work with during the workshops that follow: scriptwriting for theater, for documentary movies and for a physical approach to writing. In the program of the Summer Base there will be also another three very interesting lectures which are destined to open new fields and to give new ideas for writing people: writing for video games and interactive platforms, writing theater texts out of scientific materials and creating “theatrical” mobile phone applications.
MENTORS
THE LOCATIONS
|
Summer Scriptwriting Base "To Die Laughing" will take place in the village of Bozhentsi in central northern Bulgaria. According to the legend, the young noble Bozhana settled here in the XVI century and later the village was named after her. The noble’s sons engaged in trade and the village gradually grew to become an important trade junction during the National Revival towards the middle of the XVIII century.
Bozhentsi is noted for its well-preserved Bulgarian traditional architecture and history. It was proclaimed an architectural and historical reserve in 1964. Due to this, there is a ban on the construction of any buildings that do not fit with the village’s style. Today, the permanent population of Bozhentsi is only 41 people. As the settlers during the Ottoman period were mostly wealthy people, many of the houses have two floors, the first being used as a cattle-shed and the second being inhabited by the owners. Characteristic features of the Bozhentsi architecture are the verandas, the stone-plate roofs, the corner fireplaces and the ceiling woodcarvings. The pavement of the streets in the village is only cobblestone. The participants will be housed in traditional XVIII and XIX century houses full of authentic charm and coziness. The SSB will transform Bozhentsi into “Shangri-La”, a magical world where participants’ dreams and childhood fantasies will merge with the settings and the history of the village. |
Buzludzha is a mountain peak not far from Bozhentsi and Gabrovo. The now world famous House-Monument of the Bulgarian Communist Party (or informally, the Buzludzha Monument) was built on the peak by the Bulgarian communist regime. The monument is often voted number one among the weirdest and the most surreal abandoned places in the world. The building exemplifies the brutalist architectural style common to many state constructed communist buildings. No longer maintained by the Bulgarian government after 1989 however, it has since fallen into disuse. Currently the monument stands abandoned and vandalized. The roof of the building is heavily damaged, and due to the danger of collapsing metal tiles the main entrance of the building has been closed to the public. There will be an organized trip to Buzludzha for the participants as part of the conception of the Summer Scriptwriting Base “To Die Laughing”.
|
|
SEE YOU NEXT SUMMER!
Summer Scriptwriting Base "Digital Village" is now over. We congratulate all our participants: Antoniya Atanasova (BG), Boris Cremene (MD), Marina Zheleva (BG), Zlatina Todorova Ivanovs (UK, BG), Anguelina Ranguelova (BG), Noel Leung Wai Chun (HK), Vesy Deyanova (AUS, BG), Irina Breitenstein (ROM, FR), Todor Velev (BG), Albena Puneva (BG), Marie Simons (GER), Veni Petrova (BG), Jakub Crcha (SVK, USA), Ana Petrova (BG, FR), Martin Luchev (BG), Vasil Vasilev (BG), Miglena Dimova (BG, DK), Dio Todorov (USA), Maria Nadia Nielsen (DK), Caroline Greenman (UK), Johan Peeters (BEL).
See you next year!
See you next year!
Project of Arte Urbana Collectif
Galaxy Trade Center •️ Office 305 18 Shipchenski Prohod Blvd •️ Sofia Bulgaria •️ 1113 ️ |
© 2025 Summer Scriptwriting Base
Design by Arte Urbana Collectif |