Promotional Activities of Drama Theaters in Bulgaria

As a classical art form, drama theater represents a huge part of the Bulgarian cultural scene. As a matter of fact, Bulgaria has a wide network of drama and puppet theaters, most of which are state-owned and therefore subsidized by authorities (national and local). Although the historical development of Bulgarian theater art commenced in the second half of the 19th century, quite late compared to the western European tradition, its popularity and significance has grown gradually in the past hundred years. The political changes in the country after 1989 led to many economic and social alterations. Of course, the cultural sector was not an exception. The hundreds of state-owned cultural institutions, including theaters, had to adjust to a new environment, which to the most part of the employed in the sector was petrifying. The performing arts organizations, namely theaters, also had to face challenges evoked by the new era. The drama theater performance, which to that moment had had very few alternatives as a leisure time activity was standing in front of a whole palette of entertainment options that obviously the thirsty-for-novelty public preferred. Therefore, theater managers needed to adopt new, inexistent to that moment in Bulgaria, techniques to bring the audience back in the theater halls. That was when the word “promotion” began to appear more and more often in culturally related publications, theater experts’ conferences, directors’ interviews. The focus of this research is to investigate what types of promotional activities drama theaters in Bulgaria currently conduct. The justification behind this choice is the fact that there is no existing literature on cultural marketing and promotion in the performing arts in Bulgarian and consequently – no available information of the development, experience and quality of the promotional activities of drama theaters. Therefore, the overall aim this thesis strives to achieve is to describe to some extent the current state of development and attitudes of the drama theaters towards the tools of the promotional mix. The research starts with a review of literature sources on cultural marketing and promotion. Secondly it delivers information on the Bulgarian drama theater scene, focusing on the history of this art form in the country and also explaining the organizational structure of theaters and the subsidy system. The research objectives and method are presented in the fourth chapter and finally, the obtained results and conclusions – in the final fifth chapter.