Voydan Pop Georgiev – Chernodrinski Writer
Voydan Pop Georgiev – Chernodrinski (Bulgarian: Войдан Попгеоргиев - Чернодрински, January 15, 1875 in Selci, Ottoman Empire, (present day Republic of Macedonia) – January 8, 1951, Sofia, Bulgaria) (born Voydan Popgeorgiev Kuzmanov) was a Bulgarian playwrighter and dramatist from the region of Macedonia. His pseudonym is derived from Black Drin (Cherni Drin, Bulgarian: Черни Дрин), a river flowing through his home town. Pop Georgiev was born in 1875 in the village of Selci, near Debar. He studied initially in Ohrid, then in the Bulgarian Men's High School of Thessaloniki, but moved with his family in 1890 in Bulgaria, where Voydan graduated from the First Male High School in Sofia. Here he became a member of the Young Macedonian Literary Association. Later Chernodrinski studied law in Austria and Switzerland, but failed to graduate and moved back to Ottoman Macedonia, where he worked as Bulgarian teacher. Afterward he returned to Bulgaria and became a head of the traveling troupe "Grief and comfort" (Bulgarian: Скръб и утеха) (Skrb I Uteha), founded in 1901 and renamed in 1902 as "Macedonian Capital Theater" (Bulgarian: Столичен македонски театър). In Sofia he wrote the most famous of his works, the play Macedonian Bloody Wedding (Makedonska Kărvava Svadba). Voydan reworked it later to give the plot and the libretto for the famous opera "Tsveta" by maestro Georgi Atanasov. After the Young Turk Revolution in 1908 Pop Georgiev moved with his traveling troupe back in Ottoman Macedonia. During the Balkan wars he was mobilized into the Bulgarian Army. During the First World War Chernodrinski surved as Bulgarian officer. After the wars he continued with his theatrical activities in Bulgaria. In the mid-30s, A. Shoumenoff, owner of the First Bulgarian Book Store in Granite City, USA, published part of the works of Chernodrinski, but the text wasn't translated into English. During the Second World War and the subsequent annexation of Macedonia from Bulgaria, Voydan's troupe organized performances there. Pop Georgiev died in Sofia in 1951.Today he is considered an ethnic Macedonian writer in the Republic of Macedonia and as the figure, who layed the foundations of the Macedonian theatre and drama art.