Vojdan Pop Georgiev – Chernodrinski was born into the family of Georgi, village bondman and priest in the village of Selce, near Struga, in 1875. Early on his father noticed Vojdan’s fondness for books and carefully provided for his son’s education. Vojdan became a remarkable Macedonian man of letters: a writer, patriot, revolutionary, theater director, artist and founder of the Macedonian theater. The alias Chernodrinski springs from the Crn Drim River which flows near his birth place.
His Life and Influence
After completing primary school in his home town, he enrolled in the Thessaloniki High School, but later on moved to Sofia, Bulgaria, where he joined the “Young Macedonian Group” and became the most active member of the literary circle called “Macedonian Conspiracy.” Both the Young Macedonian Group and Macedonian Conspiracy promoted use of the Macedonian language, which they used in their literary works.
After facing many challenges, he managed to present his first play in Macedonian, “The Macedonian Bloody Wedding.” The huge success of the play encouraged Vojdan to form a Macedonian theater. He reorganized his existing troupe into a new one called “Mourning and Consolation.”
Vojdan Pop Georgiev is the first Macedonian playwright whose works were written in Macedonian. He was very insistent on proper usage of Macedonian, and strong language skills became the basic criteria for joining his drama group. All of his plays deal with either the problems of everyday Macedonian life or their long fought struggle for freedom.
Georgiev had a huge influence on other Macedonian writers, including Dimitar Hadji Dinev, Marko Cepenkov and Nikola Kirov Majski. On one occasion he paid a visit to an orphanage, where he distributed copies of his play “The Macedonian Bloody Wedding.” Addressing the assembled crowd, he said
I hope that after reading this book every cadet will remember well what he has read, and will not forget the language in which it is written, the language of our forefathers, parents and relatives, and the language which will be spoken in spite of the physical and moral terror of today’s occupiers of our Macedonian motherland.
Vojdan Pop Georgiev died in Sofia in 1951 and left behind a priceless treasure for the Macedonian people.
Here is a list of his literary works:
The Woodcutters (1895)
In the Pub (1895)
Macedonian Emigration (1897)
From Our Head We Suffer (1902)
The Slave and the Agha (1902)
Evil for Evil (1903)
Skilled Workers (1903)
The Spirit of Freedom (1909)
By the River (1921)
On New Year (1921)
Tsar Pir (1921)
The Vardar Storms (1925)
Cveta the Duchess (1929)
Slav Dragota (1930)
His Legacy
In honour of the great master and his work, the Association of Actors in Macedonia founded the Macedonian Theater Festival “Vojdan Chernodrinski” in 1965. The festival traditionally takes place each June in Prilep. The best productions of Macedonian theatre are presented there in order to promote theater culture and life in Macedonia.
The festival is one of a kind and an important event in the Macedonian art culture. It is sponsored by the Macedonian Ministry of Culture.
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