The artistic staff of the Puppet Theater led by Yako Izidor Yakov

Here you can see the artistic staff of the Puppet Theater. The photo was taken in Ruse in 1972. I was the director of the theater at that time. The stage manager is the man with the black glasses, Petar Alexandrov. The scenographer Tsvyatko Tsvetkov is the one with the hat. The man to the far left headed the musical presentation. There were two headcount reductions in the Bulgarian army after the signing of the peace agreement with the UN powers. The first reduction was done in 1956 or 1957 and the second in 1958. I was affected by the second one. I decided to ask to be released from the army, because I had worked enough years, which together with the years of work experience awarded by the state for being a partisan, were enough for me to retire. I did not want to stop working, because I was still young. So I said I would agree to retire if they found me work in Ruse. And they did. So in 1959 I agreed to become deputy director of the Drama Theater. Of course, I am no theater specialist, but thanks to my experience as head of the 'Cultural Institutions' department in Ruse, I started working in the management of the theater. The director of the theater was Alexander Bechev. The puppet theater in Ruse had to become a state one, that is, it had to be turned from an amateur one at the Home of Transport Workers to an official branch of the Drama Theater. As deputy director I insisted a lot for us to have such a branch, because I grew to love theater, in contrast to Alexander Bechev. He was also not a theater specialist, but he was appointed by a party decision. And he told me, ?If you insist so much on us having a puppet theater, then you will be chairman of the art council of the branch.? So, on 15th February 1960 I signed the appointment orders of eleven people, who founded the Puppet Theater in Ruse. After some time I was appointed secretary of the Regional Community House Council, but only for a year, because I wanted to go back to the Puppet Theater.