 Hello, welcome everyone. My name is Rosa Maria Costich-Cisneros and I am collaborating with the Independent Theatre Hungary. I am here sitting with Natalia Secova and Kalina Vasileva. Natalia will be here sharing with us her work Gypsy Wheels and Kalina will be translating for us. So thank you both so much for sitting down with us today and offering your experience and your information and love for the work. So, if Natalia, if you could begin by introducing yourself, who you are, you're an actress, a writer, if you can tell us a little bit about you and your background, please. Natalia, can you share with us where you come from, can you tell us a little bit about yourself? I am Natalia Secova, I am an actress and I am 37 years old. If I have to mention my age, I am Romka, I am from an origin, Romni and I am proud of this fact. And I am proud of this fact. Yes, thank you and so can you tell us a bit about the work Gypsy Wheels and your relationship to that work, to Gypsy Wheels? While I was a student in the Teatrán Academy in Bulgaria, I thought that I had to make a show. Because everyone was saying that this is something that a lot of people rely on me as an actress. And after I finished the Teatrán Academy, I met the famous drummer here in Bulgaria, Zdrava Kamenova. I met him in Bulgaria, I met him in Bulgaria, Zdrava Kamenova. I met him in Bulgaria, Zdrava Kamenova. And after I met him, a lot of the Romani events took place. Natalia, can you please hold on for a second. Can you speak a little bit? Yes, yes, I will speak a little bit. You will write a little bit. Okay, so while she was a student, Natalia says, everybody thought that, and she herself thought that she has to do something related to the Roma. And then everybody thought that it should suit her very well if she does a monospectacle. And then when she graduated, she got introduced to a drummer writer, a playwright, Zdrava Kamenova, who actually liked her a lot and told that she could write something for her. Maybe you can put it. And after that, the Romani events took place. I was very inspired by that. And she decided to write My Gypsy Wheels. When Zdrava Kamenova understood that she is from Romani origin, she got inspired and she just decided that she could write something for her. And this was the Gypsy Wheels. And that's how it all started, the Gypsy Wheels. And so just to be clear, you're right now in Bulgaria, correct? Yes. And so is there a lot of maybe Bulgarian Roma influence in the work? Is there a lot of influence from other Bulgarian Roma and Bulgarians? What? In terms of Gypsy Wheels. Yes, there is. Because the stories in the presentation are based on real history, told by Roma, who have passed through discrimination. There is actually great influence on the Gypsy Wheels by other people, Roma and non-Roma, and especially people who have endured a lot of discrimination. All the stories are true stories actually, and the script is based on true stories. People who share their stories of discrimination in Bulgaria. And one of the things that I could see when I watched the work was the variety of people, the different profiles. And you now say that they're true stories. How did you decide which stories to select? Because I know that there probably were many. I watched the work and actually Gypsy Wheels. And I know that there are many different profiles of people who are in the stories. And now I will show you the real stories and you can share how you decided which stories should be included in the presentation itself. There are many stories, but in the case of the drama, I decided that the story should be turned into a whole plot. Yes, exactly. And how they will be connected with the main idea of the presentation itself. There were plenty of stories, but actually the playwright actually decided, Drava decided which stories to include so that they could contribute to the main team of the play. How they will be connected to all of this. To prove the point. And you were an actress in the work, correct? And did you meet any of the people that were contributing, giving the stories? And was there something that you remember maybe about meeting these people and learning about their stories that you want to share? Did you meet the people that were contributing to the play? No, unfortunately I didn't meet these people. Of course, I know Boyko Transky, if I'm not mistaken, who is the hero of Isus in my presentation. Because this is the story of a man who was left behind by his parents in the United States in Bulgaria. So for him, I only knew the story and I saw it on the screen, but personally we didn't know each other. Unfortunately, I haven't met any of the people whose stories we have in the playwright. But I kind of know Boyko, who actually has the story of Jesus in the play. And I've seen him on TV, so we don't know each other personally. Okay. And what feels important from your perspective? What's important about this play, about this work? Why do you think it's important for people to see this work? I would like to see this presentation of freedom, which carries a fair conversation, freedom which carries the fact that you don't defend yourself, you admit who you are, what you are. And at the time, at least six years of playing the role, this presentation reached a lot. Exactly, because it affects a lot, how to say, liberating a lot of people who are being oppressed by the events. So probably it is freedom. I would like to see people to see and to think about the freedom that this play brings. The freedom to say who you are, where you come from, not to forbid yourself to show who you are, and to say to the rest of the world who you are. Probably it's been six years since this play has been on, and it's been six years people started to actually feel the freedom of this to show their origin. And it's a lovely, I think, way. You started at the beginning saying, I'm Roma woman, and I'm very proud of that. And so this, you know, this point about freedom, having the freedom but also the bravery to say you're Roma, because we know that anti-Gypsyism is very much real. So I just want to say I picked up on this point in the work. Yes, freedom is very important. There is something which is pink on the cover, and it is the courage to say what's happening. Because in the world there is a lot of anti-Gypsyism. You know, and I don't want to say how much. And I know that you didn't write the play, but do you have any idea where the title of the play came from? Why Gypsy Wheels? I understand that you didn't write the play, but where did the name of the play come from? The director of the play, Kali Nagyelov, came up with this idea, because he wanted this play to be connected with the nomadic way of life of the Roma. And these Gypsy Wheels, the idea was to be able to be completed anywhere in the world. So it was the director of the production, actually, Kali Nagyelov, who decided that it should be the name Gypsy Wheels. He wanted to focus a little bit on the nomadic way of life of the Roma people. He wanted to kind of focus on that. And is there for you a moment when you're maybe in the work as an actress or outside from feedback from the audience? Is there a memory that comes to mind that you would like to share? It can be good or bad, but something that really you remember, because there's been many years that the work has been shared. So I'm sure there are many memories. Is there a moment that you would like to share, as an actress or as a kind of feedback that you received from the audience? And something that comes to mind that you remember, that you would like to share? For 6 years, the presence of Gypsy Wheels, the performance, the meeting with a lot of audience, really with a lot of audience, with a lot of different audience. I was lucky to play in front of a lot of people, in front of different people. And I'm happy that this performance achieved a unique effect on the audience. And I received extremely positive reviews. One of the most emotional is for me. It was when I played the whole performance of the Romance Ghetto in Sofia, which I wanted to expect and tell me how impressed I was by what you saw and heard. And I remember that we cried. Maybe this is the most emotional thing that came to my mind. For the next years, yes, and I've had a lot of audiences, different, various, diverse audiences. And I'm happy that we could reach one in the same effect and somehow everybody could find himself somehow. But Natalia shares something emotional, she says, and this is when she played in front of Roma girls. The teenage girls who in the end wanted to say how well they felt when they watched her. And in the end, after the play, they simply started crying. That must be quite powerful and transformational in many ways. And also very proud. I'm sure that, you know, I get a bit emotional because I think that it's very, you know, our young people sometimes are going through a lot and to see and also have a role model like you, I'm sure that's lovely for them. And also the play has lots of topics, lots of stories that I think, as you say, many people can find, identify with. So lovely. Thank you for sharing that. Is there anything else you would like people listening to know about the work or about you in relation as an actress, maybe what you'd like to do as an actress and why it's important for someone, a Roma woman like yourself in theater, you know, on a European and global level. Is there anything you want to share? First of all, I'd like to quickly introduce myself. Rosa herself says that yes, it's really, really powerful and transformational. It happens because when the young people come to you and actually show that there is a great effect of different stories and people can identify with them. And the other one that Rosa asks is, I'd like to share something in relation to your work as an actress and what you would like to do and what you would like to do and what it's important for you to do, at least you have something to say. I'd like to give you one more presentation that is called, called, My Name, which was also mentioned in another target group. In the beginning of the 70s, in Bulgaria it happened, I don't know how to translate it, it was a very destructive process and a huge part of the Roma-Muslims were one of the victims of this process because they were replaced by their names. When I understood the facts from our story, I decided that I should make a presentation and create a spirit, let's call it, My Name. So one of the things that Natalia started to do is, last year, in the end of last year, they did a play, which is called Call Me By My Name, and it actually has a different purpose. It features the revival process of the Turkish people, of the Muslim, of the Turkish people in Bulgaria back in the 80s. When everybody was, every Muslim was forced to change their names into Bulgarian names. Some of the people were extradited from Bulgaria, so it all was done by force. So this is something they actually focused with her team and they made a play with that. As an idea, I would like to tell you about a comic, a famous romantic story in Rome, which tells its stories through the state they are in, through the courts they are in, in such a high school. Before we, the playwright of the Gypsy world, we decided that we will have a round of, a round of, what is it called, a place, and they're going to be called the taste of life. They will be, it's going to be something like a reality. They will cook on stage, and they will talk about the different traditions and the different occasions where Roma gather together and cook and how they cook different meals and what it brings. It's going to be a round of, yeah, a round of participations here. Lovely. Well that feels like a wonderful way to bring people together and to talk about these traditions that maybe not everyone understands, but through cooking, you know, it does something for the senses, for the eyes, for the nose, for the ears, so that's lovely, that's really lovely. Well thank you so much to both for sitting down with me today with us and for sharing your perspective on Gypsy wheels, but also that the wheels keep turning and you create new things and new work, so thank you so much, thank you both. Thank you, thank you Rosa. Thank you.