The Local: Silviya Doneva
At home with the actor and singer, and the objects she holds closest.
Quietly grounded, sentimental and close to nature,
actor and singer Silviya Doneva welcomed us into her home for our August portrait. Her love of art began in childhood and now runs through her life as a “singing actor”. After studying at NATFA, Bulgaria’s National Academy for Theatre and Film Arts, and spending a season at the Vasil Drumev Drama and Puppet Theatre, she chose independent theatre and music. With her husband, Hristo Donev, known as Richi (in Bulgarian), she created the poetic performance Everything the Eyes Don’t Say. Inspired by the musicians they admire, the pair also developed their Cabaret programme and the Bodil artists’ association. Her voice appears on three tracks on his album For Me and for Her. At the time of our conversation, she was working with Ana Bateva on the solo show The Rest Is Silence. At home, among her most treasured things, she shared a small piece of her inner world.
My rehearsal shoes
It started when I was seven and my mum bought me a pair for the dance classes I was taking. I kept wearing this kind of shoe in acting classes, then at NATFA. Now they come with me through every professional rehearsal process, whether it’s acting or music. I wear them until they’re completely, irreparably worn out. I mean that literally: I keep sewing them up until there’s nothing left to mend. They’re so comfortable.
I always embroider my initial on them for luck.
It’s hard to part with a pair because I remember every production they’ve been part of. I tried keeping them all, but eventually I had to learn to throw them away as well as mend them. I’m sentimental. What matters to me isn’t an object’s price, but the experience we’ve shared.
Perfume
I love scents, their different notes and combinations. I like sweet perfumes. I don’t wear make-up offstage, so perfume is to me what lipstick is to other women.
I love tobacco, vanilla, coffee and caramel notes.
There’s always perfume in my bag. I choose a different one for each production, something I think suits the character I’m playing. Afterwards, that scent brings back the whole show and the process of making it.
My notebook
The third thing I couldn’t do without is my notebook. Everything goes in: shopping lists, dreams, rehearsal notes, goals, sorrows, thoughts from the day.
I stick in all sorts of little bits and pieces from special experiences:
theatre tickets, napkins, leaflets, pressed plants. There’s a bit of everything. I tried having a separate notebook for each thing, but it became too complicated and too heavy to carry. Now it all fits into one. That makes it special: it becomes a documentary fragment of my life at a particular moment.
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