P.I.F band was founded by Dimo Stoyanov an Ivan Velkov in Varna in 1992 under the name “Resemblance”. In the beginning, the band performed pieces in English only. In 1999 it was renamed to Patriots in Fashion (P.I.F). In 2000 the first debut album titled after the band’s new name was released. The album turned extremely successful and some of its pieces such as Fairy Tale, Bicycle and Journey became music hits. Later, P.I.F band released four more albums. The last one was released four years ago and was titled P.I.F.5. Currently, Ivan Velkov (guitar), Hristo Mihalkov (bass guitar) and Martin Profirov are the other three members of the band.

Dimo Stoyanov (front-man and lead vocals) graduated from the National Academy for Theatre and Film Arts Krastyo Sarafov in Sofia. That is why the band’s concerts held through the years were in fact a real music show. However, Dimo now performs for the first time at a theatre play titled Who Gets the Stars in the Morning? The title of the theatre play is based on one of the band’s songs.

I have been preparing for this theatre play for 20 years, because it is in fact a story about my life. The idea about this performance was born years ago by the members of P.I.F. band and director Mariya Banova. Our idea was to paint with sand over an illuminated table in accompaniment with songs of P.I.F. band. When we put this idea together we came to the conclusion that we needed lyrics as well. Script-writer Zdrava Kamenova who knows in detail what we did over the years helped us a lot. I should also note that Mariya and Zdrava graduated from the National Academy for Theatre and Film Arts as well and I know them for many years. We asked Zdrava to write the monologues for the mono drama. The theatre play consists of six large monologues which describe the life and the experience of people, regardless of their profession. The end of each monologue takes us to a certain song which shapes up the whole picture. The song lyrics are the perfect end of the monologue’s text. This is what makes the mono drama interesting and script-writer Zdrava Kamenova contributed a lot to this effect. The audience actually sees a rehearsal of P.I.F. band. I am late for the rehearsal. I enter the rehearsal room and find out that the fourth stage is missing and is replaced by an audience. However, I am the only one to see this. Then I start telling the other musicians. I play a lot of characters in the mono drama and I always improvise. The rest of the P.I.F. members do not see what I do on the stage and what I am talking about, which is the funniest part of the mono drama. There is plenty of humor in the mono drama, yet it sounds very serious.

In the autumn of 2018 the mono drama was presented in many Bulgarian towns and has attracted huge interest since then. On February 27 it will be staged at the National Palace of Culture in Azaryan Theatre. In 2019 Dimo Stoyanov and the mono drama Who Gets the Stars in the Morning will be on other theatre stages as well.

English version: Kostadin Atanasov