Bulgarian actor, director and manager. Sunny Suninsky is a graduate of the Natsionalna akademia za teatralni i filmovi izkustva (NATFA), (National Academy for Theatre and Film Arts) of the class of Professor Nikolina Georgieva in acting and directing for the puppet theatre. His talents were discovered when he was still a sophomore at the Academy and he was invited together with his professor Verginia (Gina) Pavlova for a two-month period of lectures, demonstrations and workshops at Miami University, Oxford, Ohio (USA) in 1992 and 1993.

Sunny Suninsky’s productions for the puppet theatre are remarkable for the simplicity in using ordinary materials, which are transformed into extraordinary images, complex characters and surprising stories.

His first production, Kolko Dulga e Edna Prikazka (How Long the Story Is) won him several prestigious awards: first prize for “Young Director” at the International Puppet Festival, Dvama sa malko, Trima sa mnogo (Two are Too Few, Three are Too Many), held in Plovdiv (Bulgaria) in 1993; “Best Director” award for Puppet Theatre from the Union of Bulgarian Actors (UBA) in 1996; first prize for “Direction” at the Golden Dolphin Festival (Varna) in 1996; first prize for “Best Performance” at the Zagreb Festival (Croatia) in 1997. Other awards include The Golden Dolphin in 1999 for his production of Aladin i Vulshebnata Lampa (Aladin and the Magic Lamp), and in 2002 for Herkules (Hecules). His productions of Robinzon (Robinson), Tsifrite (The Digits), Vulshebnata Fleita (The Magic Flute) were awarded at festivals in Slovenia, Croatia, and Israel, and have toured many countries including the United States.

In 1996, Suninsky created “Obrazovatelen Teatur” (Educational Theatre) which he calls “a system for partnership between the theatre and elementary school children”. Under his management this programme, which involves most of the elementary schools in Sofia, continues to be very successful.

Sunny Suninsky has directed puppet and theatre productions in Bulgaria, Russia, Croatia and Spain. He is also author and director of short films.

(See Bulgaria.)