Bulgarian director and theatre manager. Vassil Apostolov trained at the national theatre and film academy (VITIZ/NAFTIZ); today, Natsionalna akademia za teatralni i filmovi izkustva (NATFA), (National Academy for Theatre and Film Arts) in Sofia in the first acting class devoted to puppet theatre created by Atanas Ilkov and Nikolina Georgieva.

In 1966, Vassil Apostolov became the stage and managing director of the Stara Zagora puppet theatre which he reconstructed and modernized. He was among those in favour of the professionalization of puppet theatres both at the level of technical development and renewal of artistic forms. As head of the Department of Culture in Stara Zagora, Apostolov left his mark on the cultural development of the country.

In 1984, Apostolov became the artistic director of the Durzhaven kuklen teatur Plovdiv (State Puppet Theatre Plovdiv) and in 1990 he founded the International Puppet Festival of Plovdiv called Dvama sa malko, trima sa mnogo (Two are Too Few, Three are Too Many). This annual event held in September is one of Bulgaria’s three principal festivals.

Vassil Apostolov is the director of many productions, including, Momche i viatar (The Boy and the Wind, 1972), Samohvalko (The Braggart, 1974), Meko kazano (To Put it Mildly, 1979) by Valeri Petrov. Apostolov is author of the script for the puppet feature film, Yan Bibian (1986), based on the screenplay by Elin Pelin, which was internationally acclaimed. His productions have toured in many countries and have participated in many European festivals.

Vassil Apostolov is the recipient of national and international awards, among them the Golden Dolphin Award, and the award given by the Union of Bulgarian Actors.

(See Bulgaria.)