Ikonomov, Matei Spasov

Born Jan. 7, 1871, in Sopot, in Plovdiv District; died Mar. 10, 1960, in Sofia. Bulgarian actor, director, and theater figure. People’s Artist of the People’s Republic of Bulgaria (1955).

Ikonomov began to work in the theater in the 1880’s. He studied in Italy in 1900–02. One of the organizers of theatrical troupes in Ruse, Sopot, Karlovo, and other Bulgarian cities, Ikonomov founded the traveling Modern Theater (1902–12), for which he staged the plays of M. Gorky, A. P. Chekhov, H. Ibsen, and national playwrights. In 1924 he organized the traveling Rodnaia Stsena Troupe. His best roles included Prota-sov (Living Corpse by L. Tolstoy) and Neschastlivtsev (The Forest by Ostrovskii). Ikonomov also wrote and translated a number of plays.