From the performance "Walking with Gogol" / photo credit: Stefan N. Shterev
She graduated from the National Academy for Theatre and Film Arts “Krastyo Sarafov” in 1991, in the class of Prof. Dimitrina Gyurova, and joined the company of the Ivan Vazov National Theatre, where she has created dozens of memorable roles, including: Lizzie Curry in The Rainmaker by N. Richard Nash; Grusha in The Caucasian Chalk Circle by Bertolt Brecht; Mariana in Tartuffe by Molière; Anne in Madame de Sade by Yukio Mishima; Hannah Jarvis in Arcadia by Tom Stoppard; Mary in The Memory of Water by Sheila Stevenson; Olivia in As You Like It / Twelfth Night and Hermione in The Winter’s Tale by William Shakespeare; Varya in The Cherry Orchard by Anton Chekhov; Angela in The King Stag by Carlo Gozzi; Fanny Wilton in John Gabriel Borkman by Henrik Ibsen; Kyra Hollis in Skylight by David Hare; Colomba in Volpone by Ben Jonson; Barbara in August: Osage County by Tracy Letts, Veronique Ulier in "God of Carnage" by Yasmina Reza and many others.
Among her popular roles in other theatres are: Charlotte in Chekhov Revue after Anton Chekhov at the Nikolay Binev Youth Theatre; Diana in Trainspotting after Irvine Welsh at the National Palace of Culture; Sasha in Oxygen by Ivan Vyrypaev at Theatre 199; Laura, Fanny, and Mia in Yana Borisova’s trilogy at Theatre 199; Eva in Autumn Sonata by Ingmar Bergman at the Burgas Drama Theatre; the Sorceress in The Fisherman and His Soul after Oscar Wilde at Theatre 199, and others.
IVAN DIMOV Award in 1999 for her role as Grusha in The Caucasian Chalk Circle by Bertolt Brecht.
ASKEER Award in 1997 for Rising Star for her role as Lizzie Curry in The Rainmaker by N. Richard Nash.
ASKEER Award in 2002 for Best Actress in a Leading Role for her role as Catherine in Proof by David Auburn.
She received the IKAR Award in 2021 for Best Supporting Actress for her role in A Capital Mistake after Ödön von Horváth.
Over the years, she has received numerous ASKEER and IKAR nominations, as well as awards from national theatre festivals.
This season, on the stage of the Ivan Vazov National Theatre, you can see Radena Valkanova in the productions Bill Gates and Steve Jobs Talk About the Future of Technology, Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead, Medea, The Hague, NEODACHNITSI, God of Carnage, Capital Mistake, New Land, Orpheus, and Walking with Gogol.
