Vartan Mkrtichevich Adzhemian

Born Sept. 15 (28), 1905. Soviet Armenian producer; People’s Artist of the USSR since 1965 and member of the CPSU since 1946. Graduated from the Armenian Drama Studio and Proletkult producers’ courses (Moscow).

Adzhemian was one of the organizers in 1928 of the Leninakan Theater (now the Mravian Theater), where he served as art director until 1938 and from 1943 to 1947. In 1939 he became producer, and in 1953 chief producer, at the Sundukian Theater (Yerevan). His productions in the Leninakan Theater have included The Lower Depths by Gorky (1932), Twelfth Night by Shakespeare (1944), The Marriage of Krechinskii by Sukhovo-Kobylin (1946), and Beautiful Ara by Zarian (1946). Other plays he has produced are For Honor by Shirvanzade (1939), Native Land by Demirchian (1940), The Cliff by Papazian (1944), Young Guard after Fadeev (1947), Uncle Bagdasar by Paronian (1954), Namus by Shirvanzade (1955), Chaos after Shirvanzade (1959), My Heart’s in the Highlands by Saroyan (1961), Romeo and Juliet by Shakespeare (1964), and The Case by Sukhovo-Kobylin (1966). Since 1944 he has been engaged in pedagogical work in the Yerevan Art Theater Institute. Adzhemian was awarded the State Prize of the USSR in 1951 and has also received the Order of Lenin, the Badge of Honor, and various medals.