Speranskii, Evgenii Veniaminovich

Born July 9 (22), 1903, in Moscow. Soviet Russian puppet-theater actor, director, and playwright. People’s Artist of the RSFSR (1966).

From 1925 to 1931, Speranskii worked at the Puppet Theater of the Central Home for Children’s Art Education. In 1931 he became an actor at the Central Puppet Theater, which he had helped found. His roles have included Aladdin and the Wise Man in Gernet’s Aladdin’s Magic Lamp, the Master of Ceremonies in An Unusual Concert, and the Devil in Shtok’s Noah’s Ark. He has staged Poliakov’s Loves Me, Loves Me Not, Borisova’s Buratino, and other works. Speranskii has also written the plays A Matter of Divorce, To the Rustle of Your Eyelashes, I-Ho-Ho!, and The Soldier and the Witch (based on a story by H. C. Andersen). He has been awarded the Order of the Red Banner of Labor and several medals.