Dimitri (Dodo) Aleksidze

He was born on February 23, 1910, in Tbilisi. In 1934 he graduated from GITIS, Russian Institute of Theatre Arts.

From 1935 he was the director of the Shota Rustaveli State Drama Theatre. Between 1964and 1970 he worked in Kyiv as invited director of Ivan Franco Drama Theatre. In 1970 he returned to Tbilisi and started working as a chief director at the Kote Marjanishvili State Drama Theatre.

From 1939 to 1964, and from 1970 until the end of his life, he was a Head of the Directing and Acting Department at the Shota Rustaveli Theatre and Film Georgia State University. Oedipus Rex by Sophocles, which he staged in 1955, became a landmark production for him.

He wrote the books: About the Actors’ Education (1956), The Director’s Work on the Production (1961).

His last production, The Merchant of Venice, by Shakespeare, was staged at the Konstantine Gamsakhurdia Sokhumi State Drama Theatre in 1984.

He is buried in the Didube Pantheon of Writers and Public Figures.

Awards:

USSR People’s Artist of Georgia (1955); USSR People’s Artist of Ukraine (1969); People’s Artist of Abkhazia (1975); Public Prize Laureate of T. Shevchenko (1970); Public Prize Laureate of the Shota Rustaveli State Drama Theatre (1985); and Public Prize Laureate of the Kote Marjanishvili State Drama Theatre (1976).