Akaki Vasadze

Nodar Mgaloblishvili and Yaragi Zubayraev are recorded as having studied under Akaki Vasadze. Employment is recorded with Rustaveli Theatre. Distinctions recorded are Stalin Prize, 2nd degree, State Stalin Prize, 1st degree, Stalin Prize, 3rd degree and People's Artist of the USSR.

• Name — Akaki Vasadze • Native Name — აკაკი ვასაძე • Born — 6 August 1899 • Birthplace — Kutaisi, Kutaisi Governorate, Russian Empire • Died — 23 March 1978 • Place of death — Tbilisi, Georgian SSR, Soviet Union • Resting Place — Didube Pantheon, Tbilisi • Occupation — Actor, theatre director • Years Active — 1916–1978

Vasadze was born on 6 August 1899 in Kutaisi, then part of the Kutaisi Governorate of the Russian Empire. He began working in the theatre in Kutaisi in 1916, and in 1920 graduated from the Tbilisi drama studio of Giorgi Jabadari.

From 1920 to 1958 Vasadze was an actor of the Rustaveli Theatre in Tbilisi, and from 1935 to 1955 he was also its artistic director. He subsequently served as artistic director of the Lado Meskhishvili Theatre in Kutaisi from 1958 to 1968, and from 1969 worked as an actor and director at the State Drama Theatre in Rustavi. He worked as a stage director from 1926. Among his stage roles were Mengo in Lope de Vega's Fuenteovejuna, Franz Moor in Schiller's The Robbers, Iago in Shakespeare's Othello, and the title role in King Lear. Several of his performances and productions were honoured with State (Stalin) Prizes, including the title role in Kombrig Kikvidze (1942), Vasily Shuisky in The Great Sovereign (1946), and his staging of Sunken Stones (1951).