Rachia Nikitovich Kaplanian

Born Nov. 14, 1923, in the village of Giargiar, Armenian SSR. Soviet director, actor, and theatrical worker; People’s Artist of the USSR (1971). Member of the CPSU since 1947.

Kaplanian graduated from the Yerevan Theatrical School in 1940. He worked as an actor during 1937–50, and during 1953–56 and 1959–62 he was chief director of the Yerevan Young People’s Theater. Kaplanian worked as director of the G. Sundukian Armenian Theater (1956–59) and as chief director of the A. A. Spendiarov Armenian Opera and Ballet Theater (1962–65).

In 1968, Kaplanian founded and became chief director of the Yerevan Drama Theater, based on the Theater Studio of the Armenian Theatrical Society, which he had also created. His best productions were Schiller’s Cabal and Love (1955), Iag-dzhian’s Night Miracle (at the Young People’s Theater, 1960), Araksmanian’s Sixty Years and Three Hours (at the Sundukian Theater, 1964), Armenian’s Khachatur Abovian (at the Spendiarov Theater), Stock’s Divine Comedy (1968), Anush (based on the work by Tumanian; 1968), Otian’s Love and Laughter (at the Yerevan Drama Theater, 1970), and Dangulov’s Confession (at the Malyi Theater, 1970). Kaplanian is the author of several plays. He became chairman of the Armenian Theatrical Society in Yerevan in 1966.