Valentin Nikolaevich Pluchek

Born Aug. 22 (Sept. 4), 1909, in Moscow. Soviet stage director. People’s Artist of the USSR (1974).

In 1929, Pluchek graduated from the acting department, and in 1932 from the directing department, of the State Experimental Theatrical Studio, headed by V. E. Meyerhold. Beginning in 1929, he acted in the Meyerhold Theater. In 1940 he helped organize the Moscow State Theatrical Studio, which beginning in 1941 gave performances at the war front. In 1940 he directed City at Dawn, based on the play by A. N. Arbuzov and members of the studio. From 1942 to 1945 he headed the Theater of the Northern Fleet, and from 1945 to 1950 the Moscow Touring Theater. He became a director at the Moscow Theater of Satire in 1950, and since 1957 has been the theater’s chief director.

Pluchek’s most important productions at the Theater of Satire were Mayakovsky’s The Bathhouse (1953, with N. V. Petrovand S. I. Iutkevich; 1967), The Bedbug (1955, with Iutkevich; 1974), and Mystery-Bouffe (1957). He also directed Hikmet’s The Sword of Damocles (1959), Beaumarchais’s The Marriage of Figaro (1969), Shtein’s A Captive of Time (1970), Gogol’s The Inspector-General (1972), and Makaenok’s Pill Under the Tongue (1973). Pluchek’s productions display a strong interest in current events, are optimistic in character, are intensely satirical, and tend toward hyperbole and the grotesque. He has written the book On Stage—Mayakovsky (1962), as well as articles on stagecraft. He has been awarded two orders and several medals.