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15 Facts About Haig Acterian

1.

Haig Acterian was married to actress Marietta Sadova.

2.

Haig Acterian studied at the Mircea cel Batran High School in his native city, then attended the Spiru Haret National College in Bucharest.

3.

Haig Acterian made his literary debut in the school magazine, Vlastare, with pieces which caught the attention of his colleague, Mircea Eliade.

4.

Haig Acterian completed courses at the Conservatory in 1926, and made his debut in poetry, in 1929, with a selection titled Agonia.

5.

Haig Acterian completed work on a short play, Dialog intre inchipuiri, in which he reinterpreted the Mesterul Manole legend, one of the central pieces in Romanian mythology, from a Christian perspective.

6.

In 1930, Haig Acterian traveled to Berlin, where he closely followed developments in German theater, and came to admire the achievements of the locals Max Reinhardt, Heinz Hilpert, Erwin Piscator, Karlheinz Martin, as well as those of Soviet director Vsevolod Meyerhold.

7.

Between 1932 and 1934, Haig Acterian was scenic director for the Bucharest-based Ventura Theater.

8.

Haig Acterian was by then heavily influenced by the classical works of William Shakespeare and Aeschylus, but practical constraints prevented him from staging them.

9.

Haig Acterian directed a series of other plays, including one by George Bernard Shaw.

10.

Haig Acterian affiliated with Amicii URSS, a loose grouping of left-wing intellectuals which was created and disbanded in 1934.

11.

Haig Acterian took part in the 1934 Volta Congress on dramatic theater, and reported on it for Vremea.

12.

In 1936, Haig Acterian completed his Pretexte pentru o dramaturgie romaneasca, with a preface by his friend Edward Gordon Craig, and published a volume of poetry, titled Urmare.

13.

Haig Acterian wrote several works on the first Romanian monograph on Shakespeare, and an essay titled Limitele Artei.

14.

Also in 1939, Haig Acterian produced and directed two documentary films: one on the Bucharest industrial plant of Nicolae Malaxa, and the other on the Apuseni Mountains.

15.

Haig Acterian was arrested when the Guard violently clashed with Ion Antonescu's forces in January 1941, and detained until after Operation Barbarossa.