Varoujan
Khedeshian was one of the most innovative directors of Armenian theater
in the Diaspora during the second half of the twentieth century.
He
was born on April 7, 1937, in Aley (Lebanon). At the age of sixteen, he
debuted in the Hamazkayin “Kaspar Ipekian” dramatic troupe, directed by
Georges Sarkissian, another famous name of Diasporan theater.
In
1960 he went to London to study at the Webber Douglas Academy of
Dramatic Art. He graduated in 1965 and returned to Lebanon, where he
joined the Hamazkayin “Levon Shant” dramatic troupe. Two years later, he
founded the “Theatre 67” dramatic troupe, which had a very important
role in the Lebanese Armenian community until the beginning of the civil
war in 1975. Khedeshian was noted for staging works from the Armenian
and international repertoire that went outside the mold of tradition,
introducing the audience to contemporary works by playwrights like
Arthur Miller, Peter Weiss, Edward Albee, and Neil Simon. He would
maintain this approach when he took over the direction of the “Kaspar
Ipekian” from 1989-2000. He translated a total of 22 plays from English
into Armenian.
Some
of the works he directed included, along with “Ancient Gods” and “The
Emperor” (Levon Shant), “By the Road of Heaven” and “Up to Where?”
(Hagop Oshagan), “Alafranca,” “The Oriental Dentist,” and “Brother
Balthazar” (Hagop Baronian), “The Piper of the Mountains of Armenia”
(Hamasdegh), world-famous works like “The Merchant of Venice” (William
Shakespeare), “Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf?” (Edward Albee),
“Marat/Sade” (Peter Weiss), “The Crucible,” “View from the Bridge,” “The
Price,” and “All My Sons” (Arthur Miller), “The Prisoner of Second
Avenue” and “Barefoot in the Park” (Neil Simon), “The Master Builder”
(Henrik Ibsen), “Romulus the Great” (Friedrich Dürrenmatt), “The
Venetian Twins” (Carlo Goldoni), “The Caretaker” (Harold Pinter).
From
1979-1987 Khedeshian staged five dramatic performances in Armenia, both
in Yerevan and Leninakan (now Gyumri), and received the “Bedros
Atamian” medal in 1987, becoming the first Diasporan Armenian who earned
this award during the Soviet period.
His
decades-long theatrical activity earned him multiple accolades and
several distinctions late in life. In 2000 he was decorated with the
“St. Mesrob Mashdots” order of the Holy See of Cilicia by Catholicos
Aram I and the Hamazkayin order by the Central Executive Board of this
organization. In 2008 the Ministry of Culture of Armenia awarded him its
gold medal, and Catholicos of All Armenians Karekin II bestowed upon
him the “St. Sahag-St. Mesrob” medal of the Armenian Church. Meanwhile,
in 2004 he had received the order of the Institute of Arts of Lebanese
University, where he had taught dramatic art from 1971-1999.
Varoujan Khedeshian passed away on December 28, 2015, in Beirut, at the age of seventy-eight.
