In Tirana, Sokrat Mio, a theater director and Merited Artist, passed away. He was born in Korça in 1902. He studied directing at the Dramatic-Musical Academy of Paris in 1934. In 1935, as the director of the “Vllaznia” company in Shkodër, he staged “Vilhelm Teli” by F. Shiller with high school students, a performance that was subsequently banned by the authorities. With the students of the technical school in Tirana, he staged the drama “Besa” by Sami Frashëri. While working with the artistic and sports society “Rinia Korçare” (“Youth of Korça”), he directed the drama “Armiku i popullit” (“Enemy of the People”) (1937) by H. Ibsen, using innovative methods that combined the stage, effectively removing the fourth wall. This approach gave the play a pronounced democratic character that included strong social and political criticism for the time. He played a pivotal role in advancing amateur theater, guiding it toward realistic interpretation. During the Anti-Fascist National Liberation War, he began his activities in the partisan theater in 1944, creating a choral-theatre group in Lavdar of Korça. With this group, he staged the poem “Epopeja e Ballit Kombëtar” (“The Epic of the National Front”) (by Sh. Musaraj) and the comedy “14 vjeç dhëndër” (“14 Year Old Groom”) by AZ Çajupi. In the early years following the war, he worked at the People’s Theater and directed the first drama school. From 1950 onward, he became the director of the “AZ Çajupi” theater in Korça. Throughout his career, he staged a series of well-known works of world dramaturgy by authors such as Molière, N. Gogol, K. Goldoni, and B. Johnson, as well as dramatizations of works by Albanian authors, including M. Grameno, F. Postoli, K. Jakova, and S. Çomora. Through his contributions, Sokrat Mio significantly raised the artistic level of Albanian theater, leading it along the path of realistic interpretation and artistic professionalism. (In the photo: Sokrat Mio)
Text: Albanian encyclopedic dictionary – Vol. 2 , Academy of Sciences of Albania, “Kristalina-KH”, Tirana, 2008, page 1729.
Photo: © Ledio Xhoxhi, personal archive.
Graphic processing: AHCF
