Mihal Luarasi, director, theater critic, People’s Artist, was born in Korça. He headed the Artistic Lyceum “Jordan Misja” and studied directing at the Academy of Theater and Film in Budapest (1952–1956), where he graduated in 1958. He worked as a director at the People’s Theater (1956–1958; 1961–1966), in the State Theater (1958–1961). acting lecturer at the High Institute of Arts (1959–1966; 1971–1973), at the “Andan Zako Çajupi” theater in Korça (1966–1971), at Albanian Radio Television (1972–1973), etc. After being criticized for his liberal views in art as the director of the XI Song Festival on Radio Television (1972), he was fired (March 1973). He was arrested in December 1973 and sentenced to 8 years in prison. After his release (1979) he worked as a laborer until 1989, when he retired. From 1990, he stayed for several years in Hungary. Mihal Luarasi has staged a series of works both Albanian and foreign literature, such as: “Intrigue and love” (Shiler, 1956), “Two Gentlemen from Verona” (Shakespeare, 1959); “Fox and grapes” (Figueredo, 1961) etc. He also helped with the original staging of several operas of the classical repertoire, such as: “Traviata”, “Karmen”, the Albanian operas “Pranvera“ (“Spring”) by Tish Daia and “Përtej mjegullës“ (“Beyond the fog”) by Pjetër Gaci. As a director, Mihal Luarasi treats the piece as a function of carefully thought-out ideas and figures, he prefers the most precise drawings of life pictures, where the feeling derives from a certain ideological attitude. He has written several plays, such as “Gomone“ (“Speedboat”) (2002) and the book of essays “Teatri Kombëtar në udhëkryq“ (“The national theater at crossroads”) (2003), etc. He passed away in Tirana, in 2017. (In the photo: Mihal Luarasi)
Text: Albanian encyclopedic dictionary – Vol. 2, Academy of Sciences of Albania, “Kristalina-KH”, Tirana, 2008, page 1539.
Graphic processing: AHCF
