Georges Pitoëff

Georges Pitoëff was born on 4 September 1884 in Tiflis (now Tbilisi, Georgia), then in Russia, and died on 17 September 1939 in Bellevue, near Geneva, Switzerland. Russian-born of Armenian origins, he was the son of the Director of the Tiflis Theatre. After studying and graduating in Law at Paris University, he became a theatre director and producer, noted for his popularization in France of the works of contemporary playwrights, especially Luigi Pirandello, George Bernard Shaw, Anton Chekhov, Arthur Shnitzler, Henrik Ibsen, and Eugene O'Neill. He was a founding member of the Cartel des Quatre (Group of Four), a group including Louis Jouvet, Charles Dullin, and Gaston Baty, dedicated to rejuvenating the French theatre.

Personal life

One of Pitoéff's sons, Alexandre Pitoëff, known as Sacha, was himself a noted French theatre director and actor.

References

• Thèâtre Des Années Vingt: Georges Pitoëff metteur en scène" by Pr Jacqueline Jomarron, L'age D'homme publishers, 1979, Lausanne, Switzerland
• Ludmilla, Ma Mère : The Life of Ludmilla and Georges Pitoëff", by Aniouta Pitoëff, Juillard publishers, 1955, Paris, France.