Vasil (Vaso) Abashidze (; ) (4 December 1854 – 9 October 1926) was a Georgian theater actor and a founder of a realistic acting tradition in Georgia. Career Born in Dusheti, Georgia, then part of Tiflis Governorate, Russian Empire, Abashidze worked as a teacher in Kutaisi and Azerbaijan. At the same time, he played for amateur theatre troupes in Kutaisi. In 1879, he joined the renewed professional Georgian dramatic troupe in Tiflis and featured in comedies by both Georgian and foreign authors. His best roles included Famusov (Griboyedov’s Woe from Wit), Khlestakov (Gogol’s The Government Inspector), Belogubov and Iusov (Alexander Ostrovsky’s A Lucrative Post), and Tartuffe and Argan (Molière’s The Imaginary Invalid). He translated and adapted over 42 comedies and vaudevilles, and in 1885 he founded the theatrical paper Teatri ("The Theater"). In 1922, he was granted the title of People's Artist by Soviet Georgia. Abashidze's name has been given to the Tbilisi Music and Drama State Theatre. He died in Tbilisi and he is buried at the Mtatsminda Pantheon of Writers and Public Figures. Family In 1879 he married the actress Mako Saparova (1860–1940), later People's Artist of Georgia (1925). Their daughter Anastasia (Taso) Abashidze (1881–1958) was also a theatre actress. References External links Vaso Abashidze on Georgian National Filmography 1854 births 1926 deaths People from Mtskheta-Mtianeti People from Tiflis Governorate 19th-century male actors from Georgia (country) People's Artists of Georgia Soviet male stage actors Translators from Georgia (country) Male stage actors from Georgia (country) 20th-century translators Burials at Mtatsminda Pantheon