Avksenty Tsagareli

He was described in the Great Soviet Encyclopedia as "one of the finest representatives of realistic drama.

"[1] Tsagareli was born in the village of Digomi (near Tbilisi) and initially studied at a seminary.

He worked as an actor from 1878 to 1883 (the period when one of his best known plays, Khanuma, was first staged) and then as an employee of the Transcaucasian Railroad until 1899.

In the last two years of his life, he worked as a stage director in Tbilisi, where he died at the age of 45.

The play also served as the basis for the libretto of Victor Dolidze's 1919 comic opera, Keto and Kote.