Profile of actor and director Spiro Duni!

Spiro Duni
Actor and director!

He was born in Dhermi in the district of Vlora on October 21, 1957. His childhood was in Dhermi until he was 5-6 years old. Then he moved to Elbasan, where his parents had settled. It must be said that in the first grade he did not know Albanian, as he had grown up with his grandparents, who spoke Greek. While childhood in Elbasan is about the theater, from a very young age, 7 years old. Some of his father’s friends, such as Robert Ndrenika, who was then an appointed actor in Elbasan, greatly influenced the initial path towards the art of the scene. The smell of the theater stage is what remained in his mind.

They activate him in some roles, although they are small, but they are enough to make him want to become an actor. He takes part in the children’s theater, but he is also active with the professionals of “Skampa” in a play by Serafin Fanko “Four from the Armata”, in the role of the son of a saboteur. So, the road to the theater seemed destined.

At school, he stands out as a well-prepared student, so he finished high school with a gold medal, but due to his biography (an uncle who escaped in 1948) he was not given the right to compete for an actor and not even the right to an internship with his friends. Not being worthy even for the Metallurgical Plant, together with the nephew of Tuk Jakov (Taulantin) he ends up working in the cement factory. The year 1979 will come, when some friends of his family, from Vunoi, the names heard on the stage like Dh. Anagnosti, R. Ndrenika, A. Kristofori will intervene with their people in the state apparatus of the time, which will open the way and the opportunity to compete in the competition. This year, he started acting school at ILA. When it was decided to open directing as a branch at the Academy, all the directors who had finished their studies in the 60s outside of Albania, took into consideration some of the actors who had come out with somewhat better grades.

And so Spiro Duni, being willing and encouraged by his professor at that time, Vangjush Furxhi, continues to direct. Then, the fact that the head of the department would be Pirro Mani also made all the students friendly. From his class, 8 people continued the directing school, doing almost 3 years more than the others, with all the internship. After graduating as a director, he was sent to Kinostudio only for a short time, 2-3 months, and then transferred again to the “Skampa” theater as a director, a profession that he would practice until 1992.

In the 1980s, he was one of the young male directors who stood up for his own creative space and individuality, putting on the stage of the Elbasan theater several pieces with a clear directorial concept. We can mention here two dramas by F. Balliu “The Golden Key” (1985) and “Blocked Path” (1986) as well as the comedy “The Tour” by P. Mani, where the wealth of humorous findings caught the eye. He continues with a psychological treatment in the drama “The Asp” by Lilian Helman in the year 1989, where he wandered into the depths and scary secrets of the characters.

That same year (1989) he staged Pellumb Kulles’s comedy “So many dry leaves that autumn”, with which he also won the First Prize at the Festival of Theaters in Tirana. In 1991, he went to specialize in directing at the “Teatro Nazionale di Roma” and a year later in Greece at the “Mega Channel”.

In the time period 1992 – 2002, he emigrated to the USA. After returning to Albania, he founded Studio Theater “Po”. In the 2000s, he is more inclined towards comedy, so he puts on the stage (2002) the show “There’s not enough”, an adaptation from the work of the Greek comedian D. Psathait and “My wife’s husband” (2004), a comedy of Miro Gavran with Estrada of Sarande.

Also in 2002, Studio Teater “PO” staged Chekhov’s show “Three Jokes”, which collected the short comedies “Engagement”; “Marriage and the Bear”;

In 2003, at the National Theater of Kosovo, he directed the play “The man who saw death with his eyes” by Viktor Efthimiou, where the main role of Eliodor Pak is played by Enver Petrovci. The figure of the vagabond was conceived at the end of the comedy as the example of Carli Caplin’s Charlotte, the paradigm of the eternal wanderer in search of himself. In this same style, he returns to the stage of this comic show in 2007 at the “Skampa” Theater where the actor Robert Ndrenika plays the role of Philomon again after 45 years.

The drama “Cat in the Hot Water” by T. Williams at the National Theater (2005) and especially the anti-drama “Towards the sunset” (2006) by Albri Brahusha, presented new parts of his artistic profile. The creation of parallels of a family upbringing and a rude behavior, which ultimately brings tragic consequences,

Spiro Duni makes possible in the plays “Whistles in the Dark” by T. Murphy (2008); In May 2014, puts in the National Theater the drama “Long journey into the night” by the American Eugene O’Neill, bringing back together the actresses Yllka Mujo and Artan Imami.

Spiro Duni has also been a performer in several Albanian films, whose deputation he made in 1979 in “Beyond the Stone Walls” in the role of Gezim. Then: “In every season” as Astriti (1980); “The Stones of My House” (1983); “Appassionata” as Guri (1983) “The train leaves at seven past five” as Adi (1988); “Mission beyond the sea” professor from Crete (1988). “The colors of age” as Nesti (1990) etc. As director: “Chronicle of those nights” (TV Movie) 1986.

During the 2000s he will be a director in several performances of the National Theatre, activity which he still continues.

It was published for the first time on Facebook in October 2016 LINK OF THE ALBUM ON FACEBOOK https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?vanity=ksh.faqjazyrtare&set=a.1224152180977981

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Albanian Cinematography in activity since 2013
Reference : “My childhood from Dhërmi to Elbasan” S. Duni, interview (2011); “Albanian Encyclopedia, Theater and Cinematography” – Toena 2009 / Papagjoni. J / p. 98-99; Photos – contribution of site administrators.

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