April 27, 2011 - 10:09 AMT
Gerald Papasian, Nora Armani to star in "Taparnigos Ladies' Dentist"

Actors Gerald Papasian and Nora Armani will play the leading roles in the burlesque Armenian hit, "Taparnigos Ladies' Dentist", adapted by Papasian from the Armenian Classic the "Eastern Dentist" by Hakob Paronian.

This acclaimed 19th century comedy has been produced countless times for the stage, cinema and television. Papasian's French adaptation was played in major Parisian theaters, but this time it will be performed in Armenian with French subtitles. This production by the Tekeyan Cultural Association of Montreal will run from May 13 to 15.

This is a reunion for Armani and Papasian, who performed their award-winning show "Sojourn at Ararat" to great critical acclaim at Montreal's Centaur Theatre in 1988, a play they recently reprised at Joe's Pub and at the Public Theater in New York City. The duo, no longer a couple off the stage, also animated a successful Armenian comedy evening in Montreal in 1999, a show still recalled by many to this day, broadwayworld reports.

A founding member of the Irina Brook Company, Papasian recently performed in the play "Waiting for the Dream" in Montreal at Usine C. In April and also in Montreal, he presented Armenian music masterpieces with the French vocal quatuor Arevatsaghik. He has helped revive several works by Armenian composer Tigran Tchoukhadjian, including the operetta Kariné in Paris and Marseille this fall. The President of Armenia recently awarded him the Movses Khorenatsi medal, the country's highest cultural and artistic honor.

An award-winning actress and playwright, Nora Armani's new one-woman show "Lend me an ID" was selected at the recent Diwan Forum for the Arts at the City University of New York, and she recently played one of the leads in the feature film "Snowed in LA". She is currently developing another feature film project, and filming a documentary about Egypt in the wake of the recent revolution.