H.M. Koutoukas
H.M. Koutoukas | |
---|---|
Born | Haralambos Monroe Koutoukas June 4, 1937 Endicott, New York |
Died | March 6, 2010 New York City, New York | (aged 72)
Notable awards | Obie Award, 1966 |
Haralambos Monroe "Harry" Koutoukas (June 4, 1937 – March 6, 2010)
Life and work
Born Haralambos Monroe Koutoukas in Endicott, New York, Koutoukas moved to Manhattan in the early 1960s to pursue theater.[2]
A prolific playwright, Koutoukas helped establish
Describing Koutoukas' unusual artistic approach to theater, William Grimes of The New York Times wrote, "In works like Medea in the Laundromat and Awful People Are Coming Over So We Must Be Pretending to Be Hard at Work and Hope They Will Go Away, [Koutoukas] presented cartoonishly stylized characters, equipped them with arch dialogue and set them loose in outlandish situations. He obeyed no rules but those that one of his characters called 'the ancient laws of glitter.'"[1] Though renowned in lower Manhattan, he never became as commercially successful as some of his contemporaries, such as Lanford Wilson or Sam Shepard.[2] His works include Afamis Notes, The Brown Book, Butterfly Encounter and Turtles Don’t Dream.[3] One play, Disarming Attachments, he described like this:
The play opens with this ruined Greek philosopher. Whenever he smiles his teeth are so bad that you see the Acropolis. He lives in a Greek take out paper cup with the Acropolis on it. And then there’s Malvina Falkland who has buck teeth: she throws them into the ocean so the Penguins can escape to the Antarctic. She is in love with this Ghetto type character; he’s a vineyard owner and then Attila the Hun comes in wearing carrier-ship battle shoes and she dances with the five headed general who always talks you to death. Then there’s the boy who’s just seen the abyss and can’t get over it.[3]
In 1966, he received a
He won a Robert Chesley Award in 2003.
References
- ^ a b c d e f Grimes, William. H. M. Koutoukas, Author of Surrealist Plays, Dies at 72, nytimes.com, March 18, 2010
- ^ Simonson, Robert, H.M. Koutoukas, Flamboyant Figure of Early Off-Off-Broadway, Dies at 72 Archived 2010-08-14 at the Wayback Machine, playbill.com, March 18, 2010
- ^ a b Mueller, Cookie. H.M. Koutoukas (BOMB magazine interview), bombsite.com, Spring 1983, Retrieved April 1, 2010
- ^ "Search the OBIES". VillageVoice.com. Retrieved 12 March 2010.
- ^ La MaMa Archives Digital Collections, "Video Work: Documentation of 'One Man's Religion/The Pinotti Papers' (1975)" Retrieved June 27, 2017.
Further reading
- Banes, Sally. Greenwich Village 1963: Avant-Garde Performance and the Effervescent Body. Durham: Duke University Press, 1999.
- Bottoms, Stephen J. Playing Underground: A Critical History of the 1960s Off-Off-Broadway Movement. 2004. Ann Arbor: The University of Michigan Press, 2007.
- Crespy, David A. Off-Off-Broadway Explosion: How Provocative Playwrights of the 1960s Ignited a New American Theater. New York: Back Stage Books, 2003.
- Dominic, Magie. The Queen of Peace Room. Waterloo, Ontario, Canada: Wilfrid Lauer University Press, 2002.
- Gordy, Douglas W. "Joseph Cino and the First Off-Off Broadway Theater." In Passing Performances: Queer Readings of Leading Players in American Theater History, edited by Robert A. Schanke and Kimberly Bell Marra, 303-323. Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press, 1998.
- McDonough, Jimmy. The Ghastly One: The Sex-Gore Netherworld of Filmmaker Andy Milligan. Chicago: Acappella, 2002.
- Stone, Wendell C. Caffe Cino: The Birthplace of Off-Off-Broadway. Carbondale: Southern Illinois University Press, 2005.
- Susoyev, Steve & Birimisa, George. Return to the Caffe Cino. San Francisco, CA: Moving Finger Press, 2006.
- Dominic, Magie & Smith, Michael Townsend: "H. M. Koutoukas 1937-2010": Fast Books, 2010.
External links
- New York Times obituary
- Playbill obituary
- Greek Reporter obituary
- Tributes by Koutoukas' friends
- H.M. Koutoukas fan page on Facebook.com
- BOMB Magazine interview, 1983
- H.M. Koutoukas' page on La MaMa Archives Digital Collections
- http://koutoukas.blogspot.com/
Images
- Hamptons.com (4th image down)
- Donaldbrooks.com (multiple images)
- Donaldbrooks.com (image, tribute poem)
- Koutoukas and Gerry Ragni
- Koutoukas' 1966 Caffe Cino play
- Charles Stanley as Koutoukas' Medea - 1
- Charles Stanley as Koutoukas' Medea - 2
- Color photo of Koutoukas with friends in the Caffe Cino
- Koutoukas with friends in the Caffe Cino
- Koutoukas with friends at benefit for the Caffe Cino
- Koutoukas with Joe Cino and friend
- Caffe Cino window poster portrait of Koutoukas
- Koutoukas with other Off-Off Broadway playwrights
- Koutoukas with Joe Cino and friends in front of the Caffe Cino
- Koutoukas with friends onstage at the Caffe Cino
- Koutoukas at 1985 Caffe Cino exhibit at Lincoln Center
- Koutoukas at installation of Joe Cino plaque
- Koutoukas watching Charles Stanley in Kill, Kaleidoscope, Kill