Minos Volanakis
Minos Volanakis ({{langx|el|Μίνως Βολανάκης}}; 1925 or 1926, Athens – 15 November 1999, Athens) was a Greek theatre director and translator.See his obituary in The New York Times, November 20, 1999.
Work
He studied with Karolos Koun, for whom he translated American plays into Greek language, and first made his name for his translations of the dramas of his friend Jean Genet, as well as for productions of Samuel Beckett's Waiting for Godot and Aristophanes' Lysistrata at the Athens Festival.See the NYT obituary and White (1993, 523). In protest against the government, he left Greece in 1966 for England, where he became an associate director at the Oxford Playhouse. His productions there included Genet's The Maids (1963-4) and The Balcony (1967), and Jean Giraudoux's Madwoman of Chaillot.Chapman (2008, 184, 186, 196-197) and the NYT's obituary.
He provided the translation into English of Euripides' Iphigeneia at Aulis for a production at the Circle in the Square Theatre in New York in 1967, which Michael Cacoyannis directed.See the Internet Off-Broadway Database's [http://www.lortel.org/LLA_archive/index.cfm?search_by=show&id=3745 article on this production] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20061001235924/http://www.lortel.org/LLA_archive/index.cfm?search_by=show&id=3745 |date=2006-10-01 }}. He directed a production of Euripides' The Bacchae at the Lyceum Theater in New York in 1968 and the US première of Genet's The Screens in 1971.See the NYT obituary and White (1993, 657). In 1973 he directed Euripides' Medea at the Circle in the Square Theatre in New York, which opened on January 17.See The Internet Broadway Database's [http://www.ibdb.com/production.php?id=3168 article on the production of Medea].
Volanakis served twice as the artistic director of the National Theatre of Northern Greece (1974 – 1977 & 1986 – 1989).{{Cite web |title=Κρατικό Θέατρο Βορείου Ελλάδος - Συντελεστές - Βολανάκης, Μίνως |url=https://www.ntng.gr/default.aspx?lang=el-GR&page=64&item=2563# |access-date=2024-07-02 |website=www.ntng.gr |language=el-GR}} In 1984 he directed a production of Sophocles' Oedipus Rex for the National Theatre of Greece, which subsequently transferred to the Vivian Beaumont Theater on Broadway (opening on July 17 of that year).See the NYT's obituary and the Internet Broadway Database's [http://www.ibdb.com/production.php?id=4341 article on this production].
References
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Sources
- Anonymous. 1999. Obituary in The New York Times, November 20, 1999. [https://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9E0CE3DF153CF933A15752C1A96F958260 Available online].
- Chapman, Don. 2008. Oxford Playhouse: High and Low Drama in a University City. Hatfield: U of Hertfordshire P. {{ISBN|1-902806-87-5}}.
- White, Edmund. 1993. Genet. Corrected edition. London: Picador, 1994. {{ISBN|0-330-30622-7}}.
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