H.M. Koutoukas
Encyclopedia
H.M. "Harry" Koutoukas was a surrealist playwright, actor and teacher. Along with Sam Shepard
, Lanford Wilson
, Doric Wilson
, Tom Eyen
and Robert Patrick
, Koutoukas is credited among the artists who gave birth to the Off-Off Broadway theater movement of the 1960s.
, Koutoukas moved to Manhattan in the early 1960s to pursue theater.
A prolific playwright, Koutoukas helped establish Off-Off Broadway venues such as La MaMa ETC and the Cafe Cino
with low budget, absurdist
creations he liked to call "camp". In 1975 he said, "we ... get together a play in a weekend, rehearse on a rooftop, rummage through the garbage for our props and, if we needed extra cash, we hustled our bodies in the streets. We men, that is — we didn’t think we should ask the women to do it."
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.'" Though renowned in Greenwich Village
circles, he never became as successful or commercial as some of his contemporaries such as Lanford Wilson
or Sam Shepard
. His works include Afamis Notes, The Brown Book, Butterfly Encounter and Turtles Don’t Dream. One play, Disarming Attachments, he described like this:
In 1966, he received a Village Voice Obie Award
for "Assaulting Established Tradition". Koutoukas also ran a theater workshop called the "School for Gargoyles" whose alumni included Gerome Ragni
and James Rado, the writers of the rock musical Hair
; Tom O'Horgan
, its director; and the actor and playwright Harvey Fierstein
.
Sam Shepard
Sam Shepard is an American playwright, actor, and television and film director. He is the author of several books of short stories, essays, and memoirs, and received the Pulitzer Prize for Drama in 1979 for his play Buried Child...
, Lanford Wilson
Lanford Wilson
Lanford Wilson was an American playwright who helped to advance the Off-Off-Broadway theater movement. He received the Pulitzer Prize for Drama in 1980, was elected in 2001 to the Theater Hall of Fame, and in 2004 was elected to the American Academy of Arts and Letters...
, Doric Wilson
Doric Wilson
Doric Wilson was an American playwright, director, producer, critic and gay rights activist.He was born Alan Doric Wilson in Los Angeles, California, where his family was temporarily located. Originally from the Pacific Northwest, he was raised on his grandfather's ranch at Plymouth, Washington on...
, Tom Eyen
Tom Eyen
Tom Eyen was an American playwright, lyricist, television writer and theatre director.Eyen is best known for works at opposite ends of the theatrical spectrum...
and Robert Patrick
Robert Patrick
Robert Hammond Patrick, Jr. is an American actor, known for his leading and supporting roles in a number of films and television shows....
, Koutoukas is credited among the artists who gave birth to the Off-Off Broadway theater movement of the 1960s.
Biography
Born Haralambos Monroe Koutoukas in Endicott, New YorkEndicott, New York
Endicott is a village in Broome County, New York, United States. The population was 13,038 at the 2000 census. It is part of the Binghamton Metropolitan Statistical Area. The village is named after Henry B...
, Koutoukas moved to Manhattan in the early 1960s to pursue theater.
A prolific playwright, Koutoukas helped establish Off-Off Broadway venues such as La MaMa ETC and the Cafe Cino
Joe Cino
Joseph Cino , was an Italian-American theatrical producer and café-owner. The beginning of the Off-Off-Broadway theatre movement is generally credited to have begun at Cino’s Caffe Cino...
with low budget, absurdist
Absurdism
In philosophy, "The Absurd" refers to the conflict between the human tendency to seek value and meaning in life and the human inability to find any...
creations he liked to call "camp". In 1975 he said, "we ... get together a play in a weekend, rehearse on a rooftop, rummage through the garbage for our props and, if we needed extra cash, we hustled our bodies in the streets. We men, that is — we didn’t think we should ask the women to do it."
Describing Koutoukas' unusual artistic approach to theater, William Grimes of The New York Times
The New York Times
The New York Times is an American daily newspaper founded and continuously published in New York City since 1851. The New York Times has won 106 Pulitzer Prizes, the most of any news organization...
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.'" Though renowned in Greenwich Village
Greenwich Village
Greenwich Village, , , , .in New York often simply called "the Village", is a largely residential neighborhood on the west side of Lower Manhattan in New York City. A large majority of the district is home to upper middle class families...
circles, he never became as successful or commercial as some of his contemporaries such as Lanford Wilson
Lanford Wilson
Lanford Wilson was an American playwright who helped to advance the Off-Off-Broadway theater movement. He received the Pulitzer Prize for Drama in 1980, was elected in 2001 to the Theater Hall of Fame, and in 2004 was elected to the American Academy of Arts and Letters...
or Sam Shepard
Sam Shepard
Sam Shepard is an American playwright, actor, and television and film director. He is the author of several books of short stories, essays, and memoirs, and received the Pulitzer Prize for Drama in 1979 for his play Buried Child...
. His works include Afamis Notes, The Brown Book, Butterfly Encounter and Turtles Don’t Dream. 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.
In 1966, he received a Village Voice Obie Award
Obie Award
The Obie Awards or Off-Broadway Theater Awards are annual awards given by The Village Voice newspaper to theatre artists and groups in New York City...
for "Assaulting Established Tradition". Koutoukas also ran a theater workshop called the "School for Gargoyles" whose alumni included Gerome Ragni
Gerome Ragni
Gerome Bernard Ragni was an American actor, singer and songwriter, best known as the co-author of the groundbreaking 1960s Hair: The American Tribal Love-Rock Musical.-Early life:...
and James Rado, the writers of the rock musical Hair
Hair (musical)
Hair: The American Tribal Love-Rock Musical is a rock musical with a book and lyrics by James Rado and Gerome Ragni and music by Galt MacDermot. A product of the hippie counter-culture and sexual revolution of the 1960s, several of its songs became anthems of the anti-Vietnam War peace movement...
; Tom O'Horgan
Tom O'Horgan
Tom O'Horgan was an American theatre and film director, composer, actor and musician. He is best known for his Broadway work as director of the hit musicals Hair and Jesus Christ Superstar...
, its director; and the actor and playwright Harvey Fierstein
Harvey Fierstein
Harvey Forbes Fierstein is a U.S. actor and playwright, noted for the early distinction of winning Tony Awards for both writing and originating the lead role in his long-running play Torch Song Trilogy, about a gay drag-performer and his quest for true love and family, as well as writing the...
.
Further reading
- Banes, Sally. Greenwich Village 1963: Avant-Garde Performance and the Effervescent Body. 1993. Durham, NC: Duke University Press, 1999.
- Bottoms, Stephen J. Playing Underground: A Critical History of the 1960s Off-Off-Broadway Movement. 2004. Ann Arbor, MI: 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, Michigan: 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, IL: Southern Illinois University Press, 2005.
- Susoyev, Steve & Birimisa, George. Return to the Caffe Cino. San Francisco, CA: Moving Finger Press, 2006.
External links
- New York Times Obituary
- Playbill Obituary
- Tributes by his friends
- H.M. Koutoukas Facebook fan page
- BOMB Magazine interview, 1983
Images
- http://www.hamptons.com/Out-And-About/Within-the-City/7474/The-2009-Obies-Not-Quite-Your-Mothers-Award.html (4th image down)
- http://donaldlbrooks.com/In_Search_of_the_Cobra_Jewels.html (numerous images)
- http://donaldlbrooks.blogspot.com/2010/03/h-m-koutoukas.html (picture and tribute poem)
- Koutoukas and Gerry Ragni
- Charles Stanley as Koutoukas' Medea - 1
- Koutoukas' 1966 Caffe Cino play
- Charles Stanley as Koutoukas' Medea - 2
- Color photo of Koutoukas with friends in the Caffe Cino
- Koutoukas with Joe Cino and friend
- Caffe Cino window poster portrait of Koutoukas
- Koutoukas among other leading Off-Off Broadway playwrights
- Koutoukas with friends in the Caffe Cino
- Koutoukas with friends at benefit for the Caffe Cino
- Koutoukas with Joe Cino and friends in front of the Caffe Cino
- Koutoukas with friends onstage at the Caffe Cino
- Koutoukas at 1985 Lincoln Center Caffe Cino Exhibit
- Koutoukas at installation of Joe Cino plaque
- Koutoukas watching Charles Stanley in "Kill, Kaleidoscope, Kill"
- http://www.nytimes.com/2010/03/18/arts/18koutoukas.html (New York Times obituary)
- http://www.facebook.com/pages/H-M-Koutoukas/348826817383?v=photos (Facebook page, needs log-in)
- http://usa.greekreporter.com/2010/03/19/h-m-koutoukas-greek-author-of-surrealist-plays-dies-at-72/ (Greek Reporter obituary)