Stratos Constantinidis

constantinidis.1@osu.edu

614 292.1261
FAX: 292.3222

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Stratos Constantinidis

Professor, Department of Theatre

Areas of Expertise
• Theory
• History, Literature, Criticism

Stratos E. Constantinidis is director of the Comparative Drama Conference, and a full-time tenured faculty member in the Department of Theatre at the Ohio State University where he teaches primarily theory, criticism, literature, historiography, and research methods. His book, Theatre Under Deconstruction (New York & London: Garland Publishing, 1993), was described as “a fascinating book, innovative in both its structure and its arguments” (Theatre Journal 1994:145). He is also a specialist on Modern Greek drama, film, and literature. His most recent book is Modern Greek Theatre: A Quest for Hellenism (Jefferson, NC & London: McFarland, 2001). He is currently writing a book on Greek Cinema. He has received an Alexander S. Onassis Public Benefit Foundation Research Fellowship to complete it.

He is the new editor of the Journal of Modern Greek Studies, the official journal of the Modern Greek Studies Association of America and Canada published by the Johns Hopkins University Press, and the editor of Text & Presentation, the journal of the Comparative Drama Conference for which he edited volumes 21 (2000), 22 (2001), and 23 (2002). He has also been the editor of four volumes--Classical Drama in Modern Performances (Theatre Studies, 1989), Modern Greek Drama (Journal of Modern Greek Studies 1996), Greek Film (Journal of Modern Greek Studies, 2000), and Greece in Modern Times: An Annotated Bibliography of Works Published in English in 22 Academic Disciplines (Lanham & London: Scarecrow Press, 2000). His 687-page annotated bibliography was described as "a monumental task, but one that has been done with clarity. The results are impressive" (Choice 2001:45).
He has translated William Shakespeare’s Anthony and Cleopatra into Greek (Athens: Polymnia Publishers, 1971), Iakovos Kambanellis’s A Tale without Title into English (Melbourne: Elikia Books, 1989; produced by the Greek Theatre of New York on Off-Off Broadway in 1981); and Kalliroi Siganou-Parren’s The New Woman into English in Modern Women Playwrights of Europe (New York & Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2001; produced by the Valley Ridge Theatre Company at the Heritage Theatre Festival in Thomas, West Virginia in 2002). He is currently translating Aeschylus’ Prometheus Bound. He likes to direct one-act plays when he can find the time and funds. He has directed Thornton Wilder’s Mozart and the Grey Steward; Tennessee William’s At Liberty; LeRoi Jones’ Great Goodness of Life; George Bernard Shaw’s Augustus Does His Bit; Harold Pinter’s Night; Samuel Beckett’s Play; Amiri Baraka’s Dutchman; and Terrence Rattigan’s three-act comedy, French without Tears.
His research papers have been published in various American, English, German, Greek, and Israeli refereed journals, including Comparative Drama, Code/Codikas: Ars Semeiotica, New Theatre Quarterly, Journal of Dramatic Theory and Criticism, Journal of the Hellenic Diaspora, Journal of Modern Greek Studies, Poetics Today, Text & Presentation, World Literature Today, and Film Criticism. Several of his research papers have been published in edited books, such as “The Riddle of Lycanthropy: The Rein of Tyranny or the Tyranny of Royalty in Oedipus Tyrannus and King Lear” in The Riddles of the Sphinx (Athens: Tolidis, 1996, 99-128) and “A Teacher of Theatre Criticism: Why Did Kamikaze Pilots Wear Helmets?” in Perspectives on Teaching Theatre (New York: Peter Lang Publishing, 2001, 27-42). He has presented 37 research papers at conferences in the United States and overseas, and another ten as invited speaker in American and European academic institutions. He has also organized several interdisciplinary national and international conferences, and colloquia.
Stratos Constantinidis was born in Thessaloniki, Greece. As soon as he graduated from Anatolia College, he visited the United States in 1968 and decided to return in 1978 after he had earned an A.A. degree in Acting/Directing at the Haratsaris Theatre School, a B.A. degree in English at the University of Thessaloniki, and had completed 27 months of service in the Greek army. He earned an M.A. degree in Speech and Dramatic Art at the University of Iowa in 1980 and a Ph.D. in the Department of Communication and Theatre Arts at the University of Iowa in 1984. Since 1980, he has designed and taught over 34 different graduate and undergraduate courses in three American universities —including courses in modern Greek language and literature. He has been acknowledged for having taught the first course on modern Greek drama in the United States. He has been involved in thirty three M.A., M.F.A., and Ph.D. theses. He directed sixteen of them on topics ranging from post-colonialism to virtual reality. Portions of the dissertations that he supervised were published as articles. One of them was published in its entirety as a book, Brian Rose’s Jekyll and Hyde Adapted: Dramatizations of Cultural Anxiety (Westport & London: Greenwood Press, 1996).

He is the founder of the Exchange Colloquium (renamed Midwest Theatre Colloquium in 1995), an annual colloquium for graduate students from five universities. He has served on a total of twenty committees as well as an additional four committees and boards outside the university. He also served as a consultant for the government (Department of Education of Greece) and for businesses (theatre companies in Europe). At the Ohio State University, he has served on the Department of Theatre Executive Committee, the History-Literature-Criticism Committee, the Graduate Studies Committee, the Undergraduate Studies Committee, the College of the Arts Faculty Concerns Committee, the College of the Arts Research and Faculty Development Committee, the West European Studies FLAS Fellowships Committee, the Interdisciplinary Faculty Travel Awards Committee, the West European Studies Program Advisory Committee, the Presidential Fellowship Committee, the Fulbright Interview Committee, the International Coordinating Committee, the Council of Byzantine and Modern Greek Studies, and the Faculty Senate of the Arts and Sciences. He also served as Graduate School Representative on many doctoral qualifying exams and dissertation defenses. He also served as Director of Graduate Studies for the Department of Theatre and Chair of the M.A./Ph.D. Program in Theatre. As chairperson of the Faculty Concerns Committee of the College of the Arts, he became involved in college governance issues, and was elected alternate representative of the faculty of the College of the Arts on the University Senate. He was also elected to the Executive Board of the Modern Greek Studies Association of America and Canada, the Graduate Studies Committee of the Modern Greek Studies Association, and the E. C. Memorial Translation Prize Committee of the Modern Greek Studies Association which he chaired. He was elected editor of the Journal of Modern Greek Studies in 2002. He has served on the Executive Board of the Comparative Drama conference and the Editorial Board of Text & Presentation. He was elected Director of the Comparative Drama Conference in 1998 and Editor of Text & Presentation in 1999. Text & Presentation is an annual publication devoted to all aspects of theatre scholarship. It welcomes articles from the conference participants presenting original investigation on, and critical analysis of, research and developments in the field of drama and theatre. It publishes papers that are comparative across disciplines, periods or nationalities, and deal with any issue in dramatic theory and criticism, or any method of historiography, translation, or production. The Comparative Drama Conference is an international, interdisciplinary three-day event. The 26th Comparative Drama Conference (2001) had 63 sessions featuring 236 program participants.

Education
• PhD, Communication & Theatre Arts, University of Iowa
• MA, Speech and Dramatic Art, University of Iowa
• BA, English Literature, University of Thessaloniki
• AA, Actor/Director Program, Haratsaris Theatre School
• HSD, Anatolia College