Andonios Fokas

Born in Athens in 1889 and died in Athens in 1986. He studied economics in Lausanne and worked at Laiki Bank (1920-54). He first appeared in the theater as an actor, first in the Amateur Association (1910-17) and then in the Drama School of the Athens Conservatory (1918-19). His first professional costume work was carried out in collaboration with Eva Palmer and concerned the costumes for the performance of Sophocles’s Oedipus the Tyrant, directed by Fotos Politis (Olympia Theater, 1919). In the period 1919-31, he collaborated as a costume designer with the Art Theater of Spyros Melas, the Free Stage of Marika Kotopouli, the troupe of Emilios Veakis-Katina Paxinou-Alexis Minotis, and other troupes. During the period 1931-66, he was the exclusive costume designer of the National Theater and a close collaborator of the set designer Kleovoulos Klonis. He collaborated sporadically with the National Theater and later. The term “costume designer” was introduced in the Greek theater especially for Antonis Fokas. Although a self-taught, empirical artist, he designed costumes for about 250 works of the world repertoire and left his mark on the history of modern Greek theater with his costume creations for ancient drama. He was honored with the Silver Cross of the Royal Order of George I (1939) and with the Silver Medal of the Academy of Athens (1978). During the period 1939-92 he collaborated with the National Opera of Greece designing costumes for about 15 opera and operetta productions such as: The Bat [Die Fledermaus], Boccacio, The Cheerful Widow [Die Lustige Witwe], Carmen, Norma, A night in Venice [Eine Nacht in Venedig], Juditha [Giuditta], Traviata [La traviata], The Princess of Tsarda [Die Csárdásfürstin], The troubadour [Il trovatore], etc.

Source: National Opera – Educational Virtual Museum