Georgios Sevastikoglou

Georgios Sevastikoglou was born in Fener of Constantinople (Istanbul) in 1913, and a year later, his family settled in Athens. He attended the Law School at the University of Athens. As a student of Karolos Koun at the Athens Conservatoire and a founding member of the Art Theatre, he made his literary debut by translating August Strindberg’s “Swanwhite,” directed by Koun in 1942. In 1943, the Art Theatre staged his work “Constantine and Eleni.” This play marked the beginning of his dual artistic activities as a director and translator. He was in charge of the B section of the United Artists’ Troupe, which became a focal point for left-wing playwrights and actors from 1945 onwards. After the civil war, Sevastikoglou, then responsible for the film crew of the Democratic Army in Grammos, where he had met Paul Eluard, went into self-imposed exile in the Soviet Union, initially in Tashkent and later in Moscow. There, he studied at the Theatre Academy, and became known as a director and translator, and his play “Angel,” translated into Russian, was performed by the Vakhtangov Theatre and seventeen other Soviet stages. He returned to Greece in 1965. He collaborated as a director with the Alexandraki-Georgouli Troupe, and Karolos Koun staged “Angel.” He left again, this time with his wife Alki Zei, for Paris, during the dictatorship of the colonels. He taught at the Sorbonne University and the Conservatoire, founded the Praxis Theatre, and collaborated with young actors in workshops organized by Antoine Vitez. He returned to Greece in 1974 and devoted himself to directing and translating. In 1985, the National Theatre performed his play “The Death of a Royal Commissioner” under his direction, a work he had written thirty years earlier. Georgios Sevastikoglou was a model of modesty, consistency, and ethics. His works are imbued with a social perspective, constructed from solid materials, and his characters have depth while simultaneously serving as symbols of a human attitude and condition in a specific time period. Georgios Sevastikoglou translated works by Shaw, Caldwell, and Puzo, and presented comprehensive directorial proposals, staging ancient classics, Dostoevsky, Shakespeare, Arbuzov, etc. He passed away in Athens in 1991.

Source: Kedros