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Karolos Koun

Karolos Koun (Κάρολος Κουν) (September 13, 1908 - February 14, 1987) was a Greek theater director, widely known for his lively staging of ancient Greek plays.

Koun was born in Proussa (Bursa) Asia Minor to a Greek mother and a half-Jewish father. He was raised in Constantinople and, in 1929, settled in Athens.

In 1942, during the World War II Axis occupation of Greece, he founded the experimental Art Theater. He gave premieres in Athens of works by avant-garde European playwrights such as Bertolt Brecht and Luigi Pirandello. In 1962, Koun's production of The Birds by Aristophanes won first prize at an international festival at Paris.

Koun won praise from all over Europe for his bawdy, colorful stagings of the 5th century BC political comedies of Aristophanes.

He died on February 14, 1987, after suffering a heart attack, at the age of 78.

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