Dr George Rodosthenous
PGCLTHE, PhD, MA, BMus(Hons),

Biography

George Rodosthenous is Lecturer in Music Theatre at the School of Performance and Cultural Industries of the University of Leeds since 2002. He is now Director of Enterprise and Knowledge Transfer. In addition, George is the Artistic Director of the theatre company ‘Altitude North’ and also works as a freelance director/composer for the theatre. His research interests are ‘the body in performance’, ‘refining improvisational techniques and compositional practices for performance’, ‘devising pieces with live musical soundscapes as interdisciplinary process’, ‘updating Greek Tragedy’ and ‘The British Musical’.

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Research Interests

• Directing

• Theatre as voyeurism

• The Body in Performance

• Contemporary Approaches to Greek Tragedy

• Devised pieces with live musical soundscape(s) as interdisciplinary process: the interfaces between Music, Movement and Text

• Refining improvisational techniques and compositional practices for Performance

• Musicals of the 21st Century

• Contemporary British Drama since the 1990s
  
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Research Group

Practitioner processes

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Current Teaching

Level I: Exploring the Musical (module leader)
Level II: Processes of Performance 4 (module leader), Exploring Musical Theatre (module leader),
Level III: Performance Project, Contemporary Issues in the Cultural Industries, Dissertation

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Current Roles

Director of Impact and Innovation

Member of School's ‘Practitioner Processes’ Research Group

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Supervised MA and PhD students

Kathinka Walter

“Songs from the Underground: The Music and Politics of Toronto’s Subway Musicians.”

“The visible choreographer: interdisciplinary performance installation work using improvisation and its structuring methods.” (practice-based)

Also supervised to completion: “Music-theatre as music.” (practice-based) COMPLETED in 2008

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Publications

Articles


Meta-theatrical visions and surreal bursts of sung choreographed film sequences: Julie Taymor's Across the Universe (2012)

Dirty Dancing and its jukebox stage dansical adaptation: the dancing male in a teenage female fantasy of desire and sensuality (2012)

‘Love is a con. A construction. And I am an engineer’: De-constructing love and rejection in Rodosthenous’ Othello’s Revenge [2011] co-authored with Eleni Pilla (2012)

The dramaturgy of space and time in the musical The Fall of Icarus [2009]: dancing pilots, singing divas and Birdflight as the Art of Flying, co-authored with Duska Radosavljevic (2012)

Outlying Islands as theatre of voyeurism: ornithologists, naked bodies and the ‘pleasure of peeping’ (2012)

Training actors as boxers: An exploration of theatre directing and coaching in the rehearsal process (2012)

In Between Stage and Screen: The Intermedial in Katie Mitchell's ...some trace of her, co-authored with Markos Hadjioannou (2010)

Billy Elliot the Musical: Visual representations of the all singing & dancing bo[d]y published in Studies in Musical Theatre – Intellect Vol. 1.3, (January 2008)

Book

“Theatre as Voyeurism: the pleasures of watching.” (In Progress)


Chapters in Books

‘Let’s stop talking about it and just do it’!: Improvisation as the beginning of the compositional process in Roesner’s and Rebstock’s book “Composed Theatre” (2011)

The Dramatic Imagery of “Howl”: the [naked] bodies of madness (chapter in book Simon Warner’s (ed) “Howl for Now” - Route, 2005)

Interview

Writing the book for a new musical: Secret Gardens, the art of collaboration and the state of the British Musical. An Interview with Garry Lyons (July 2011)

‘I let the language lead the dance’: politics, musicality and voyeurism. An interview with David Greig, New Theatre Quarterly, (Feb 2011)

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Projects

Research Projects
• From Composition to Improvisation

As Director

The Secret Hotel (University of Leeds, March 2012)
Othello's Revenge (Munich/Munster/Berlin, 2011)
Orestes (University of Leeds, March 2011)
Body Faded Blue (National Theatre of Cyprus THOC, November 2010)
Hippolytus (University of Leeds, December 2008, Paphos Ancient Odeon – Cyprus, July 2010)
The Wife of Heracles (University of Leeds, May 2010)
Triathlon (Pallas Theatre – Cyprus, November 2009)
The Fall of Icarus (Arkadas Theater – Koln, October 2009)
Helen of Troy (University of Leeds, December 2007)
Ajax (University of Leeds, November 2006 / Tour of Cyprus, July 2007)
The Symposium (University of Leeds, March 2007)
The Speculator (University of Leeds, December 2005)
Howl (University of Leeds - Poetry reading, October 2005)
Alcestis (University of Leeds, November 2004)
Flowers for the Lady (West Yorkshire Playhouse – Script in hand, November 2003)
A Season in Hell (Rose Bruford College, West Yorkshire Playhouse, Newcastle Playhouse, Canada, 2003-4)
The Sacrifice (Festival of Contemporary European Plays – University of Huddersfield, March 2002)
Wasted Bodies (Western Campus Theatre – Leeds, November 2001)
Agamemnon (Raven Theatre – Leeds, February 2001)

Music for Theatre (Incidental Music)
Company Along the Mile (West Yorkshire Playhouse – Leeds & UK tour, January 2009)
Helen of Troy (London fringe, September 2008)
A Stranger in the House (Edinburgh Fringe, August 2008)
Carry on Tripping (The Place – London, February 2008)
On/Off (National Theatre – Cyprus, January 2008)
The Sixth Commandment: Thou Shall Not Kill (National Theatre – Greece, March 2007)
Romeo and Juliet (Harlow Playhouse, March 2007)
Laios’ murderer and the crows (National Theatre –  Cyprus, October 2006)
Guy (Pleasance Theatre – London, March 2006)
The Merchant of Venice (National Theatre – Cyprus, November 2005)
Bella and the Beautiful Knight (Edinburgh, August 2005 / UK Tour 2006)
Orlando (Bloomsbury Theatre – London, September 2004 / Cyprus, October 2004 / Athens, September 2005)
Iron (ETHAL - Cyprus, November 2004) – PRIZE FOR BEST THEATRE MUSIC FOR 2003-2005
Alcestis (University of Leeds, November 2004)
Solemn Mass for A Full Moon in Summer (University of Leeds, January 2004)
Little Eyolf (ETHAL - Cyprus, March 2003)
The Mousetrap (National Theatre - Cyprus, December 2002)
Professor Wren’s Goldfish (Underbelly - Edinburgh, August 2002)
Measure for Measure (IFTR World Congress - Amsterdam, July 2002)
Children of a lesser God (National Theatre - Cyprus, November 2001)
Gemini (Scottish Academy - Edinburgh Fringe Festival, August 2001)
The Visions (Workshop Theatre - Leeds, February 2001)
The Gambler (C Venue - Edinburgh Fringe Festival, August 2000)
Dumb Wonderland (Chads Palace - London, June 2000)
Closer (Theatre ENA - Cyprus, February 2000)
The Propsmaster (Meredith Studio - Huddersfield, May 2000)
The Wedding at the Eiffel Tower (Workshop Theatre - Leeds, December 1999)
21 Years old at 6 a.m. (Venue 41 - Edinburgh Fringe Festival, August 1997)
Shelf-life (C Venue - Edinburgh Fringe Festival, August 1997)
Love’s Sacrifice (Wickham Theatre - Bristol, March 1997)

Music theatre works
Composer and Director: A Season in Hell (Image and Imagery Conference: Beauty and the Abject – Brock University Canada, October 2004 / SOUNDINGS: innovations in, and reflections on Music Theatre, Rose Bruford College Symposium, May 2003 and as part of the New Writing Festival at the West Yorkshire Playhouse, June 2003)
Composer/performer and director of a trilogy for actor, percussionist and pianist, based on texts by Steve Sweeney-Turner and Adrian Smith: Aggression (York Contemporary Arts Festival, June 1999 with Sam Grogan), Schizophrenia (Leeds One Act Play Festival, June 2000 and Edinburgh Fringe festival, August 2001 with Oliver Renton). Sensitivity (Leeds LUUTG Theatre Week, October 2000 with Nick Court and Edinburgh Fringe festival, August 2001 with Jonathan Robson). Complete trilogy performed (Cyprus tour invitation by National Theatre - Cyprus, Cyprus Ministry of Education, April 2001 - British premiere at the University of Huddersfield, 30th April 2001) Composer and director of piece for 4 dancers, 3 electric guitars, 2 flutes and percussion: In Stillness Movement (as part LS Two contemporary ensemble installation performance of John Cage’s Variations IV, University of Leeds, March 2000)
Composer/performer of audio-visual work for 5 musicians, dancer and actress: Mosthai (Biennale des Jeunes Artistes des Pays de l’Europe et de la Mediterranée, Il Mattatoio, Rome, June 1999)
Musical Director: Hysteric Studs (Battersea Arts Centre, December 1997)
Original score for the musical: A Stranger in the House (Wickham Theatre - Bristol, 1997)

Music for Film and TV
This Way Up, dir. Sarah Punshon (2008)
Soundtracks of the comic television series Kirie Proedre and Ta Kopelia (SIGMA RADIO TELEVISION Ltd., 2001)
The Day Granddad went blind, dir. Chris Smith - shortlisted for a BAFTA Short Film Award, (screened at the 1999 London Film Festival and other European Film Festivals)
The 10,000th Day, dir. Chris Smith - shortlisted for a BAFTA Short Film Award (screened on HTV, 1999)
Eve, one morning, dir. Adrian Smith - Fuji Film Scholarship nominee (screened in London, 1997)
Music for Uno Minuto Festival, Brazil - commission from Cyprus Broadcasting Corporation (screened San Paolo, 1995)
Music for the video Famagusta, commission from CyBC

Musical compositions
and so they kissed for organ (2001)
Studies in Sensitivity for orchestra (2001)
Elegy and Dance for piano (1998)
The Strait Gate for eleven wind instruments (1998)
Continuity for clarinet, cello and piano (1998)
Prelude and Scena for guitar (1996).
Five not neo-classical pieces for electric piano (1996)
Sonata for double-bass solo (1996)
Piano Toccata (1996)
Ballet-scene for septet (1996)
Diprosopia - concertino for flute and string orchestra (1995)

Other compositions
A Path to the Unknown Space: Tracking through the body... [Dance Performance] (University of Leeds, March 2003)Il ritorno del castrato : La Vendetta [Electronic Music] (Dartington, 2000)
Music for X-Scape MPEG4 EC demonstrator- interactive music video for PACT, Partnership of Advanced Computer Technology (Bristol, 1997)
Music for the Catwalk [Fashion Show] (St Martin’s College of Art and Design,1999)

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Editorial Work

Editorial team for Studies in Musical Theatre (Intellect)

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International Presentations

Conferences papers

• Meta-theatrical visions and surreal bursts of sung choreographed film sequences: Julie Taymor's “Across the Universe”, (International Federation of Theatre Research – Munich, July 2010)

• Director as coach: Refining boxing, triathlon and football into physical theatre (KEYNOTE, Visual Physical: Discourses on Sport and Performance Cultures – Sheffield, July 2010)

• The body as an [erotic] object on stage: Jan Fabre’s “Orgy of Tolerance”. (presented at TaPRA Conference – Plymouth, September 2009)

• The body as an [erotic] object on stage: Jan Fabre’s “L'histoire des larmes” and “Orgy of Tolerance” (presented at International Federation of Theatre Research, Lisbon, 2009)

• Auteurship as transformation of the ensemble's inter-cultural gap: Jan Fabre’s interconnecting of performing bodies into an embodiment of desire and exposure in “L'histoire des larmes.” (presented at TaPRA Conference – Leeds, September 2008)

• “Billy Elliot the Musical”: Visual representations of the all singing & dancing bo[d]y (presented at Song, Stage and Screen: Interdisciplinary Approaches to the Musical Stage Conference – University of Portsmouth, April 2006)

• Theatre as Voyeurism: David Greig’s “Outlying Islands” and the pleasures of watching (TaPRA Conference – CSSD, September 2006)

• Conducting the Body: Sounds and Bodies in a production of George Rodosthenous’ adaptation of “Alcestis” (International Federation of Theatre Research - Washington D.C., May 2005, “The Changing Body” - University of Exeter, January 2006)

• Beauty, the Human Body and the Abject: Semiotics and the ephemeral in Rimbaud’s “A Season In Hell” (Image and Imagery Conference: Beauty and the Abject – Brock University Canada, October 2004)

• Music as Dramaturgical Process: The Organic Use of Music in the Film “The Talented Mr Ripley” (Louis Le Prince - University of Leeds, May 2004)

• Free adaptation of text in creating Music Theatre: Applications of musical interpretation on Rimbaud's “A Season in Hell” (University of Sheffield, February 2004)

• The Aural versus the Visual: The Desire of the Greeks, the Cruelty of the French & the disappearing moment of experience in contemporary Music Theatre (SOUNDINGS: innovations in, and reflections on Music Theatre - Rose Bruford College Symposium, May 2003, International Federation of Theatre Research – St. Petersburg, May 2004)

 

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External Activity / Professional Links

Body Faded Blue (National Theatre of Cyprus THOC, November 2010)
Music Consultancy
Scuffer (West Yorkshire Playhouse – directed by Alex Chisholm, March 2006)


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Education and Career

1993 BMus (Hons) Cardiff University
1997 MA Composition of Music for Film, TV and Theatre, University of Bristol
2001 PhD in Musical Composition (Music Theatre), University of Leeds
2004 Postgraduate Certificate in Learning and Teaching in Higher Education, University of Leeds

Awards and Grants

Dec 2005 Best Theatre Music for IRON - Theatrical Organization of Cyprus Theatrical Awards for
2003-2005

1997-2001 Stanley Burton Scholarship for PhD in Musical Composition, University of Leeds

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