11/3/2003
Olympia Dukakis
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During a career that spans more than 40 years, Olympia Dukakis has worked as an actress, director, producer, teacher, activist and, most recently, author. In the theater, Dukakis has received two Obie Awards for Bertolt Brecht's "A Man's A Man," and Christopher Durang's "The Marriage of Bette and Boo" at the Joseph Papp's Public Theatre. Other notable appearances at the Public include Sam Shepard's "The Curse of the Starving Class," "Titus Andronicus," "Electra" and "Peer Gynt."

Dukakis starred in the 2001 world premiere of Timberlake Wertenbaker's "Credible Witness" at London's Royal Court Theatre. She made her London debut in 1999 on stage at the Royal National Theatre in Martin Sherman's one-woman play, "Rose," to rave reviews. Dukakis then opened "Rose" on Broadway at the Lyceum Theatre in the spring of 2000. She also made her debut on British television (BBC) in a made-for-TV movie "A Life for a Life" and on BBC Radio starring in "Hecuba."

As a founding member and producing artistic director of the Whole Theatre in Montclair for 19 years (1971-1990), she directed and appeared in many productions, winning accolades time and again. In 1992, Dukakis became the proud recipient of the New Jersey Governor's Walt Whitman Creative Arts Award.

Dukakis has appeared in more than 125 productions Off-Broadway and regionally, at venues including Studio Arena in Albany, American Place Theatre, APA Phoenix, Circle Rep and the Williamstown Summer Theater Festival, where she also served as associate director. She taught acting at the Graduate School at New York University for 15 years and currently teaches master classes at various universities and colleges throughout the country.

Next year "The Intended" will be released, which was shot on location in Malaysia, directed by Kristian Levring. Recent feature film releases include the highly acclaimed "The Event." Other feature film releases include "Mr. Holland's Opus," "Mighty Aphrodite" and "I Love Trouble," and audiences continue to seek out videos of "The Cemetery Club," "Steel Magnolias," "Dad" and "Look Who's Talking I, II and III."

On television, Dukakis co-starred in "Last of the Blond Bombshells" for HBO and in "Ladies and the Champ" for ABC. One of her favorite projects, "Tales of the City," a six-hour mini-series based on the novel of Armistead Maupin, was a controversial blockbuster for PBS. She went on to star in the sequels "More Tales of the City" and "Further Tales of the City" for which she earned an Emmy, Screen Actors Guild and BAFTA nominations.