About
Eleni C. Konstantatou was born in Athens in 1985. Her first toy was her father’s Rollei-flex and during weekend sleepovers she used to dress up with her friends and make up quick theatre sketches. She has studied Graphic Design and Photography, holds a Bachelor of Honors in Visual Communication from Akto School of Applied Arts and Design in Athens/Middlesex University of London, and a Master’s Degree in Set Design & Scenic Space from TU Berlin.
With the renewal of the Athens & Epidaurus festival in the mid 2000s, she started developing an interest in theatre. Drawing inspiration from theatrical companies like the Volksbühne, Schaubühne, the Wooster Group, Pina Bausch and the Need Company, she decided to join a devised physical theatre group called Pulse, in order to explore her interest in theatre in a more holistic way. Since her interest around theatre and novel theatrical forms grew stronger and stronger, she applied for the Set Design and Scenic Space Master’s Program of Berlin’s Technological Institute, in which she was accepted in 2010. In the course of her Master’s studies she did her Intership in Schaubühne am Lehniner Platz. She presented her first work in Set, Costume & Video Design in ”Talk to me like the rain and let me listen” by Tennessee Williams, after a Residency in Künstlerhaus Bethanien and under the mentorship of her professors Marsha Ginsberg and Heiko Kalmbach.
Directly after her Master’s Presentation and a summer theatre Performance Installation ”Hamlet, die blaue Stunde”- inspired from the work of her beloved theatre company ”The Wooster Group”-, she joined the Set & Costume Design Team of the National Theatre of Germany in Bauhaus, Weimar, where she worked as an in house Set, Costume & Video Design Assistant from November 2012 until April 2015. In April 2015 she started working as an in-house Set Designer and Set Design Assistant at the Deutsche Oper in Berlin, presenting her first Sets for the Neue Musik Piece “Sounds for a while” in the Tischlerei of the Deutsche Oper. The same year she presented her first work in Set and Costume Design for the Greek Theater Festival, again for a Neue Musik Piece “Souris Now!”. She worked as an in house Set Designer & Set Design Assistant at the Deutsche Oper until 2018. Her collaborations as an assistant set designer include Directors and Set Designers such as David Alden, Graham Vick, Marsha Ginsberg, Heike Vollmer, Rodrigo Garcia, David Hermann, Christof Hetzer, Giles Cadle, Annette Kurz, Johannes Leiacker, Rainer Sellmaeir. Since the Summer Season of 2017, she has worked at the Salzburger Festspiele under the Team of Athina Rachel Tsangari for Wedekind’s Monstertragedy ”Lulu”, at the Staatsoper Stuttgart under the Team of Peter Konwitschnny for ”Medea” and she has designed her own Sets and Costumes for ”Spring Awakening” for the Staatstheater Münster.
In March 2018, Eleni C. Konstantatou won the opera competition of the Osterfestspiele Baden-Baden, a cooperation between the Festspielhaus Baden-Baden, Theater Baden-Baden, the Deutsche Bank Foundation & the Berliner Philharmoniker, together with director Carmen C. Kruse and dramaturg Rebekka Meyer. In April 2019, they presented the world premiere of ”Clara” based on the life and work of Clara Schumann, composed by Victoria Bond, at the Osterfestspiele Baden-Baden.
In September 2019, it was announced that her team, with Anika Rutkofsky in opera direction and Johanna Danhauser in dramaturgy, was one of the 9 out of 126 teams (with 326 participants from 32 countries) to present their concept for “Don Giovanni” in the semifinals of the International Opera Direction, Set & Costume Design Contest ‘Ring Award’ in Graz, Austria. Subsequently, they succeeded in winning a position to the Finals presenting their “Don Giovanni” in Graz at the 27th of June 2021 and winning the Ring Award 2021.
From the statement of the jury:
‘This team succeeds in establishing a view of Don Giovanni that draws from the present, isnsurprising and at the same time never moralizing. Their thoroughly feminist account of Don Giovanni is developed in every moment from the music, the text and the characters. It is very playful, it is very permeable – and it evokes many associations and scope for imagination for us as viewers. We want to see more of this!’ You can see more at the site of Ring Award https://www.ringaward.com or watch their “Don Giovanni” at the site of opera Vision by clicking on the link https://operavision.eu/en/library/performances/competitions/ring-award-don-giovanni-reckoning .
