TINFO e-News | Theatre News from Finland

10.10.2017

TINFO e-News | Theatre News from Finland | Autumn 2017

HAPPY ENCOUNTERS

AROUND 100 PRODUCTIONS A YEAR

WE LOVE FINNISH THEATRE

NEW FINNISH DRAMA – RECIPE FOR SUCCESS

THEATRE NEWS

INTERNATIONAL THEATRE FESTIVALS IN FINLAND

EVENTS

OPEN CALLS

TINFO AT YOUR SERVICE

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HAPPY ENCOUNTERS

New Finnish Writing – happy encounters

Finnish theatre audiences’ “hunger for reality and the real” has traditionally been, and remains, insatiable. This appetite is reflected in the number of plays exploring the nation’s history, particularly this year as Finland celebrates the 100th anniversary of its independence, as well as the sheer volume of texts and performances focusing on the 1918 Finnish civil war in.

Finland remains the promised land of realist theatre. We have a flourishing experimental performance art and contemporary theatre scene that views performance as a social experiment, as something highly impactful and transformative. Performances are seen as shared spaces, where a community of people gathers together to engage in a multi-layered negotiation on possible realities.

A love affair between drama and the post-dramatic

Good news! It seems that traditional drama and post-dramatic contemporary performing arts are now happily engaged in a mutually sustaining love affair with one another. We have seen the deconstruction of many dramatic conventions, which have been replaced by non-hierarchical structures, lack of plot and the absence of the Character as well as the deconstruction of time, space, body, and media. The post-dramatic paradigm shift is here to stay, make no mistake, and yet the act of contemporary writing and theatre making remains very much linked to the everyday reality around us.

Saara Turunen´s The Phantom of Normality explores the pressure to conform, and the playwright’s contradictory relationship with her native country. It does so with great economy, involving a 10-page script comprising short episodic scenes. In Eeva Turunen´s monologue play A Few words about Ulla, an obsessive and pathological mindset is captured with a verbal avalanche of voyeuristic observations.

Based on verbatim interview material, Marie Kajava’s Famine (Nälänhätä) takes its cue from Kevin Carter’s iconic photograph from South Sudan, which shows a starving child preyed upon by a vulture. The play weaves together a multitude of perspectives and voices, including those of an ornithologist, former anorexic, refugee and photographer, all responding to the interviewer’s question, ”what do you see?”.

Otto Sandqvist’s Celeste, a cacophony of parody and cliché, speaks with the voice of an architect, who is also a poet and an incurable romantic. The play’s textual realm offers a series of variations on a world that is presented as a playground for commitment-phobes and defined by the forces of capitalism, consumption and hedonism.

Happily, contemporary Finnish theatre writing is only too keen to play around with genre conventions and remains unafraid of dabbling in fantasy. This can take the form of an ecological or ethical science-fiction tale as in MyBaby – A Comedy of a Future Family by Salla Viikka and Hilkka-Liisa Iivanainen, a musical like Beecode (Mehiläiskoodi) by Sami Parkkinen and his team or a verbatim documentary play like Masculine touch (Miehen kosketus) by Eino Saari.

For new writing and new writers to flourish, they need to be supported and sustained. The New Play Finland programme is a pilot development project for contemporary Finnish drama. During the next three years, the programme will provide 15 participants with the freedom and opportunity to develop their plays in a collaborative setting and in ongoing dialogue with Finnish theatres. The plays created during the programme will also be staged in theatres across Finland. It takes a whole community to foster a play. Playwriting is no longer a solitary act.

Hanna Helavuori

Finland in focus in Maribor

The 52nd international Maribor Theatre Festival (Festival Bor¨tnikovo Srečanje) is set to take place in Slovenia 20–29 October 2017. The festival showcases theatre from around the world, focusing on one country each year. This year’s country in focus is Finland.

We asked Alja Predan, artistic director of the Maribor Festival, who is responsible for designing the Finnish Focus programme, what originally attracted her to Finnish theatre.

”My intention is to present in Slovenia theatrically less known European countries through different theatrical aspects: translations of contemporary plays from the chosen countries, stage readings of the translated plays, lectures about performing arts, meaning and status of indigenous playwrighting, presenting productions,” she commented via e-mail.

”My main impulse to start planning Finnish Focus was when I visited Tampere Theatre Festival’s Finnish Showcase in August 2016. And very important: I happened to know Hanna Helavuori and Jukka Hyde Hytti from TINFO and I knew I could count on them professionally and artistically,” Alja Predan added.

Finnish to Slovenian

The festival has commissioned translations of three Finnish plays, Sirkku Peltola’s A Little Money [Pieni raha], Pipsa Lonka’s These Little Town Blues are Melting Away [Lauluja harmaan meren laidalta] and Kristian Smeds’s Frozen Images [Jääkuvia]. Peltola’s play is translated by Jelka Ovaska and the other two by Julija Potrc. The plays will be published as an anthology and are scheduled to receive stage readings at the festival between 24–25 October 2017.

What prompted a theatre festival that represents a relatively small language area to undertake an act of such huge cultural significance?

“It is very sad that we nearly don't publish contemporary drama at all. Only the festival Week of Slovenian Drama is publishing the award winning Slovene plays of the year. So, Contemporary European Drama launched by our festival has been the only regular drama edition for the past eight years. We have published Slovene translations of contemporary plays from Slovakia, Poland, Czech Republic, Spain, Catalunya, Sweden, The Netherlands and now from Finland,” Predan said, before going on to explain what made her choose these particular three plays.

Finnish drama: exploring the relationship between man and nature

“I have read some 15–20 contemporary Finnish plays. I cannot really give an overall analysis, but I find typical for Finland the relationship between man and nature, in fact a certain human dependency on nature and wildlife. Nature is not felt as a way of escape from civilization only but an essential part of human existence”, adds Alja Predan

In addition to the three stage readings, the festival programme also features a performance of Sad Songs from the Heart of Europe by the Finnish Sadsongskomplex:fi ensemble. The play re-tells the story of Dostoevsky’s Crime and Punishment, as observed and narrated by Sonya. It is written by Kristian Smeds, directed by Jari Juutinen and Sonya’s role is performed by Liisa Sofia Pöntinen. As part of the festival’s Finnish Focus segment TINFO director Hanna Helavuori will speak on Finnish drama, titled The Landscapes of Finnish Drama, while Jukka Hyde Hytti, executive producer of international projects is due to give a lecture on new theatre production ecosystems in Finland.

Jukka Hyde Hytti

AROUND 100 PRODUCTIONS A YEAR

From Finland to the world – drama translation workshop in Helsinki

Ten different languages, one shared superpower. When twelve professional translators gather for a workshop in Helsinki this month, their working language will of course be Finnish. Taking place for the 11th time, the annual drama translation workshop organised by TINFO and FILI focuses on contemporary Finnish drama.

Professional translators have a key role to play when it comes to bringing Finnish drama to new international audiences. Every year, around 100 productions of Finnish plays and dramas take place in theatres around the world.

Feedback submitted by our previous attendees shows that, for drama translators, the chance to spend five days together with colleagues sharing ideas and solving thorny linguistic problems is an invaluable and unmissable opportunity. That a full day’s workshop is followed by the chance to catch some live theatre is another huge draw.

Drama translators are also eligible for TINFO grant funding, which is designed to facilitate the translation of Finnish plays into other languages. Theatres, playwrights, agents, festivals and translators themselves are eligible to apply. The TINFO grant is always paid directly to the translator.

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Jointly organised by Theatre Info Finland (TINFO) and the Finnish Literature Exchange (FILI), this year’s drama translation workshop will take place 23–27 October in Helsinki.

WE LOVE FINNISH THEATRE

Homegrown drama draws the crowds in Finland

According to the latest statistics collated annually by Theatre Info Finland (TINFO), Finnish plays feature heavily on theatre programmes across Finland. The commitment to homegrown drama is particularly strongly reflected in ticket sales, with Finnish plays proving a hit with audiences.

During the 2015–2016 season, Finnish plays and other performances accounted for a total of 1.4 million tickets sold, a notable result in a country of just 5.5 million people. Domestic works represented 54% of all ticket sales for state-subsidised drama theatres and, at 61%, an even greater proportion of sales for so-called independent theatres not included within the scope of the Finnish Act on the Financing of Educational and Cultural Provision.

While traditional Finnish drama enjoyed a strong position within the market, theatre programming also reflected a fascination with post-dramatic content, including other performing art forms and genres, such as puppet theatre, improvised theatre, stand-up comedy and community-based theatre. A range of new performances types, particularly prevalent in the independent theatre sector, were also recorded and mainly consisted of premieres of new Finnish productions.

Myydyt liput kotimaisiin 2000_2016
Ticket sales, Finnish and foreign performances, Seasons 2000/01 - 2015/2016

Source: Finnish Theatre Statistics 2016 by TINFO – Theatre Info Finland

Gendered realities of Finnish drama

Gendered authors

Gendered directors

Source: Finnish Theatre Statistics 2016 by TINFO – Theatre Info Finland

NEW FINNISH DRAMA – RECIPE FOR SUCCESS

Putting the playwright centre stage

Finland is a country known for its love of theatre, and new original plays are the cornerstone of the Finnish repertoire. Audiences flock to homegrown drama, which accounts for anywhere between 54–60 per cent of all ticket sales. Half of all Finnish drama productions are premieres and of these two thirds are original plays of new writing.

The New Play Programme Finland (UNO) has been set up to promote more Finnish drama in Finnish theatres. The aim of this long-term development project is to ensure that Finnish theatres continue to have access to new and fresh plays, and that playwrights continue to have new creative and professional opportunities.

The UNO project is also intended to offer better working conditions for contemporary playwrights in Finland along with opportunities to further enhance their professional practice. Participants are given additional training and mentoring and also receive support with forging direct links with Finnish theatres. The theatres’ creative teams will also provide them with an insight into how an annual repertoire is designed and put together.

Marie Kajava, current UNO participant, shared her experiences of the programme:

“There are just three participants, and the programme has been designed to complement every stage of script development. We even get to work with our own dedicated dramaturge, which is amazing. The wonderful thing with UNO is that you don’t need to think about whether you can ask a friend or colleague for yet more feedback, and you don't need to pay them for their time from your own grant funding either.

UNO creates a professional community that, as a playwright working in relative isolation, you wouldn’t normally have access to. And when you’re caught up in that acute sense of shame and inadequacy about your work, it’s great to be able to just articulate it and share it with someone.”

The programme is also set up to ease the financial pressure the participants may find themselves under, providing them with the resources they require to carry out background research for their projects. Marie Kajava’s latest work-in-progress, Undress me, then, will draw on her visit to Kenya.

Theatres reaching out to new plays

Theatres around Finland are engaged in open dialogue with the UNO programme participants. The programme is an opportunity for theatres to commission new texts that their own creative teams have been involved in from the very beginning.

Helka-Maria Kinnunen, director of the Kajaani City Theatre, had this to say about the UNO programme:

“At our theatre, we place great value on fostering close and dynamic relationships with Finnish writers, and we have a proud track record of commissioning Finnish drama. For us, the UNO programme is an opportunity to access new ideas and to collaborate. We find this new and open way of working truly fascinating and welcome the move away from the traditional writer-theatre and writer-director relationships.”

UNO also shares its dramaturgical expertise with the participating theatres. There is currently a shortage of dramaturges in Finland, with just 12 in-house dramaturges working across Finland’s 50 dramatic theatres.

The UNO model in brief:

Guarantees unpressured script development opportunities for playwrights
Collaboration with host theatres: input from creative director, dramaturge or director during script development, may also include workshops and showcases
“National dramaturge” service and training provided to theatre staff to facilitate enhanced understanding of contemporary drama and to provide new tools and techniques
Close working relationships between playwrights and theatres
Playwriting programmes and grants for writers at different stages of their careers

The UNO project is just one example of an initiative designed to promote the commissioning of new Finnish drama. The Finnish National Theatre has appointed five associate writers and is committed to commissioning three plays from each of them. The National Theatre is continually testing and developing the model in ongoing cooperation with the writers.

Sari Havukainen

Playwrights in action

Teksti is a Finnish community by playwrights for playwrights, where members can share their work and comment on each others’ scripts. The community also actively seeks to forge new links between theatres and writers.

Teksti also runs the Kotimaisen näytelmän festivaali festival, an annual showcase of new Finnish drama. The event is intended as a celebration of fresh new theatrical voices and premieres a number of new plays each year. The festival’s stage readings are an opportunity for new works to spread their wings and soar towards new audiences. A notable example of plays that first came to life on the festival stage is E.L. Karhu’s Princess Hamlet (Prinsessa Hamlet). The event’s programme also features a drama slam and a range of discussion events on theatre.

In 2014, the Teksti community received the Finnish State Prize for Theatre. Awarding the prize, the Arts Promotion Centre Finland commented:

“Finland is known throughout Europe for its highly relevant contemporary drama. Founded seven years ago, the Teksti playwrights’ community has been highly successful in promoting Finnish drama, supporting writers as they forge their own distinctive identities and raising the profile of Finnish playwrights.”

THEATRE NEWS

NOKKA/HOC seeks theatrical soulmates

The NOKKA/HOC project, a Finnish and Russian collaboration coordinated by Theatre Info Finland (TINFO), will be exploring cross-border free movement and artistic practice between 2017 and 2019. The project has been granted discretionary funding by Finland’s Ministry of Education and Culture.

“As part of the NOKKA/HOC [nos] collaboration, we will plan and deliver a series of joint productions, organise visiting performances and facilitate professional and networking visits for theatre makers in both Finland and Russia,” explained Jukka Hyde Hytti, the project’s coordinator.

NOKKA/HOC will make use of existing production platforms for all its activities. Leading contemporary theatre festivals, such as the Baltic Circle festival in Helsinki and the Access Point festival in St Petersburg will serve as a meeting point for independent theatre companies and other artistic communities. The University of Tampere’s Theatre Arts degree programme will provide opportunities for participants to develop their artistic expression in collaboration with Russian colleagues through a Russian-language production set to be staged in St Petersburg. Theatres in Riihimäki, Kajaani and Joensuu and the Dostoevsky and Pushkin theatre festivals in Russia will act as host venues for the project.

For further information, please contact: Jukka Hyde Hytti, Executive Producer of International Projects, TINFO: e-mail: hyde(a)tinfo.fi

German premiere of Princess Hamlet at Schauspiel Leipzig

A German production of E.L. Karhu’s Princess Hamlet (Prinsessa Hamlet) will mark the opening on 2 December 2017 of Schauspiel Leipzig’s new stage dedicated to contemporary drama. The production, based on a translation by Stefan Moster, also marks the play’s first outing in Germany.

“The play refers to Shakespeare’s big topics of truth, love, betrayal and power but is at the same time a completely independent work of its own – daring and fresh and powerful. Central for me stands the topic of lunacy that leads to total exhaustion and the question of what happens to the individual that refuses to function within the logic that society has to offer,” Schauspiel Leipzig’s dramaturge Katja Herlemann says of the play.

The production in Leipzig will be directed by Lucia Bihler, who has worked in a number of theatres across Germany and Austria. She is also the founder member of the Berlin-based gold&heib ensemble. Bihler’s past works include Kafka, Shakespeare and Heiner Müller. The madness inherent in Müller’s Hamletmachine is cited in the introduction to Princess Hamlet on the Schauspiel Leipzig website.

“My goal is to curate more new European plays and Emmy’s play marks the start of this programming. I am confident that our young audience will appreciate the boldness of the play and the strong visual language,” Herlemann adds.

Princess Hamlet has also been translated into English by Kristian London and into Czech by Otto Kauppinen for the Specific festival in Brno in the Czech Republic. Both the Czech translation and the German translation marking the launch of the new Diskothek stage in Leipzig have received grant funding from Theatre Info Finland (TINFO).

Princess Hamlet first premiered in Finland at Helsinki’s Q-teatteri in February 2017. E.L. Karhu is represented by Agency North. An adult puppet theatre production based on Princess Hamlet by Aura of Puppets and Turku City Theatre is due to open in October.

We previously wrote about E.L. Karhu in the spring edition of our German newsletter.

Hevosenkenkä Theatre to tour Japan

City Mouse and Country Mouse premiered at Hevosenkenkä Theatre in 2016 and is set to tour Japan 9-25 December 2017. A total of 12 performances will take place in Yokosuka, Ebin and Kawasaki. Hevosenkenkä Theatre’s Japanese partners are Kijo Picture Book Village, Art for Young Audience Abiko and Kawasaki Theatre Audience Society.

Hevosenkenkä Theatre’s connection with Japan dates back nearly two decades. The theatre’s first visit took place in 1998, when The Snow Ball Prince and The Running Moccasin were staged at a children’s cultural centre in Kijo, on Kyushu island. Since then, Hevosenkenkä Theatre has performed in Japan on more than one hundred occasions.

Theatre has designed a concept for ensuring that our audiences are able to understand our performances, which take place in Finnish. In fact, there is no discernible difference in how children in Finland and Japan react to what they see and hear on stage.

Further information:

Hevosenkenkä Theatre / Pirta Laaksonen, pirta.laaksonen(a)hevosenkenka.fi

New publication: Performance artist's workbook by Pilvi Porkola

Theatre Academy Helsinki’s latest publication is Performance artist's workbook: on teaching and learning performance art: essays and exercises edited by Professor Pilvi Porkola. The aim of this book is to offer perspectives on performance art practice with a focus on teaching. This subject has rarely been approached in the literature and this book gives insights and inspiration for all those teaching performance art as well as to anyone else interested in this art form.

The first part of the book comprises articles by five performance artist, scholars and teachers: Professor Ray Langenbach, Dr Annette Arlander, Dr Hanna Järvinen, Dr Tero Nauha and Professor Pilvi Porkola. Each article gives different perspectives on performance art. But as we know, performance does not happen in words but in action, so the second part of the book is a collection of performance art exercises from 44 artists functioning here as calls to act.

For more information

INTERNATIONAL THEATRE FESTIVALS IN FINLAND

Urbanapa x Ateneum | 10 – 15 Oct 10 2017, Helsinki

This performing arts festival wants to have urban contemporary art and the museum context collide. In autumn 2017, the theme is Possible and impossible futures. The festival will, again, include the “art living room”, presentations, demos, workshops, films, and discussions.

More information: www.urbanapa.fi

The event in Facebook: UrbanApa X Ateneum 2017

5-3-1 Festival of New Juggling | 20– 22 Oct2017, Helsinki

5-3-1 Festival of New Juggling has been organised in Helsinki since 1999.

For more information http://www.531festival.com/

Pikku Aasi - International Puppet Theatre Festival | 27– 29 Oct 2017, Vaasa

Pikku Aasi - International Puppet Theatre Festival has been organised since 2015. The festival program offers performances for children and families.

For more information here

Baltic Circle International Theatre Festival | 14– 19 Nov 2017, Helsinki

Baltic Circle is an international festival for contemporary theatre organised annually in November in Helsinki. The next edition takes place 14 – 19 November 2017. The festival is an artwork that brings intensities into the city, takes stands on current questions, and ignites dialogue. It is a platform for new phenomena and an active forum for discussion.

http://balticcircle.fi/en/tapahtumat/

TIP-Fest 2017 – Finnish Puppetry Showcase | 15 – 19 Nov 2017, Turku

The first ever Finnish Puppetry Showcase by Aura of Puppets will be held in November 15-19 2017. The Showcase presents the stars of Finnish puppet theatre and offers a broad variety of shows from poetic solo pieces all the way to huge puppet theatre spectacles.

We invite you to discover the power, emotion and creativity of the most talented puppet theatre artists working in Finland today!

Stay tuned!

More information

Tampere Mini Theatre Festival | 15.-19.11.2017, Mänttä

Tampere Mini Theatre Festival will be organized for the first time between 15 – 19 November in the the midst of the visual arts compound, the famous Serlachius Museums located in the city of Mänttä-Vilppula.

The aim of the collaboration between the Serlachius Museums and the Tampere Theatre Festival is to organize a brand new event, where performing and visual arts shake hands.

For more information

Oulu Theatre Festival for Young Audiences | 1.-4.2.2018

Finland's oldest theatre festival for children and young people will be organized for the 37th time on 2.– 5.5.2018. During the Festival over a hundred events and performances will be offered to young audiences. The responsible head organizer of the annual event is Oulu City Theatre headed by the Artistic Director Kari-Pekka Toivonen.

http://teatteri.ouka.fi/festival/en/home

EVENTS

International Ibsen Conference | 18 Oct 2017, Norway

Skien International Ibsen Conference is a biennial conference that addresses Ibsen, theatre and political relevance.

Previous conference discussions have elaborated issues like "Theatre between literature and research" and "How are classical dramas used to comment on contemporary societies and settings?" and "Who are the public enemies of today?"

18th and19th of October 2017 our 9th conference will be held at Teater Ibsen. We are still focusing on Ibsen, theatre and political relevance and the programing for 2017 is well in progress. Artistic collaborations, guest performances, speakers and presentations of Ibsen Scholarship winners are important parts of the program.

October 18. and 19. at Teater Ibsen in Skien, Norway.

More information

Performing Otherness conference | 16-17 Nov 2017

The Theatre Academy of Uniarts Helsinki and Latvian Academy of Culture in collaboration with the International Theatre Festival Baltic Circle present: Performing Otherness conference, November 16-17, 2017.

Conference takes place at The Theatre Academy of Uniarts Helsinki (Haapaniemenkatu 6, 00530 Helsinki)

Otherness is a complex, contested, and slippery context with a long history in many different academic disciplines, e.g. philosophy, psychology, literature, cultural studies, political sciences, and arts. During the two conference days, Otherness is examined from multiple angles in student presentations, keynote lectures, and a panel discussion focusing on question such as

·       Whose stories are told and how?
·       How can Otherness be performed and represented responsibly and ethically?
·       What has political correctness to do with art, if anything?

Keynote lectures by Jamila Johnston-Small, Teemu Mäki, and Tiina Rosenberg.

Evening program on Thursday: Play Rape, Whiteness on Display Club Night

Panel discussion “Freedom of Art and Responsible Representation” on Friday November 17. Panelists include: Jamie MacDonald, Teemu Mäki, Tiina Rosenberg

Registration: by 10th of November www.lyyti.in/PLETA100

For more information, see: http://sites.uniarts.fi/fi/web/pl.eta/conferences (coming soon)

Conference is part of the Platform of European Theatre Academies (Pl.ETA /www.pleta.eu) project and it is supported by Creative Europe

OPEN CALLS

Research festival with residencies, talks, workshops and public moments | deadline 13 Oct 2017

PACT is a developmental working and presentation space for contemporary performance art at the interface between science, technology and society. Alongside delivering a wide-ranging programme of performances and public events, PACT’s work is firmly rooted in its well-known residency programme and ongoing engagement with diverse forms of knowledge transfer. Within the scope of advanced research and development activities, PACT establishes ongoing project series and opens up spaces where society, the world and art interlink.

In Spring 2017, PACT launched 1/2/8 a new, central and long-term research and development format with a special focus on the connection between knowledge and actions. The format offers substantial time and space for practices of cooperation between people, objects, space, technology and experimentation.

The second chapter, 1/2/8 – Demanding Responses, centers around forms of collaboration and self-organisation. Over the course of several weeks, the edition invites participants from the fields of art, science, journalism and other broader disciplines, to engage in individual research as well as joint encounters, exchanges and experiments during symposia, open labs, talks, lectures, gatherings and presentations.

For this edition we particularly welcome applications from collectives as well as individuals actively engaged in addressing new forms of cooperation with other artists and researchers. At certain stages, participants will also have the opportunity to invite visiting dialogue partners to inform both their own research and that of the other residents in the form of lectures or discussions.

Travel and accommodation for visiting dialogue partners as well as an expense allowance will be covered by PACT.

A Residency can incorporate the following:

Studio space (from 69 to 173 sq. m.)
Local accommodation (max. 6 people)
Weekly grant allowance of 500 ¤ for all of the residency project participants (max. 6 people)
Travel costs covering one journey only per participant to and from PACT Zollverein (subject to prior agreement)
Technical equipment (by arrangement and subject to availability)
Possible lectures, workshops, exhibitions or performances (at short notice and subject to agreement)

Online applications require the following information:

A proposed research project (max. 3000 characters including spaces)
short chronological CV for everyone involved in the project (max. 2000 characters)
We welcome applications with links to prior artistic or scientific work.

http://www.pact-zollverein.de/en/platforms/128-research-festival/128-demanding-responses

Application form

Mustarinda Air Open Call for 2018 | Deadline 20 oct 2017

Artist / Writer / Researcher Residencies

Working period: 1 – 3 months during SPRING /// 1. February 2018 – 31. May 2018
AUTUMN /// 1. September 2018 – 30. November 2018
Also some writer rooms available in July–August.

Application dl: 20. October 2017

The selected artists / writers will be announced on 27th of October.
info: http://mustarinda.fi/residency

Oulu Theatre Festival for Young Audiences is looking for shows | Deadline 31 Oct 2017

Finland's oldest theatre festival for children and young people is looking for performances into its repertoire for 2.– 5.5.2018. During the Festival over a hundred events and performances will be offered to young audiences. The responsible head organizer of the annual event is Oulu City Theatre headed by the Artistic Director Kari-Pekka Toivonen.

In addition to traditional theatre, the array of genres includes all kinds of other performance arts ranging from dance, puppet theatre, musicals and circus. We welcome both traditional stage shows and experimental and interdisciplinary pieces of theatre taking place at more unusual spaces. The performance can be directed at the whole family or at more specific age or target group.

The application should include a full introduction, a cost evaluation for the visit, a link for downloading/internet viewing, a full technical rider and a stage plan. The application can be emailed to sari.tanner(a)ouka.fi. The call for performances will end 31.10.2017. We reserve rights to choose performances from outside this call.

For more information

INACT Festival Call for Performers | Deadline 6 Nov 2017

INACT presents itself as an art performer meeting, organised in Strasbourg since 2011. This event is intended to be multi/inter-disciplinary. It will take place from 4th to 8th May 2018. The organisers invite artists from all disciplines: musicians, visual artists, actors, dancers, poets who have projects related to performance or active representation, and which are in line with the theme of the upcoming festival: sure sense.
INACT festival (France) invites artists to investigate the media space, which is interacting closer and closer with our intimate and public daily life, asking what space for intervention and interpretation is left to the artist? If the so-called alternative solutions (ecological, economic or social) are observed to be moving away from the political horizon, the vocabulary of power and the secured thought interfere with all the layers of society. How today can we express a criticism, a divergent opinion, a radical angle of view, under these conditions?
Référence : Marie-José Mondzain « Confiscation : des mots, des images et du temps » (Les Liens qui Libèrent, février 2017)

Fields of interest :
Real time, performance studies, sound art, video performance, poetry, re-inaction, improvisation, dance, culinary art, sound poetry, environment, document, cross-media, statement, urban intervention, augmented and virtuel reality, virtual performances

Conditions :
-Maximum 20min or duration
-Technical files : scene, perimeter of performance, sound, light.
-Budget production 200 ¤ + travel costs, accommodation
-Artists invoice's information
The INACT festival would capture the performances of the artists and giving them back in the current year.

Deadline: 6 November 2017

Find all details here (scroll down for English). You can register here (questions in French but you can reply in English)

Call for Papers: Chinese Theatre and Performing Arts | deadline 1 Dec 2017

Critical Stages/Scènes Critiques is available online to the reader without financial, legal or technical barriers. Ιt is a peer-reviewed journal fully committed to the Open Access Initiative. It offers a platform for debate and exploration of a wide range of theatre and performance art manifestations from all over the world. Our aim is to make our readers feel that Critical Stages/Scènes Critiques is their “local” webjournal with a global reach.

Call for Papers

Chinese Theatre and Performing Arts
Issue # 18 (December 2018)

Critical Stages/Scènes Critiques invites material for its upcoming special issue #18 (December 2018) on Chinese theatre and performing arts.

Overview

The starting point for this special issue on the contemporary state of affairs in the Chinese theatre and in other Chinese performing arts (opera, dance and dance theatre) has been the realization that the Chinese performance culture has not remained unaffected by recent global developments: flows and tensions, opportunities and challenges, possibilities and crises.

Critical Stages/Scènes Critiques special issue #18 is an attempt to map at least some parts of the foregoing landscape. It is intended as a timely exploration of Chinese performance culture in motion in light of unfolding global processes and trends.

We welcome contributions that address features and prospects of the Chinese theatre, dance and dance theatre—including the traditional Chinese operas or Xiqu, as well as Chinese theatre education, and that attend to new and established Chinese theatre practice(s) and practitioners.

Critical Stages/Scènes Critiques is published twice a year with generous support
from the Department of Theatre and the College of Fine and Applied Arts
at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, U.S.

More information

European Cultural Foundation: STEP travel grants

STEP stands for ‘Supporting Travel for Engaged Partnerships’. The STEP travel grants funding programme has been initiated and managed by the European Cultural Foundation (ECF), with the support of Compagnia di San Paolo (CdSP).

STEP travel grants support creative and critical individual cultural workers who are travelling across Europe and neighbouring countries, to help foster a society with greater solidarity, equality and a stronger sense of social justice.

Eligible countries:

Albania, Andorra, Algeria, Armenia, Austria, Azerbaijan, Belarus, Belgium, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Bulgaria, Croatia, Cyprus, Czech Republic, Denmark, Egypt, Estonia, Finland, France, Georgia, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Iceland, Ireland, Israel, Italy, Jordan, Kosovo, Latvia, Lebanon, Libya, Liechtenstein, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Macedonia (FYROM), Malta, Moldova, Monaco, Montenegro, Morocco, The Netherlands, Norway, Palestinian Territories, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Russia, San Marino, Serbia, Slovakia, Slovenia, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, Syria, Tunisia, Turkey, Ukraine and the United Kingdom

All travel directions are eligible, except for travels between Algeria, Egypt, Israel, Jordan, Lebanon, Libya, Morocco, the Palestinian Territories, Syria and Tunisia.

Find all details online

TINFO AT YOUR SERVICE

Toolkit for Theatre Production and Mobility

The website gives theatre professionals practical advice on producing a stage play and taking a show on the road. The toolkit includes budget examples, sample contracts, tips for distribution of duties and other essential production tools.

Case: Theatre Group W (TGW), run by a non-profit cultural organization, exempted from paying the value-added tax (VAT). TGW starts to produce a stage production and they want to tour with it after the domestic run of the show. Where and how will TGW find the resources (people, time, spaces, funding, etc.) to put together a stage production? Where to perform and how to expand the performance season? How to plan and manage a tour or a guest performance abroad?

www.tinfo.fi/en/Toolkit_for_Theatre_Production_and_Mobility

New Plays from Finland

Princess Hamlet says: We remember those princesses who kill themselves, who leave / on time / forcefully / go down in flames. / The rest / they are nothing but women / who weren't capable of living / no on e remembers them, they are / erased by wind and sand from the pages of history until no trace remains. / This will not happen to me.

Princess Hamlet by E.L. Karhu. Translated into English by Kristian London.

Take a look at New Plays from Finland for Princess Hamlet by E.L. Karhu and other selected plays.

www.tinfo.fi/newplays

Touring Performances

Finnish performances available for touring.

www.tinfo.fi/touring-performances

What's On Stage

What's On Stage in Finland NOW ... a selection made by TINFO.

www.tinfo.fi/en/On_Stage__Now

Publications

TINFO News is a magazine on Finnish theatre, drama and artists.

View the issues (e-publications):

Also available in TINFO web store:

www.tinfo.fi/en/TINFO_News_magazines

TINFO Grant for translations

Theatre Info Finland (TINFO) awards grants for translations of Finnish plays. In year 2017 TINFO Grant can even be applied for the translation of subtitles.

We accept applications continuously. Grant decisions are four to five times a year. We aim to support international productions of Finnish plays.

Grants for published works or anthologies can be applied for from FILI - Finnish Literature Exchange.

Have a look at a selection of new plays: New Plays from Finland.

TINFO Grant total amount is 25 000 euro in year 2017.

ILONA – Database of Performances

ILONA is a Finnish theatre database. Theatre Info Finland and the Theatre Museum in cooperation created the online version of ILONA. 

Using the ILONA database, you can find all Finnish professional theatre performances from the 19th century right up to the present day. 

You can search information based on the name or date of the performance, theatre or playwright. You can also carry out searches on other team members. 

In addition to the actual Performance Search, you can use the Quick Search facility, where you can enter the name of a team member or a play. 

http://ilona.tinfo.fi/

Theatre Map of Finland 

Finland is a true theatre land. The Finnish theatre network covers the whole country from South to North. Every year, Finns buy three million theatre tickets, which is a lot for a country with a population of five million.

Welcome to the theatres of Finland!

Recent translations of Finnish plays

Recent translations of Finnish plays supported by TINFO Grant or drama agencies with links to the drama agencies for performing rights.

Recent translations of Finnish plays

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