New Plays from Finland

Elli Salo is a dramaturg, translator and playwright who graduated from the Helsinki Theatre Academy in 2018 with an M.A in dramaturgy in addition to having an M.A from the University of Helsinki (majoring in Russian literature). She has since then worked in the theatre field both as a freelancer as well as in state subsidized theatres.

 

Salo is currently in-house writer at the Finnish National Theatre. She is also one of the founding members of the wilderness theatre group named Operation Paulaharju (led by Juha Hurme), which creates performances in Lapland’s national parks.  

 

Salo was awarded the Sokeain Radio Play Award in 2016 for her radio play series Elk Forest (Hirvimetsä) as well as being in the Best Digital Audio of 2017 category in the Prix Europa competition with her play Bad Friend (Huono Ystävä). Her most recent play from 2019, Alina, deals with unconditional familial love in the face of addiction. It premiered at the end of 2019 at the Finnish National Theatre.  

 

Salo is one of the dramaturges of a staged drama reading Talo horjahti – tekstejä keväältä 2022 Ukrainasta (freely translated The House Faltered – Texts from Spring 2022 in Ukraine) is a charity performance for the victims of the war in Ukraine. The performance premiered at KOM theatre in Helsinki on May 2022.

 

In addition to her artistic work, Salo is a lecturer at UniArts Helsinki.