New Plays from Finland

 

She holds a Bachelor of Arts in Dramaturgy and Playwriting from the Helsinki Theatre Academy and a Master of Arts in Media and Communication from the University of Helsinki. In 2018 she also studied creative writing at the Ruskeat tytöt (Brown Girls) academy. 

 

Salaniemi has written three plays Pelottaa, että uskallan (2020), Sano se (2022) and Hornblende (Sarvivälke) (2021). In 2021 Hornblende was chosen as the Finnish representative for the New Nordic Voices Theatre Festival held by the London-based Cut the Cord theatre company in the United Kingdom. It was also performed as a dramatized reading at the Ljubimovka/R.E.A.D Helsinki –festival in Moscow the same year. In 2024 the play had its Finnish premiere at the Finnish National Theatre.  

 

When asked where she finds inspiration for her dramatic works, Salaniemi (at that time: Yildirim) said that she is rarely inspired by a specific theme but rather that the story can find its inspiration from a feeling or observation. The identity and representation of her characters emerge simultaneously with the dialogue and thoughts of the characters. Furthermore, she said that through her multicultural background, she developed an intuition for questioning whether her characters are emerging out of “plain habit” or whether there is something truly delicious to explore within them. (Source: an interview made by Theatre Info Finland TINFO)

 

Currently, among her other writing projects, Salaniemi is working on the Finnish Youth Theatre 2022-2024 project. Further information, alongside her comprehensive writing portfolio, can be found on her website: