Theatre and Research Journey to Helsinki, May 2009
Early in the spring semester, Mellon Fellow and Assistant Professor
Hana Worthen received a Mellon grant
to facilitate a trip to Finland, a lively and informal way of introducing
four Barnard students—Kati Fitzgerald '10, Alyson Fortner '11, Melissa
Macedo '10, and Elizabeth Richardson '11—to her research and orientation
to theatre and performance studies and, equally as important, introducing
her to our students' ideas, energies, and commitments. Committed to the sense
that artistic creation happens in a network of aesthetic, social, historical,
and economic relations, Worthen is particularly drawn to the ways theatre
is involved in making and mediating the ideologies of its surrounding culture:
"As a theatre/performance scholar, I ask what performance claims for or conceals
from me, how it shapes my (and my contemporaries') sense of social and artistic
potentiality; these were questions I hoped to open to our consideration."
Over the course of the spring semester, the group met together, and with
Lasse Suominen and Aili Flint of the Columbia University Finnish Program,
to orient themselves to Finnish language and culture, before spending five
rich days in Helsinki. There, the group saw two productions directed by one
of Europe's most intriguing directors, Kristian Smeds, at the Finnish National
Theatre, The Unknown Soldier (Tuntematon sotilas) and God
is Beauty (Jumala on kauneus), as well as Pekka Milonoff's
Kalavale at the KOM Theatre—all productions critically targeting
dilemmas of Finnish society. The Unknown Soldier breaks with the
still-influential myth of postwar Finnish national identity, while
Kalavale stages the corruption of humanity by commercially-driven
media, taking the form of a TV reality show. As Melissa Macedo suggests,
the productions dramatized both a different approach to making theatre, and
a different sense of how theatre figures in Finnish social and public life:
"The most striking thing I noticed about the theatre [in Finland] was the
generous attentiveness the audience gave to the performers"; "The performers
were able to engage in a dialogue with the audience that felt personal and
relevant. This mutual respect made the theatre space safer to take risks,
be political and challenge the audience in a way that I have yet to see in
any theatre in the U.S."
The group was able to explore this wider theatrical context in several ways,
as well. The stage productions were framed by meetings with University of
Helsinki and Tampere students and faculty, with the directors and researchers
of the Theatre Information Centre and Theatre Archive, and with professionals
from the KOM Theatre. And, of course, everyone was able to spend some time
visiting other artistic and cultural sites in Helsinki-the Suomenlinna fortress;
Ateneum, the national gallery; Kiasma, the museum of modern art.
Alyson Fortner, Kati Fitzgerald, Elizabeth Richardson, and Melissa
Macedo (from left to right) at a Helsinki dinner with theatre scholar Mikko-Olavi
Seppälä
Our special thanks to Professor Hanna Korsberg and Essi Syrén of the
Theatre Research Department of the University of Helsinki, to the Finnish
Theatre Information Centre and its director Riitta Seppälä, to
the Theatre Museum in Helsinki and its director Hanna-Leena Helavuori and
the researcher Pälvi Laine, to researchers Outi Lahtinen, Mikko-Olavi
Seppälä, and Linnea Stara, and to the KOM Theatre, especially Aleksi
Milonoff, for all their assistance and their very warm reception during our
stay in Helsinki.
Three months later, our students meet the president of Finland outside
the opening of the "100 Years of Women's Voices and Action in Finland" exhibition
at Columbia University. From left: Melissa Macedo, Alyson Fortner, Kati
Fitzgerald, President Halonen, and Elizabeth Richardson.
Reviews by our students
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