Photo by Tani Simberg. In the photo: Johanna Hammarberg & Martina Marti

Baltic Circle and Tekijä – Theatre Touring Network Project have organized an international seminar TOURING IN SCANDINAVIA AND THE BALTICS: BRIDGING REGIONAL AND INTERNATIONAL PERSPECTIVES in Helsinki, November 17-18, 2011.

The seminar has resulted into a publication, that includes 12 presentations, and comments by art theorist Max Ryynänen. Publication was edited by seminar moderators Martina Marti and Johanna Hammarberg, layout by Riitta Yrjönen.

DOWNLOAD A PDF PUBLICATION HERE

photo by: Alice Pittacolo

At the annual Thalia Gala organized by Finnish theatre organizations on March 11th in Swedish Theatre in Helsinki, 19 awards where given to theatre makers, organizations and productions, including the Tinfo Prize. The Prize is awarded by Theatre Information Centre  to honor theatre producers, critics, researchers and innovative projects and to highlight best practices in theatre communication. This year, Tinfo Prize was awarded to Baltic Circle Festival Director Eva Neklyaeva.

The Jury’s Criteria:

Eva Neklyaeva has a personal, ambitious style of leading the festival.

Neklyaeva has had long experience as a producer of contemporary theater. With her personal, dedicated approach to work Neklyaeva has brought visibility to contemporary theatre field. Neklyaeva’s way of producing a festival is content-driven and thoughtfully curated – a combination of festival shows, clubs and workshops create a living organism that exists by its own laws. Baltic Circle has become a risk-taking, openly communicating festival that offers the audience and theatre makers a wide range of meeting grounds.

Neklyaeva is a producer of theatre(science), who has brought forth Finnish theatre expertise and created new networks in the performing art field. In this sense, Neklyaeva has carried on and developed the honorable traditions of Baltic Circle Festival.

Especially last edition of Baltic Circle made Helsinki look like a diverse and lively theatre city. The festival used innovative communication and networking strategies, received a lot of public attention and succeeded in attracting new audiences.

By awarding the prize to Eva Neklyaeva the jury wants to honor the curator who brings together dramaturgical and production-based approach in her work.

“We woke up at 9. Came to the tent at ten. Cleaned and washed the dishes. Then we went to sauna.”

Ten journeys to a place where nothing happens tries to avoid too much performing. The biggest challenge for the makers of the performance, Juha Valkeapää and Taito Hoffrén, is to do nothing. Simply to be. In this they sometimes succeed, sometimes not.

10 Journeys to a Place Where Nothing Happens by Juha Valkeapää & Taitto Hoffrén premiered at Baltic Circle Festival 2010, and is still touring. Next time you can catch it in brut, Wien on January 19-21, 2012.

Check out new online diary from the tour!

Photo by Tani Simberg

A big thanks to all absolutely amazing artists, staff, volunteers, audience, partners and participants who made the festival of 2011!

The international theatre festival Baltic Circle 2011 attracted a larger audience than in previous years. The festival featured 50 performances and other events, attended by 3555 spectators in all – which is more than ever.

At the festival there were five premieres, which were produced or international co-produced by Baltic Circle. Three of these productions have started touring abroad. The Festival Lounge offered every night awesome and free shows at the Universum theatre.

Baltic Circle Festival Additional Programme included four workshops, a panel debate The Role of Audience in Contemporary Performance, a book release by performance group Kukkia and a seminar Touring in Scandinavia and the Baltics, which was organized together with the Theatre Touring Network Project TEKIJÄ.

The next Baltic Circle Festival will be held in November 7-11, 2012.

Until next year!

Yle Kultakuume 18.11.2011. did a radio interview about Teatr.doc and Eva Neklyaeva. The interview is in Finnish.

YLE TV News (14.11.2011) reported about Build Me a Mountain! by Verk Produksjoner. Scroll video to 0.18.04. The report is in Finnish.

Hufvudstadsbladet (16.11.2011) interviewed Verk’s director Fredrik Hannestad. The article is in Swedish.

Min Morgon (16.11.2011) interviewed Nya Rampen’s Jakob Öhrman, director of the performance Worship! Scroll to 8.05. The interview is in Swedish.

Radio Vega (Scroll to 0.38.00) and YLE Pixel interviewed actors from Nya Rampen. The interviews are in Swedish.

Journalist Sanna Uuttu saw the premiere of Nya Rampen’s Worship!. www.fifi.fi The article is in Finnish.

Critiques of the performances Worship! (HBL 19.11.2011), Build Me a Mountain! (HBL 18.11.2011) and Fat Bastards (HBL 22.11.2011) by Hufvudstadsbladet. The critiques are in Swedish.

International contemporary theatre festival Baltic Circle starts today 16th November with three Finnish premieres:

Drama Reloaded: Yerma

Fat Bastards

Worship!

Today’s two international performances are more than enough by Doris Uhlich and MADE IN RUSSIA by Andrei Andrianov and Oleg Soulimenko. In more than enough Uhlich asks herself and her audience how the body can become a trademark and what this means. MADE IN RUSSIA is a hot, post-communist war battle of eastern and western cultural clichés.

This year artists arrive from Finland, Norway, Austria, Russia, USA, Iceland and Estonia. The heart of the festival Festival Lounge offers every night 16.-20.11.2011 awesome and free shows.

Let’s Festival!

Q-teatteri opening hours during the festival week:

ma 14.11. 10:00-15:00
ti 15.11. 11:00-15:00
ke 16.11. 10:00-19.00
to 17.11. 10:00-19.30
pe 18.11. 10:00-19.30
la 19.11. 12:00-19:00
su 20.11. 12:00-18:00

Ticket Service Finland
Tel. +358 (0)600 10 800 (1,96€/min + local network charge)
www.lippupalvelu.fi

Tickets are sold at the venues 1 hour before the perfomance, if it’s not sold out.

Read more

Fat Bastards from joonas tikkanen on Vimeo.

Fat Bastards is a girls’ attempt to grasp the essence of ice-hockey through an off-the-wall lecture. It is a do-it-yourself performance about passion, repulsion and creative destruction. “Football is erotic, ice-hockey is porn.”

WED 16.11. 20:00, THU 17.11. 20:00, FRI 18.11. 17:30 & SAT 19.11. 17:00
Suvilahti, Tiivistämö, Kaasutehtaankatu 1
20 / 15 €
Read more

Journalist Martti Mäkelä (Skenet 2.11.) interviewed Jakob Öhrman, the director of Nya Rampen’s new performance WORSHIP!

WORSHIP! will be premiered at Baltic Circle Festival November 16th. In the performance Nya Rampen takes hold of the most renowned plays of all time, taking a look at mortal sins trough Shakespeare’s tragedies. WORSHIP! examines the characteristic human need to believe in and belong to something, be it a religion, an ideology or art. Nya Rampen ponders why fiction such as Shakespeare’s tragedies still reaches audiences. Do we need stories in order to understand reality?

Read the article (In Finnish).