The City Theatre has about forty permanent actors. The theatre’s dance group, Helsinki Dance Company, consists of 7 dancers. The performers mainly work in two parts. After the morning rehearsals, there is a break and the work continues in the evening, either with a demonstration or evening rehearsals.
“Art is born when you give it something of yourself”
The Helsinki City Theatre employs dozens of performing artists of different ages. Here are three personal stories about the profession of a performer. How did they become artists? What is it like to be a performer? Can you plan your career far ahead? And what does criticism feel like?
Helena Haaranen, actress
Joined the Helsinki City Theatre in 1975
I’ve grown into this profession. I started at the ballet school of the Finnish National Opera when I was 9 years old. The idea of a career as a performing artist was probably born already in kindergarten. I’ve always been interested in music, dance and drama. That has also been my “problem”, I have not been able to choose and invest in only one path. But here we are – 50 years of theatre.
When I was eight years old, I was here alone to watch the musical Fiddler on the Roof. It was the first musical I had seen and also the opening performance of the brand new City Theatre. At the time, I couldn’t imagine that I would make my career on that stage with dance, drama and musicals.
I applied and got into the dance group of the City Theatre in 1975. I was 15 years old at the time, after six years of dance studies and assisting in operas and ballets at the Finnish National Opera, as well as music studies at the Helsinki Conservatory. I got a permanent attachment to HKT’s dance group in 1978. The City Theatre was new and ultra-modern. It was an incredible feeling after the opera when people came to the theatre to say goodbye to a young novice dancer and introduce themselves.
It is never clear to a performer how his career will progress.
When I turned 40 in 1999, I was offered the opportunity to continue as an actor. It was a pleasant change, because I had also done small speaking and singing assignments throughout my dance career. It is never clear to a performer how his career will progress.
The richness of theatre is the performers of different ages and backgrounds, who react to things in their own ways. It is not self-evident to come to work in such a large company, this work environment is not suitable for everyone. The profession of a performer also includes public criticism. Constructive criticism is a good thing, and feedback from colleagues is worth its weight in gold. Constructive criticism is rare in Finland, it is probably a national trait. It’s sad when you know you’ve done a good job and you’re not even mentioned.
I was recently asked about my dreams for my career. I don’t want to talk about them publicly, but they do exist! There is nothing mystical about making theatre. It’s about throwing yourself into it, repeating and grinding, time and time again. Life is a mystery, theatre is life.
Tuukka Leppänen, actor
I came into the industry through musicals. I was in music classes in Lahti from primary school onwards, playing the cello and singing a lot. After high school, I studied at the Lahti University of Applied Sciences in the musical theatre programme of the Department of Music for a couple of years before applying to the Theatre Academy in 2003 and getting in.
The following year, I was involved in Saturday Night Fever, directed by Marco Bjuström, through which I first got an invitation to the camp and later, through a few twists and turns, I got a job here. The teachers at Teak let me go on the condition that I was not allowed to do musicals only. For the first couple of years, I worked as a freelancer, in 2008 I got a job, and in 2015 I was made permanent.
As an actor, I’m cautious at first. I need a clear framework within which to act so that the inner world of the role comes to life. When you start practicing, you can’t feel, walk or talk at first. Little by little, you start to grow and suddenly you are in a situation where you can fill and control the whole space. Then being relaxes so that it no longer feels forced.
Premieres are always difficult. When the first audience comes, horror strikes every time and you become fully aware of your own acting. Then you act in such a way that you are always a little outside of yourself or next to you. The older and more experienced you become, the less time it takes for being to become light but active again, living in the moment and in a situation.
The work of an actor requires that you dare to ignore how you look or feel, and that you dare to think and do things that do not come automatically. You have to be curious and childlike enthusiasm. The work also requires tolerating badness, incompleteness and other people.
I think it’s a universal ideal to try to be the kind of co-worker who makes it easier for others to work and brings lightness to life and being. It’s wonderful to be able to be a person who shows daily that this isn’t so serious after all. There are such people here, and I would like to strive for one myself.
This is a very unique and dear spiritual atmosphere, and it is formed by the people who work here. With them, new things are born, emotions are explored and lived through. Although emotions are made or determined, they are emotions that are usually reserved only for the people closest to them. Here you do it for a living, and it’s pretty wild. As a side effect, this involves a certain requirement for trust and openness.
The work of an actor is endlessly interesting, because every production includes something that you were not aware of before. With the help of theatre, history becomes so much more alive, and cause and effect relationships begin to be better understood. Our task as actors and artists is to help the audience empathize with the fates of different people, to be able to show taboos and to cultivate empathy.
At the Helsinki City Theatre, you can do a lot of things if you are persistent, and here you can work in a way that you know for sure that you have done. Although at first I was more of a musical-maker, nowadays I get to do other drama as well. Each year feels more interesting than the other. This is a safe place to look for ways to tell stories.
