Helsinki City Theatre employs four producers and a production manager. Each production has a designated producer who prepares the budget and ensures that everything proceeds according to plan right up to the premiere. The production planner manages the overall schedules for all productions. They draw up performance schedules for every stage and make longer-term plans. The producer, production manager and production planner work closely together throughout the entire production process. The director’s assistants and the Curator of Contemporary Performance are also part of the production department.
A thousand-performance puzzle
Five stages, around 20 premieres and more than 1,000 performances in total. Around 50 in-house performers, plus visiting freelancers. Hundreds and hundreds of rehearsals, dozens of auditions. The task: to schedule all of this so that everything runs smoothly, resources are allocated sensibly and everyone knows where they need to be and when. And, of course, to make sure that each production proceeds as agreed.
Did I mention budgeting?
This extraordinary operation is kept running by Helsinki City Theatre’s producers, production manager and production planner.
“Working with the schedules can sometimes feel like playing Tetris,” says production planner Jari Fluuri. “It’s always an occasion for sparkling wine when you’ve finished planning a season and all the performances have been released for ticket sales!”
“I don’t think many people realise just how enormous this puzzle is,” agrees producer Pia Karetie. As a producer, she oversees each production’s progress right up to the premiere, draws up contracts with visiting performers and prepares the production budget.
Working with the schedules can sometimes feel like playing Tetris.
“The better you know the work in advance, the more accurately you can plan the budget. Thank goodness we have Finland’s finest professionals in every department of the theatre! If you don’t know something yourself, someone else will.”
As production planner, Fluuri focuses on the big picture and long-term planning.
“I draw up the performance schedules for the different stages and make sure that our in-house actors are allocated sensibly between productions,” he explains.
Booking and scheduling visiting performers adds another interesting challenge to the undertaking, and Fluuri works closely with other theatres in Southern Finland to coordinate their schedules.
“There’s a fantastic spirit of cooperation among the production planners at the different theatres. We meet regularly and go through our schedules. For example, I once travelled to Tampere to ‘trade’ an actor with two other theatres. We all had our own paperwork, and then we divided up his time: this weekend for you, this one for us. In the end, Sundays were the only days the actor had off!” Fluuri laughs.
“But the actor had given us free rein and told us to sort it out!”
Detective work and an understanding of people
Problem-solving skills and logical thinking. Those are essential qualities for a good theatre producer.
“I love detective work! It’s brilliant when something unusual comes up during a production and you have to get to the bottom of it,” Karetie says.
And there is no shortage of such situations in this job.
“That’s the best thing about it. Some days, if someone asked what you did at work, they simply wouldn’t believe you.”
You also need to get along with all kinds of people. Problems must be recognised and addressed quickly.
“You need an understanding of people,” Fluuri continues. “We’re all different, and you have to understand how best to approach each person.”
Sometimes situations arise that are difficult to arrange.
“An actor might have a matinee on one stage and an evening performance on another. Sometimes they may even have two evening performances on different stages, but in those cases it has been a deliberate decision. The actor simply takes a taxi from one venue to the other in the middle of a performance!” Fluuri explains.
Situations where an actor has to be replaced at short notice for one reason or another cause more of a headache.
It is always an emergency, and decisions have to be made quickly.
“The schedules have already been agreed and they’re tight. Finding a new actor and getting them here is challenging,” Karetie says. “It is always an emergency, and decisions have to be made quickly. That adds pressure.”
If nothing unexpected happens, the producer’s work on a production ends with the premiere. For the production planner, the production remains part of the planning process right through to the final performance.
“The premiere is always an important moment. You’re always a little excited, and every premiere comes with a touch of nerves. Even if the next productions are already under way in the background, the premiere always marks the completion of one particular job. It’s special to see how your own contribution has helped bring the whole production together,” Karetie says.
“Even though I sometimes dream of going to work at the Airam light bulb factory or becoming a tram driver, I don’t think I’d encounter challenges as entertaining as the ones we have here!”
Fluuri nods in agreement.
“The project-based nature of the work keeps it interesting. Whenever a new production begins, you can’t wait to see what it will bring and how it will all be done. You always get that feeling: yes, here we go again!”
