Helsinki City Theatre has a new dramaturg and Lilla Teatern has a new artistic director
The Board of the Helsinki Theatre Foundation has selected two new artists for the Helsinki City Theatre. Ari-Pekka Lahti , Master of Arts and Philosophy, will start as HKT’s dramaturg on 1 August 2019 and Master of Arts in Theatre and Drama Jakob Höglund will start as the artistic director of HKT’s Swedish-language stage, Lilla Teatern, on 1 November 2019. Both are closely involved in the repertoire planning of the Helsinki City Theatre.
“Jakob Höglund was chosen as the artistic director of Lilla Teatern by invitation. He is a highly distinguished director and also has an excellent knowledge of the Finnish-Swedish theatre field,” says theatre director Kari Arffman.
“I really fell in love with Lillan at Sommarboken about a year ago, and it’s great to be able to continue the story of legendary theatre, a task that I take very seriously but also with playful enthusiasm,” says Jakob Höglund.
“There were a lot of good applicants for the position of dramaturg, a total of 20, of whom we interviewed four and selected Ari-Pekka Lahti. He has a really diverse experience of theatre work as a dramaturg, playwright and director, and through his work as a theatre director, also as a repertoire designer,” Arffman continues.
“It feels like I’m coming home! I worked as a janitor at HKT for two years during my studies, and I always say that it was the nicest job I’ve had. We received the audience’s coats in the cloakroom and handed them back after the performance. The rest of the time, we got to watch performances or have nice conversations with colleagues. Sometimes I walked past the dramaturg’s room in the corridor and thought how great it would be to step through that door one day,” Ari-Pekka Lahti recalls.
Ari-Pekka Lahti (b. 1975) is a dramaturg, playwright, director and theatre director who was awarded the State Prize for the Performing Arts in 2012 and has many years of experience in international theatre cooperation and successful theatre management (Kokkola City Theatre 2009 – 2012). He has written plays for several professional theatres in the Helsinki metropolitan area and for regional theatres. Of the Lahti plays, Sydänmaa premiered at the Helsinki City Theatre’s studio Pasila in 2005. Lahti is also known as the artistic director of the Ruska Ensemble.
Jakob Höglund (b. 1981) graduated from the Theatre Academy in 2007 and has since worked as a director, choreographer, actor and dancer both in Finland and in Sweden and Norway. Höglund is known for his directing and choreographies for the successful musicals Billy Elliot (2017) and Maija of Myrskyluoto (2018) at the Vaasa City Theatre. He guest-directed Lilla Teatern’s beloved play Sommarboken (2018), which has been one of Lillan’s most successful performances in recent years.
Further information and interview requests: Kaisa Pelkonen, Communications Officer, 040 5523788, kaisa.pelkonen@hkt.fi
Press photos from the image bank: Ari-Pekka Lahti and Jakob Höglund
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