Lauri Maijala appointed as director at Helsinki City Theatre

The Helsinki City Theatre has hired Lauri Maijala as director as of 1 January 2019 on a two-year fixed-term contract.

“I was in contact with Lauri Maijala immediately after I was chosen as the director. After long and fruitful discussions, we reached an agreement, and we will have one of the most talented younger generation directors in Finland in the house,” says theatre director Kari Arffman.

“My parents have been long-term actors at the Helsinki City Theatre, so I have become very familiar with the theatre and many of its employees since I was a child. I am honored and excited that I can now use HKT’s resources to create artistically ambitious theatre with top artists, and to contribute to the development of the operations of the ever-renewing and newly renovated building,” says Lauri Maijala.

Lauri Maijala (b. 1986), known for his fresh and bold approach, has served as the second artistic director and permanent director of KOM Theatre since 2014. For the KOM Theatre, Maijala has directed the play Pasi Was Here , which has attracted more than 25,000 spectators, as well as the performances Three Sisters, Revolution, Coincidences, Hamletinkone and Blackbird.

In addition to the KOM Theatre, Maijala has directed for the Viirus Theatre, Theatre Vanha Juko, Oulu City Theatre, Lappeenranta City Theatre, Turku Castle Theatre and Turku City Theatre, among others. Maijala has also written several plays, directed two operas, a radio play and a feature film. Kullervo , directed by him, was one of three performances to receive the State Prize for Theatre Arts in 2013, and his Där vi en gång flått (Where We Skinned Once Upon a Time), directed and written for the Viirus Theatre, received the Thalia Prize in 2014. Maijala also received a Jussi Award nomination for her role in Selma Vilhunen’s film A Girl Named Sparrow (2016).

Lauri Maijala has visited the Helsinki City Theatre as a child assistant in the performance of Välkky ja Pölkky (1998), composed the music for the monologue The Woman and the Anchovy (2007) and worked as a scriptwriter and director in the musical theatre performance Ghost Train (2015).