Project title
Description of initiative
The Finnish National Theatre set up its Touring Stage in 2010. Its mission is to take performances and workshops to locations where people cannot otherwise easily access
live art. The Touring Stage performances and workshops can be booked for service centres for the elderly, in residential units for people with learning disabilities or people
recovering from mental illness or addiction; in hospitals; in prisons; or at immigration reception centres. It also produces documentary theatre projects, created in collaboration with marginalised communities. The Touring Stage aims to reinforce the relationship between the National Theatre and society at large, and with specific communities.
Further information on the initiative
Themes: Culture and...
Keywords
Target group
Cultural field
Timeframe
Results, benefits, impact and lessons learnt
Over the years, they have learned a lot about how to organise their performances so that residents and staff can enjoy them in as many ways as possible. It is important to consider how the performers approach the viewers, how they incorporate the units’ everyday objects into the stage setting and how they interact with the audience at various points in the performance. They have evolved a three-phase operating model for Touring Stage performances. A visit begins with getting to know the residents and
preparing the performance space. The residents may contribute to the preparations if they wish. In the performance itself, the performers offer the spectators various viewer roles in which to participate. After the performance, the performers discuss the viewers’ experiences and observations with them, and the audience thus has the final word. It has been interesting to see how the same production can be different each time, depending on where and to whom it is performed. The circumstances are different each time, and so are the interactions with the audience. It is most successful when the event can be prepared with the unit staff unhurriedly in advance, and the performers can look around the facilities available at the unit.