Finlandia Summer School: Work Hard.doc

In these two summer school installments I’m splitting the week into work hard and play hard posts – way too much to mention for one entry.

It’s impossible to summarize these past six days in a blog post – it was one of the best weeks of my life. No overstatement. It would be like blogging about graduation from high school, convocation night from Queens, Cuba reading week 2007, or the magic that was the last year at UofT. What I will do is narrate the week’s activities to give you an idea how much it has affected me. I’m currently on the bus ride from Tampere to Helsinki so it seems like the best time to look back.

To preface, you’d be hard pressed to find another MA like this one. Twenty-nine students from over twenty countries study performance and theatre at four different universities in three different countries with staff from over twelve nations. That in itself is staggered. The week in the Finnish forest was the very first time this group has been brought together in one place. Not only was it important to meet the one third of the students we haven’t studied with at our two sites, but to have everyone in one room (who you’ve heard about or befriended on facebook) was a little overwhelming. At the core of the experience is the international feature of the gathering; every continent was represented. Having generally lived in places where diversity is poor at best, the program has inspired an international awareness and appreciation of intercultural exchange.

The trip from Amsterdam to Helsinki was a lot of fun. One look at the group and you could tell the energy and adrenaline was flowing. We met up with the Finnish students in Tampere (where I met two of the other Canadians I hadn’t studied with). It was super exciting to see Lotte again. Of all the students in the program she reminds me most of friends back home (more to come on our adventures…).  The conference centre had all the amenities: four saunas on-site, a boathouse, football pitch, volleyball court, bonfire and grilling pits, and a fully serviced dining room. I have to take a moment and mention the dining schedule – breakfast, lunch, coffee and cake, dinner, evening snacks, and a packed fridge for 3am post-sauna chat. I ate the whole week, and I’m not apologizing for it. On the Sunday night the Warwick group was the last to arrive to complete the MAIPR circle. Tory and I were reunited in the absolutely chaotic kitchen. It was to be the start of an amazing week.

Monday was the kick-off of our jam-packed schedule. Breakfast each day was at eight in the morning and the last official session ended at 8 in the evening when we were left to our own devices. The academic chunks of the week were split into lectures, dissertation meetings, poster sessions, and student-led sessions. I won’t spend precise space blogging about boring details, but all of the academic content was well thought out and beneficial since we’re in the process of formulating our dissertation topics. It was valuable to have access to all the professors and to share ideas with fellow students. On that morning, I spoke at the first gathering on behalf of the student committee – the events we scheduled for that week couldn’t have gone any better.

All the student led-sessions were well received: Dev from India led us through an acting workshop; Helen from Russia led a session on contact body improv; Lonneke from the Netherlands and Jocelyn from Singapore taught belly-dancing for the girls; our professor Kati from Germany instructed on the waltz; and I lead improv games at our party with the Forestry students (more on that later). The feature of these sessions was that it provided a space for young international practioners to share their skills and learn from one another.

Without a doubt, the feature of the “work” side of the week was the practical explorations we did in the Finnish Forests. Our instuctors, Baz Kershaw from the UK and Mark Fleischman from South Africa, lead us through three hours of practical work a day both in studio and in the forest that led to the creation of site-specific environmental theatre. In my group was Courtney from the States, Lotte from the UK, Hetta from Finland, Olga from Russia, and Joao (my roommate for the week) from Portugal. We created a ten minute piece that explored the invisible environmental cycles of the earth’s atmosphere that regulate weather patterns. It was a bit abstract, but we drew from our surroundings in the dense forest to conceptualize the piece. The performances from the five groups on the Thursday evening (attended by around fifty spectators) took place in the forest and showcased the results of our “practice as research” explorations.  It was one of the most organic theatre experiences I’ve had. I look forward to utilizing some of these techniques in future work.

Our daily schedule was mapped out for the whole week, but the work was never too taxing. I think it was because we were finally all in one room together that a common purpose developed. Near the end of the week we discussed post-MAIPR options and it was comforting to hear that my friends are just as clueless and open to possibilities as I am about where the degree can take me.

Doc’s Prescription of the Day: Spending a tranquil moment out on the lake in a boat at 2am is a great way to reflect. We went on many a row.