Drama Boreale: Abstracts 8 August 2026
Marianne Nødtvedt Knudsen, Kjetil Kro Sørborg and Christer Fredriksen
On thin ice – exploring transdisciplinary practices in upper-secondary arts-education in Norway
In this workshop we examine how a/r/tography as a hybrid methodology can develop teaching and learning processes in interdisciplinary Music, Dance, and Drama (MDD) education in Norwegian upper-secondary schools. We will engage participants in creative exercises to collect, reflect on and transform impressions, memories and materiality linked to ice as materiality. The activities specifically encourage students to think-with, be-with and create-together-with ice, movements, sounds, each other, materiality, memories and sensing. Our point of departure is inspired by Donna Haraway (2016) concepts of “staying with the trouble” and her concepts of “sym-poeisis” – meaning to create together with others rather than creating alone, and “composting” which is used as a method to combine “old things” and allow “new” assemblages to grow forth. These concepts are employed to explore complex themes related to ice and climate through collaborative processes. Additionally, we draw upon Della Pollock’s notion of performative writing as a means of investigating experience through aesthetic, embodied, and temporal processes. These theoretical lenses open an exploration of the entangled spaces that emerge between curricula, students, teachers, and materials when they intra-act in transdisciplinary ways (Østern et. al., 2019).
Our insights through the KUSK project and our experiences in this, suggest that engaging with material, performative, and reflective practices supports students’ creative exploration, social interaction, and capacity to navigate complexity. Furthermore, dialogue with both human and non-human material enabled alternative practices of being, thinking, and creating, where students reported feeling a sense of freedom when not being assessed. The analysis of these co-creative processes employs métissage to weave together empirical, theoretical, and poetic strands. This design serves as both a model and a source of inspiration for educators. We will also reflect on experiences of friction-filled processes, risk-taking and failures.
References:
Heiner Goebbels ’It’s all part of one concern’ 2012.
Donna Haraway “Staying with the trouble” 2016.
T.V. Lid “Refleksiv dramaturgi” 2019.
Paulina Oliveros “Deep listening” 2005.
B.C. Pijanowsk ” Principles of Soundscape Ecology” 2024. T.P. Østern et.al. “Dybde//læring” 2019.
Della Pollock “Performing writing” 1998.
Bios
Marianne Nødtvedt Knudsen is Associate Professor (MA) in Drama and Theatre at the Faculty of Fine Arts at the University of Agder. She teaches and supervises in contemporary theatre, MA in Fine Arts, and drama and theatre in teacher education. She has worked artistically and process-oriented with different citizen groups like prisoners, children, youths, immigrant girls and women, older people etc. She runs Gatelangs tehatercompany. Her artistic research interests are in social art practice, a/r/tography, performative learning skills, site specific art/performance/theatre.
Christer Fredriksen is a Norwegian guitarist, composer, and educator whose work is situated within sound-based artistic research. His practice combines elements from jazz, ambient, and experimental music, with an emphasis on timbre, spatial awareness, and listening as an embodied and reflective process. He teaches music, composition, and guitar at Vågsbygd Upper Secondary School, where his pedagogical practice intersects with his artistic research. Fredriksen’s work is engagement with soundscape ecology and deep listening, approaching sound as a relational phenomenon shaped by environmental, social, and perceptual contexts.
Kjetil Kro Sørborg is a lecturer in theatre at Vågsbygd Upper Secondary School. He is active as a freelancer in performing arts projects, working as a director, dramaturg, mentor, and performer. Sørborg holds an educational background in theatre and music. His artistic and pedagogical work spans a wide range of performance practices, including documentary performance, dance theatre, collective devised theatre, music theatre, text-based forms. Much of his work has been rooted in interdisciplinarity, collaborating across dance, music, visual arts, and literature.
Evi Karydi
Stories in Action: Exploring Forces and Frictions Through Drama in the EFL classroom
This practical workshop invites participants to experience how embodied drama and storytelling can act as both forces and f(r)ictions in language education. Using the Palestinian folktale Milk is for Milk and Water is for Water as a shared story landscape, the session demonstrates how drama-based pedagogy empowers learners to communicate, collaborate, and engage emotionally with language.
Through a sequence of accessible, low-prep drama processes, participants will explore how embodied interaction lowers anxiety, strengthens classroom community, and supports multilingual learners in finding their voice. At the same time, the session highlights how drama invites learners to navigate productive frictions: moral dilemmas, conflicting motivations, and the complexity of human behaviour within the story world. These frictions become opportunities for deeper thinking, empathy, and authentic expression.
As the group moves through the story, participants will experience how drama transforms vocabulary and structures into lived, memorable experiences. The workshop will offer adaptable strategies that teachers can immediately integrate into their own contexts to create meaningful and participatory language lessons.
Participants will leave with a complete story-based framework and a clearer understanding of how drama and storytelling enrich language learning by engaging the cognitive, social, physical, and emotional dimensions of the learner.
Bio
Evi Karydi is an EFL teacher, storyteller, and drama practitioner from Greece with 29 years of teaching experience. She specialises in creative language learning through embodied drama and storytelling. As the founder of DramActivate, she trains educators to design memorable and meaningful lessons. Evi has worked with teachers internationally and has presented at TESOL, APPI, BETA, IDEA, and other organisations.
Anu Koskinen
Entyrance exams and meanings of performing bodies – sharing viewpoints
The workshop is based on an artistic action research project on entrance exams of acting program of the University of arts Helsinki. The aims of the research are to develop transparency and self understanding of a jury and increase accessibility.
The questions of corporeality and embodiment are at the very core of acting and also at the core of entrance exams of acting program. The performing bodies carry multiple meanings that are entwined with conversations of artistic and aesthetic preferences as well as questions of inclusivity, ability and post colonialism. As one result of my research I suggest the concept of actors´ psychophysical capital.
In workshop I will facilitate a conversation with the aim to share ways to understand the aspects of applicants´ bodies in entrance exams of performing arts.
Bio
Anu Koskinen is an actor and Doctor of Arts in Theatre and Drama (2013). She is currently working as a lecturer of acting and art university pedagogy in the University of the Arts Helsinki. She has also made theater in different communities, for example in prisons and comprehensive schools. Her research interests include pedagogy of acting, theatre with people in vulnerable positions and questions of power and diversity in art pedagogy.
Jona Jonsdottir and Rannveig Thorkelsdottir
The Young Audience: Theatre in Education as a transformative force in kindergarten
We, as artists, teachers, and researchers, explore how performative pedagogy through Theatre in Education (TiE) can act as a transformative force in kindergarten and primary education. Positioned at the intersection of artistic practice, teaching, and research, the study examines performance as a mode of learning rather than simply delivering content. In TiE, children are active participants, engaging physically, emotionally, and imaginatively within a structured theatrical framework that combines prepared performance with interaction (Athiemoolam, 2021).
The performance Gumpi and Haki Visit Uncle Grjóti was developed as a performative inquiry into learning as an embodied and relational process. Drawing on Fels and Belliveau (2008), learning is understood as emerging through performative exploration and co-constructed through action, interpretation, empathy, and engagement. Performative inquiry, as described by Fels (2012), involves being engaged in research on stage, in classrooms, in relationships, and within shared environments.
The production integrates interactive TiE methods and emphasises physical expression, including variations in speed and slow motion, to cultivate a “brave space” grounded in trust, presence, and shared exploration. Particular attention is given to how embodied movement and sensory engagement support children’s connection to nature and lived experience.
This paper presents findings from performances with kindergarten students, focusing on their responses during and after the theatrical encounter. Through observation, dialogue, and reflection, we examine what children remember, discuss, and value. By attending to children’s meaning-making processes, the study contributes to discussions on performative pedagogy, positioning theatre as a dynamic site of inquiry, relationship, and transformative learning.
References:
Athiemoolam, L. (2021). An exploration of pre-service student teachers’ understanding of social justice issues through Theatre-in-Education. Educational Research for Social Change, 10 (2), 161- 177. http://dx.doi.org/10.17159/2221-4070/2021/v10i2a10
Fels, L. (2012). Collecting data through performative inquiry: A tug on the sleeves.
Fels, L. & Belliveau, G. A. (2008). Exploring curriculum: Performative inquiry, role drama, and learning. Vancouver, BC: Pacific Educational Press.
Bios
Jóna Guðrún Jónsdóttir is Adjunct Professor of Drama and Theatre at the University of Iceland. She has extensive experience working with collaborative and research projects in higher education. Her work focuses on drama and theatre education, artistic practice, democracy, citizenship, and interdisciplinary collaboration.
Rannveig Björk Thorkelsdóttir is a professor in drama and theatre education at the University of Iceland. She has extensive experience working with collaborative and research projects in higher education. She focuses on drama and theatre approaches to arts education and arts- based research in her research and practice.
Vibeke Preus
Standing in the Uncomfortable: Drama Pedagogy, Discomfort and Creative Wellbeing in Higher Education
This paper explores how the use of drama pedagogy—specifically Augusto Boal’s Theatre of the Oppressed and the pedagogy of discomfort—can enhance creative wellbeing and functional capacity among students in higher education.
Based on a ten-year longitudinal practice with social work students in Norway, the study offers insight into how artistic processes grounded in risk, vulnerability, and collective reflection create meaningful learning experiences that transcend traditional academic formats.
Through Forum Theatre and Image Theatre, students are invited to step into roles of both the oppressed and the oppressor, rehearsing resistance and navigating ethical complexity. By confronting discomfort in a safe, creative space, they develop empathy, resilience, and a deeper understanding of power structures—both in society and in their future professions. These processes support not only aesthetic exploration, but also the capacity to act differently in the world.
However, the implementation of such practices is not without friction. The paper also reflects on the structural and cultural challenges of integrating drama and theatre pedagogy into a rigid, outcome-driven educational system. Frictions arise from institutional expectations, student resistance to embodied learning, and the emotional labour required from facilitators. Yet, it is precisely within these tensions that the pedagogical force of drama emerges most clearly.
The paper argues that drama pedagogy holds unique potential to promote a dynamic relationship with the world, to strengthen community, and to support the kind of transformative, human-centred education that higher education increasingly calls for.
It also proposes that embracing failure, discomfort and ambiguity is not a weakness—but a radical strength in pedagogical practice.
Bio
Vibeke Preus is Associate Professor in Theatre at Volda University College. Her master’s degree explored how the perceived influence of children in theatre work enhanced or hindered their motivation. As a playwright, she has written and staged numerous plays, emphasising collaboration with the actors, Her work in these fields has provided her with skills and embodies knowledge of how working creatively with theatre can benefit both the artistic development in the actors and eudaimonic wellbeing. She’s published i the Routledge book Exploring Creative wellbeing (2024).
Thomas Roed Heiden
Promoting young childrens agency through performative drama inquiries
Aim
It is quite difficult doing interviews with younger children in Danish Primary school (aged 6-9 years). In the project “Big drama with small people”, I tried to carry out in-depth group interviews with young school children concerning experiences with literature interpretations of picture books through process drama in L1-danish (Heiden, 2025). The children were patient and kind towards the “slow” researcher in the interview process but found it quite meaningless just “doing the right thing”. Therefore, I chose to alter the form of the interviews towards performative drama inquiries (Pelias, 2007) with researcher-in-role (Heiden, 2024) and the children in-role as playing narrators (Sørensen, 2015). I did it to promote the children as aspiring working artists, becoming with sensous knowledge through aesthetic expressions. The performances engaged the children and me as researcher very much, and made the methodological research process quite enjoyable. In my presentation, I will unfold the methodological process from more traditional interview forms to performative inquiries with younger children; to promote their agency in the research process through process drama.
Theoretical framework
The presentation will be grounded in posthuman ontology and agential realism (Barad, 2007; Deleuze & Guattari, 2004). It will focus on the posthuman concepts of rhizome and affect (Deleuze & Guattari, 2004), actual/virtual (Heiden & Jensen, 2024) and sensous knowledge (Heiden, 2025; Illeris, 2016).
Methodology
The presentation will primarily focus on performative process drama inquiries in empirical research practices with younger children; with the children and me as the decentered researcher performing on equal terms withing the relational rhizome, and thereby promoting younger childrens agency in the research process.
Bio
Thomas Roed Heiden is associate Professor, Ph.D., at University College Lillebælt/Center of Applied School Research and external lecturer at Aarhus University/Department of Educational Studies and Curriculum Research in Denmark. His research interests are drama pedagogies, drama plays, literature didactics, art-based research and posthuman perspectives.
Åsa Thalinsson
Inclusive aesthetics: A reflection on affirmative theatre practices with (dis-)abeles actors
Welcome to the exciting, unpredictable and fantastic world of Sjiraffen, where brains and bodies of norm-challenging artists meet, where all are seen, empowered and given a voice.
This presentation brings examples and questions, reflecting on emerging practices of inclusive drama and theatre and on it´s FORCES for empowerment and social change.
The UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (CRPD 2006), incorporated into Norwegian law 2025, marked a milestone in recognizing the right of persons with disabilities to full participation in society. It’s article 30 affirms the right to develop and use creative, artistic, and intellectual potential. Sjiraffen advocates the rights of people with intellectual disabilities to contribute in art and in the democracy.
Sjiraffen Culture and Competence center began as a theatre where everyone could be themselves without exclusion, embracing norm-challenging art. Over the years we developed formal and non-formal knowledge to meet individual needs and to challenge artists. Recent research and publications on the field have further strengthened inclusive art practices.
How can we create space for everyone in artistic practice? Inclusive practices require flexible, diverse approaches to give voice to artists with intellectual and physical disabilities; supplemental communication, multisensory engagement and embodied expressions.
Who can create meaningful art and how can artistic quality be redefined? What is inclusive and norm-challenging artistic practice? Our affirmative perspective value each actor’s unique expressions, reshaping expectations of what is «normality».
Is drama and theatre’s potential without limitations? Theatre can make ideal spaces for inclusive and empowering practices – flexible and open-ended – allowing individual resources and interests to shape the work.
Furthermore, empowerment, skill development and experiences of collaboration, will give people agency also in life and society and strengthen their ability to contribute to change.
The presentation is supported by recent nordic literature, including Å slippe til (T. Owren 2025), Grensesprenging (Saur/Ness 2025), and SOR Report No. 6 2025.
Bio
Åsa Thalinsson is a pedagogue and producer of inclusive drama and theatre and visual arts. The last 20 years she has been part in developing Sjiraffen Culture and Competence Center in Trondheim into a regional hub for over 100 artists with intellectual and physical disabilities and a wide range of theatre productions. Sjiraffen collaborates with and learns from institutions across many countries. Åsa holds a BA with pedagogy in drama and theatre, visual arts and culture management from Norwegian University of Science and Technology, Norwegian Academy of Music and Oslo Met.
Olafur Gudmunsson
Questions as a Prompt for Character Creation in Playwriting and Screenwriting
This workshop focuses on the initial steps of writing scenes and short plays for the theatre. Its aim is to introduce hands-on writing exercises and creative processes that help students find freedom, flow, and confidence in their writing.
Participants will begin by working a little bit with their own memories, opening up to emotions and allowing a free flow of writing. From there, they will formulate characters for short scenes that can become cornerstones for short or longer plays.
Workshop Objectives
The work in the workshop takes place at the intersection between the participants’ ideas and the physical act of writing. The aim is to approach writing in the same way one approaches improvisation. Instead of improvising in a space with fellow actors, participants improvise through writing.
You do not know the outcome in advance; the text reveals itself only when words are put on the page. Through this process, situations and characters emerge and come to life.
The workshop consists of hands-on exercises that primarily focus on helping participants sit down and start writing scenes regardless of preconceived ideas about content or quality. Emphasis is also placed on preparation: how to create the right conditions for writing, and how to unlock the creativity and imagination that already reside within us.
These methods have been tested in playwriting sessions at the secondary-school level in an Icelandic high school. They have proven valuable not only for playwriting, but also for character development and for understanding scene structure and the fundamental principles of characterization in theatre and acting.
Workshop Breakdown
Warm-up exercises
Working with imagination and creative thinking through writing based on personal memories
A guided writing process in which participants create characters and write scenes based on specific guidelines that help frame the content
A final sharing, in which the scenes created are performed by the participants
The final phase is perhaps the most important. By seeing their texts performed by others, participants gain new insight into their writing, discovering how language, action, and character function when brought to life on stage.
Bio
Ólafur Guðmundsson is an Icelandic actor, drama practitioner, and educator. He works full-time as a drama teacher in secondary education and part-time as a lecturer in the Leisure Studies Programme at the Faculty of Education, University of Iceland. He also works as an independent theatre practitioner. He graduated from the Icelandic Acting School in 1989 and holds an MA in Applied Drama from Goldsmiths, University of London. He currently serves as Vice President of IDEA.
Ilona Krawczyk
Care-Driven Pedagogy in Actor Training: Facilitating Agency While Building Industry Resilience
Actor training that aims to deepen psychophysical awareness and authentic presence often requires emotional vulnerability and the removal of psychological resistance. While such pedagogies can unlock profound artistic growth, they also carry risks: trainees may experience emotional distress, exposure to unprocessed trauma, and vulnerability to power imbalances inherent in hierarchical student-pedagogue relationships.
This paper examines a pedagogical shift from directive, change-oriented approaches of “opening the actor” to facilitative, process-oriented practices “supporting the actor’s opening-up” — a move that fundamentally reframes the trainer’s role and redistributes agency within the learning process. By analysing this transition, I will explore how care-driven pedagogy can preserve trainee wellbeing while maintaining rigorous artistic development.
However, this approach presents a genuine tension: does facilitating student agency inadvertently allow avoidance of necessary challenges? Might care-centred frameworks be appropriated by students resisting growth and accountability? These questions become especially urgent given the demands of professional theatre — actors entering the industry must develop resilience alongside self-awareness.
Drawing on examples from process-oriented actor training practice, this paper invites discussion on whether and how care-driven and resilience-building approaches can complement rather than contradict each other. Rather than proposing a neat resolution, I aim to illuminate the productive friction between duty-of-care and artistic rigour, offering practitioners tools for navigating this complex terrain thoughtfully.
Bio
Dr. Ilona Krawczyk is a voice artist, performer-researcher, and pedagogue, integrating physical theatre, installation, experimental music and performance art. In her practice-as-research PhD, she developed a process-oriented approach to voicework, and actor training focused on care and preservation of a performer’s well-being. She continues exploring new ethics and aesthetics of performance in the realm of theatre, informed by post-Grotowskian practice. Ilona is a founder of DreamVoice practice and a co-founder of Insoundout collective.
Aleksandra Dunaeva
Embodied Borders: Theatre Pedagogy and Situated Bodies in Russian-Speaking Communities in Finland
Since Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine, Finland has been one of the most consistent countries in expressing its position on the matter. The country’s vehement rejection of Russia’s actions, coupled with the severing of trade and cultural ties with its erstwhile closest partner, has precipitated a substantial restructuring of the nation’s political and economic life. This, in turn, has had a profound impact on its culture and the lives of Finland’s Russian-speaking population. In November 2023, all border crossing points on the land border with Russia were closed, and this remains the status quo. The construction of a border wall between Finland and Russia has been elevated to the status of a national project.
The purpose of this presentation is to examine the concept of the ‘situated body’ of Russian-speaking emigrants in the context of the break with Russia and the construction of a wall on the Finnish-Russian border. The concept of situatedness, as understood through the lens of Haraway’s theory of ‘situated knowledges,’ serves as a foundational framework for this investigation. Knowledge is inherently linked to locality, thereby signifying that the body is concomitantly situated within a historical, geographical and political context.
The present study will draw on materials from my master’s research, which is planned to take place from November 2025 to February 2026. This is a series of theatrical-pedagogical master classes with the working title ‘Borders and Bodies’.
References:
Chattopadhyay, S. (2019) ‘Borders re/make bodies and bodies are made to make borders: Storying migrant trajectories’, ACME: An International Journal for Critical Geographies, 18 (1), pp. 149–172. Available at: https://acme-journal.org/index.php/acme/article/view/1598 (Accessed: 18 October 2025).
Green, S. F., 2018, Lines, traces, and tidemarks: further reflections on forms of border, in: The political materialities of borders: new theoretical directions. Demetriou, O. & Dimova, R. (eds.). 1st ed. Manchester: University of Manchester, Vol. 2. pp. 67–83 17 p. (Rethinking Borders).
Green S., Malm L. (2013) Borderwork. Jasilti.
Haraway, D. J. (1988). Situated knowledges: The science question in feminism and the privilege of partial perspective. Feminist Studies, 14(3), 575–599. https://doi.org/10.2307/3178066
Trinh T. Minh-ha (2011). Elsewhere, Within Here. Immigration, Refugeeism and the Boundary Event. Routledge.
Bio
Aleksandra Dunaeva is an independent researcher, journalist, and theatre educator based in Helsinki, Finland, since 2021. She published on socially engaged and inclusive theatre in Russia. Her recent work includes chapters in Theatre, Performing Arts, Disability, Citizenship and Community Development (2024) and How Does Disability Performance Travel? (2023). She is completing an MA in Theatre Pedagogy at the Theatre Academy Helsinki. Her professional work includes engagement with young people and adults who have experienced forced migration and refugeehood.
Åsa Helga Proppe Ragnarsdottir and Hakon Björnsson
You Mean a Woman Can Open It? Using Process Drama to Explore Gender Equality
How can drama help us examine gender equality in ways that are embodied, reflective and critically engaged? This workshop presents a process drama framework that invites participants to explore shifting gender roles across time. The work begins with a 1960s advertisement and opens a conversation about how ideas of equality are shaped by cultural expectations, power structures and everyday assumptions. Participants explore perspectives from both the past and the present, examining how women’s and men’s lives are framed by social norms, opportunities and limitations. By stepping into roles and encountering characters from different time periods, we investigate how expectations are internalised, defended, questioned and transformed.
The process moves between physical exploration, dialogue and reflective discussion. Participants experience how dramatic tension can emerge when contrasting worldviews meet, and how embodied learning can reveal complexity that is often flattened in debate-based discussions. Throughout the session, attention is given not only to content but also to pedagogy. How do we frame sensitive themes responsibly? How do we create a space where disagreement is possible without becoming polarised? And how can process drama support critical thinking without prescribing conclusions? The aim is not to offer a single narrative about progress, but to model how drama can create space for nuanced and thoughtful engagement with questions of gender, power and social change. This session is designed for drama educators who wish to deepen their practice and use structured dramatic processes to engage students in meaningful and challenging dialogue.
Bios
Ása Helga Ragnarsdóttir is the chairman of FLÍSS the Icelandic drama and theatre association. She has been teaching Arts and Drama Education at the School of Education, University of Iceland and the Iceland Academy of the Arts for decades. Ása has been involved in curriculum development in Iceland and introducing drama in schools for over 35 years. She is an author of both textbooks and scholarly publications in education and has been a researcher for years. She is a professional actress and was a host at the children’s program in the Icelandic television for several years.
Hákon Sæberg is a drama teacher at Árbæjarskóli in Reykjavík. He completed an MEd in Drama Education at the University of Iceland in 2017. His master’s project was an action research study on using Mantle of the Expert with young children. Hákon has worked in basic education since then, first as a homeroom teacher, where he often used Mantle of the Expert in everyday classroom work. In 2020 he moved into a full-time drama teaching role, working with a range of age groups and supporting students through creative and collaborative learning.
Raisa Kilpeläinen and Milla Martikainen
Mapping the More Sustainable Performance Design and its Emerging Practices from Pedagogical Perspectives
The joint paper presentation of Raisa Kilpeläinen and Milla Martikainen focuses on performance creating processes and the eco-social change: performance design and its artist pedagogy and education regarding sustainability, creating a more ecologically sustainable stage and being artist and designer in the era of polycrisis. The presentation is inspired by two versions of a MA level course, A More Ecologically Sustainable Stage (2024), taught by Kilpeläinen and Martikainen at the Theatre Academy of the University of the Arts Helsinki, and the collected data and feedback from the courses. It also looks ahead to the next updated version of the course in autumn 2025.
The presentation discusses ways to approach sustainability, eco-creativity and (more) ecological performance-making from pedagogical and theatre pedagogical angles. The aim is also to reflect on transformative learning and socio-cultural transformation in relation to more ecological art and theatre making.
We are also aiming to approach the future of performance design and performance making, the future skills and understanding, and the collaborative learning: what should be taught and what should be known, how to cope with the sustainability transition in education, practices, artist pedagogy, artistic thinking, as a student, an artist, a designer, an educator and a researcher – on the field, and outside the academy.
The presentation is linked to Kilpeläinen’s doctoral research, where she explores current movements, changes and sustainability in performance design and its education, and to Martikainen’s ongoing eco-actions in the Finnish performing arts field.
Bios
Raisa Kilpeläinen is an artist-researcher in performance design, specialising in scenographics, stage and lighting design, dramaturgy, theatre and drama research and university pedagogy. Kilpeläinen works as a Lecturer in Performance Design at the Theatre Academy of the University of the Arts Helsinki. As a researcher, she explores changes in performance designers’ work and art and possible futures and sustainability in performance design. Kilpeläinen is a founding member of Art Collective KOKIMO (2010–).
Milla Martikainen is a freelance performance artist and performance-maker specialising in stage and lighting design. Martikainen works widely in the performing arts, focusing on sustainable practices and promoting ecosocial transformation. She has collaborated with wide range and scale of venues and theatres. Martikainen is a visiting teacher at the Theatre Academy of the University of the Arts Helsinki, a project coordinator for LuoTo sustainability project and working in Metsäesitys and Mustarinda associations.
Camilla Anderzén
Beyond the Fence: Shaping a Multispecies Performance Pedagogy Through Farm Work and Interspecies Encounters
In my artistic pedagogical practice at Tuulispää Farm Sanctuary, everyday tasks such as mucking stalls, carrying hay, repairing fences are approached not as mere maintenance but as sites of artistic and pedagogical inquiry. This practice suggests that art pedagogy and performance frameworks can transform our perception of labor, and that labor, in turn, can transform our understanding of art pedagogy and performance; and how these frameworks themselves are reshaped through working alongside non-human animals. Through this lens, labor becomes a space for attentiveness, care, and reciprocity, where encounters unfold in artistic-pedagogical dialogue with more-than-human beings.
Rather than treating animals as passive observers, we consider their presence—gazes, movements, and responses—as active forces that alter the dramaturgy of work and the epistemologies of art pedagogy. Roosters, ducks, horses, sheep, goats, and cows participate in shaping the conditions of learning, challenging anthropocentric assumptions about audience, performer, and teacher. These intra-actions invite us to ask:
How does being observed by animals reconfigure our understanding of performance?
What new modes of invitation, observation, and response arise when learning is shared across species boundaries?
The session combines visual documentation, stories of encounters, soundscapes, and collective reflection to explore how performance processes in drama and theatre pedagogy can expand toward multispecies ecologies of attention—blurring distinctions between art, labor, and life.
Bio
Camilla Anderzén is a theatre pedagogue exploring multispecies relations, live art and arts pedagogy. In her work Anderzén creates spaces where performance becomes a shared ground for care and curiosity. She holds a Master’s Degree in Theatre from Uniarts Helsinki (2024) and is a founding member of Eliökollektiivi. Recent works like Vieraat (2025) and Välillä (2024) invite audiences into site-sensitive, more-than-human encounters. Through artistic-pedagogical gestures, Anderzén imagines art as an ethical meeting ground, where beings and landscapes resonate beyond the human.
Dominika Dudasova
The Institutionalization of Non-formal Education in a Repertory Theatre: A Case Study of the Jan Palarik Theatre in Trnava
Traditionally, Slovak regional repertory theatres have functioned primarily as producers of dramatic art, with educational activities relegated to occasional, ad-hoc workshops. However, the Jan Palarik Theatre (DJP) in Trnava has recently disrupted this model by establishing a dedicated Section for Non-formal Education. This paper presents a case study of this institutional shift, analysing how the systematic integration of theatre pedagogy transforms the theatre’s relationship with schools, the public, and the “Generation Z” audience.
The flagship project of this initiative is the Teen Theatre Fest (TTFest), a biennial international festival specifically designed for youth. The festival serves as a critical platform for mapping generic fusions and filling gaps in contemporary youth theatre. By adopting the viral concept of “POV” (Point of View) in 2024, the festival created a space where urgent social themes—such as LGBTIQ+ rights, mental health, and climate change—could have been explored openly.
The study highlights how the theatre grants agency to young participants through projects like the Children’s Theatre Academy, where students move from passive observers to creators under professional mentorship. Furthermore, the paper analyses the use of TIE (Theatre in Education) methodologies to foster critical thinking and intergenerational dialogue.
By institutionalizing these practices, DJP acts as a vital advocate for drama pedagogy in a region where such methods are often absent from formal curricula. This advocacy is particularly crucial in the current Slovak socio-political climate, where support for cultural diversity and mental health is facing systemic challenges. The case study concludes that providing a “safe space” for the so-called “snowflake generation” not only develops new audiences but also reinforces the theatre’s role as an indispensable community hub for social change.
Bio
Dominika Dudášová is a PhD student in Theatre Theory with degrees in Speech Therapy and Theatre Studies (Bratislava). Her research focuses on applied theatre, neurodiversity, and artists with disabilities. She gained international experience in Vilnius and participated in workshops for young critics (Divadelná Nitra, Wiener Festwochen). The author is active in festival platforms and editorial teams. Her critical writing explores the intersection of disability arts and theatre for young audiences.
Monika Klimaitė-Daunienė
What does the director do in the shadows: designing the framework for coalitional creation
In this paper, I examine directorial and pedagogical strategies grounded in principles of power dispersion and the shifting of authority within the creative processes of performance-making and teaching–learning. I argue that achieving and sustaining a coalitional approach in both contexts requires a clearly articulated methodological framework. I begin from the position of the theatre director, examined through the lens of adaptive leadership, and trace how this perspective informs and reshapes pedagogical practice. Drawing on my artistic research conducted as part of my PhD as a theatre director, I analyse models of directing that redistribute authority in order to sustain collaboration, shared agency, and creative initiative without dissolving artistic coherence.
The presentation is grounded in two practice-based experiments—Anonymous Director and Heterarchical Creation—conducted as part of my ongoing artistic research. These experiments reveal practical tools and approaches for coalitional creative and learning processes. Anonymous Director introduces the concept of the director’s performativity, in which the director’s presence, visibility, and function within the rehearsal space become performative tools for consciously gaining, suspending, or relinquishing power. Heterarchical Creation explores directorial strategy based in heterarchical structures and adaptive leadership through the rotation of leadership within the creative team. In both cases, directing operates less as control and more as the design of frameworks, scores and conditions through which collective creativity can emerge.
These strategies extend into my pedagogical practice in higher education, where I experiment with score-based learning, interdisciplinary rotation and laboratory formats that relocate decision-making and aesthetic shaping to students. Here, directing and teaching function as facilitative practices that activate friction, uncertainty and risk as productive forces rather than obstacles.
By framing decentralised power as an artistic and pedagogical force, this presentation contributes to current discussions on coalitional approach in drama and theatre pedagogy. It argues that dispersed and / or shifted leadership not only strengthens collective processes but also expands the creative capacities of directors and teachers themselves.
Bio
I am Monika Klimaite, a Lithuanian theatre director, researcher and lecturer. I hold a BA in Theatre Directing from Klaipėda University, Lithuania, and an MA in Performance Practices and Research from the Royal Central School of Speech and Drama, University of London. I am currently a PhD candidate in artistic research at the Lithuanian Academy of Music and Theatre, where I also teach. My artistic research focuses on the disperse of power in performance-making, examining the changing role of the theatre director and the evolving requirements of collective creation.