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Abstract
From the point of view of the author Hilkka-Liisa Iivanainen, the co-artistic director of Finland’s Tampere Theatre Festival, the purpose of a performing arts festival is fundamentally challenged by the unforeseen and ongoing COVID-19 pandemic. In Tampere, the festival’s core mission of coming together to celebrate theatre as an art form has almost become secondary to the constantly changing protective measures and regulations. Moreover, the pressure to make a strategic shift into digital or hybrid execution has profoundly changed the practice and goals of curating. After a cancelled festival edition in August 2020 and a downsized festival in August 2021, Iivanainen is rethinking the kinds of paradoxes hidden in the attempt to stay timely as a theatre festival.
Hilkka-Liisa Iivanainen is a co-artistic director, stage director, and theatre curator dedicated to the development of new works and emerging theatre artists. Iivanainen works as a director at The Tampere Theatre and as a co-artistic director for Tampere Theatre Festival. Her directorial works are mostly premieres of contemporary dramas and new adaptations of modern classics. Her works have been performed in various Finnish theatres and festivals, by the Finnish Broadcasting Company (YLE), and also internationally, including in the United States and Mexico. During 2015–2018, she was the artistic director of Theatre Jurkka in Helsinki. In 2019, she was appointed to the selecting committee of the prestigious International Ibsen Award. Iivanainen has a Bachelor of Fine Arts degree in theatre from the Chicago College of Performing Arts (2003) and a Master of Arts in directing from the University of Arts in Helsinki (2010). Currently, Iivanainen is finishing her studies in the Master’s Degree Programme of Futures Studies in University of Turku/School of Economics.